Alaska Intrastate ELD Rules and Hours of Service

Alaska takes the federal hours of service rule whole and then draws two lines through it. The first line is weight. An intrastate truck of 26,000 pounds or less does not need an electronic logging device, though its driver still lives under the hours rule. The second line is fishing. A small truck working a licensed fishing operation outside Anchorage and Fairbanks leaves the hours rule altogether.

Both lines sit in one regulation, 17 AAC 25.220, written by the Department of Transportation and Public Facilities. Here is how each one works, and where each one stops.

What Alaska adopted, and as of when

Subsection (a) says a person driving a commercial motor vehicle, or a company whose business involves operating one on a highway or vehicular way or area, must comply with 49 CFR Part 395 as revised as of March 15, 2023 and adopted by reference. The ELD rule lives inside that part, so it comes in with the rest.

That date matters. Some states adopt Part 395 "as amended," which lets a federal change reach their intrastate carriers with no state action. Alaska froze its adoption at a single edition. A federal amendment made after March 15, 2023 does not become part of the Alaska intrastate rule until the department amends the regulation.

Subsection (b) keeps two state edits in force. Paragraph (2) rewrites 49 CFR 395.13(a) so that an enforcement officer may declare a driver out of service and notify the motor carrier when the driver has broken the out-of-service criteria at the time and place of examination. Paragraph (3) gives the carrier 15 working days after the examination to return the carrier certification portion of the Driver/Vehicle Examination Report to the division, delivered in person, by email or by mail. A mailed form counts as delivered on the postmark date. 17 AAC 25.250(b) defines a working day as any day other than Saturday, Sunday or a state holiday.

Which trucks count in the first place

Before either line applies, the vehicle has to be a commercial motor vehicle under the chapter. For intrastate vehicles under 26,001 pounds, 17 AAC 25.250(a) swaps the federal definition for the one in AS 19.10.399, which starts at 14,000 pounds or more for vehicles used in intrastate commerce. A vehicle designed to carry more than 15 passengers including the driver, or one hauling placarded hazardous materials, counts at any weight.

The same statute counts work done for your own business as a commercial purpose, even with no direct pay, so a private fleet hauling its own goods is inside the rule. It also leaves out covered farm vehicles, school buses on school bus runs, and emergency or fire equipment. The Alaska USDOT number page uses the same 14,000 pound line for the intrastate USDOT requirement.

The 26,000 pound ELD line

Subsection (d) says an intrastate commercial motor vehicle with a gross vehicle weight, gross vehicle weight rating, gross combined weight or gross combined weight rating of 26,000 pounds or less is exempt from 49 CFR 395.20 to 395.38, the ELD sections, unless the vehicle is:

• transporting hazardous materials in a quantity that requires a placard under 49 CFR Part 172, or
• designed or used to transport more than 15 passengers, including the driver.

Read what the exemption removes. It names the ELD sections and nothing else. The hours limits stay on, and so does the record of duty status in 49 CFR 395.8. A driver in an exempt truck still logs duty status unless a federal exception, such as the short-haul exception in 395.1(e), lifts that duty. The device becomes optional. The log does not.

The federal rule has no weight cut like this. Under federal law the ELD question turns on whether a driver must keep a record of duty status at all, and then on the paper-log cases in 395.8(a)(1)(ii)(A). The ELD mandate page walks through those cases, and the FMCSA registered device list is where a carrier confirms a device is still registered.

Three weight bands for an intrastate truck

Put the two Alaska weight lines together and an intrastate truck falls in one of three bands. The table assumes no placarded hazardous materials and no more than 15 passengers, since either one pulls a vehicle into the full rule at any weight.

A driver in the middle band runs the full hours rule and keeps a duty status record, on paper or on a device, as the carrier chooses.

The fishing operator exemption

Subsection (c) goes further than (d). It exempts a vehicle from the whole hours of service section, not just the device rule, when all four of its conditions hold:

1. The vehicle operates in intrastate commerce at 26,000 pounds or less, by the same four weight measures as subsection (d).
2. The operator is furthering the operator's own fishing operations.
3. The operator holds a commercial fishing license issued under AS 16.05.480, a sport fishing operator or sport fishing guide registration under 5 AAC 75.075, or a permit issued under AS 16.43.140.
4. The vehicle runs on roads outside the Municipality of Anchorage and the City of Fairbanks, carries no placarded hazardous materials, and is not designed or used to carry more than 15 people, including the driver.

Miss any one and the exemption is gone. A licensed fisher hauling a boat through Anchorage, a freight carrier delivering to a cannery, or a 30,000 pound truck on a fishing run all stay under the hours rule.

17 AAC 25.210(j) repeats the same four-part test for the safety rules in 25.210, which carry driver qualification, vehicle parts, inspection and the intrastate USDOT filing. So a qualifying fishing truck sits outside both sections.

The clock Alaska drivers run

Because Alaska adopts all of Part 395, it adopts the Alaska paragraph inside it too. 49 CFR 395.1(h) says the standard limits in 395.3(a) and (b) do not apply to a driver driving a commercial motor vehicle in the State of Alaska, and sets its own numbers in their place.

These are federal numbers, so they apply to interstate drivers in Alaska as well. Paragraph (h) also lets a driver who meets adverse driving conditions finish the run, followed by at least 10 consecutive hours off duty for a property driver or 8 for a passenger driver. The federal baseline used in the lower 48 is on the hours of service page. If a truck carries a device, check that it applies the Alaska limits to Alaska work.

Traps worth knowing

The ELD exemption is not an hours exemption. Subsection (d) removes the device. It leaves the 15 hour and 20 hour limits, the weekly limits and the duty status record in place.

Weight means four numbers. Subsections (c) and (d) list gross vehicle weight, weight rating, combined weight and combined weight rating, and do not say which one governs when they differ. A truck rated at 26,000 pounds that pulls a trailer past that figure is a case to put to the division in writing before the device comes out.

One interstate load changes the rule. Both exemptions cover intrastate commerce only. A load that crosses into Canada is interstate commerce, and the federal ELD rule governs that work at the federal weight line.

The DVER clock counts working days. Fifteen working days excludes weekends and state holidays, and a mailed form is on time by its postmark.

Licensing is a separate question. The Alaska CDL page covers who needs which license, and the Alaska intrastate authority page lists what an in-state carrier holds in place of a state operating authority.