Maine Intrastate ELD Rules and Hours of Service

Maine adopts the federal hours clock and then switches it off for nearby intrastate work. The Maine State Police safety rule, 16-222 C.M.R. ch. 4, takes in 49 CFR Part 395 for carriers operating in Maine, and one sentence in section 4(D)(1) exempts intrastate carriers and drivers within 100 air miles of their regular place of business from all of it. No hours limits, no log, no ELD.

That is a wider exemption than anything in the federal rule. Here is how it works, and where it stops.

Who the Maine rule reaches

Section 2 applies the chapter to any interstate or intrastate common, contract or private motor carrier that transports passengers or property in Maine. Section 1(A) sets the commercial motor vehicle line at the federal figures: a gross vehicle weight rating, gross combination weight rating or actual weight of 10,001 pounds or more, a vehicle designed or used to carry more than 8 passengers including the driver for pay or more than 15 not for pay, or a load that needs hazardous materials placards.

Section 4 adopts Parts 383, 391 and 395 "as amended," with State amendments. The State Police adopt them under 29-A M.R.S. sec. 555, which lets the bureau incorporate Part 395 "as amended" and make rules on the length of duty of drivers. Because the adoption is not frozen at a date, a federal change to Part 395 reaches Maine carriers without a new state filing.

The 100 air-mile exemption

Section 4(D)(1) reads in full: intrastate motor carriers, vehicles, and drivers to which the chapter applies that operate less than 100 air miles from their regular place of business are exempt from 49 C.F.R. Pt. 395.

The whole Part goes. That covers the 10-hour off-duty start, the 14-hour window and 11 hours of driving in 49 CFR 395.3, the 60 or 70 hour weekly limits, and the record of duty status in 49 CFR 395.8, which is where the ELD requirement lives. The rule adds no return-to-base condition and no time-record duty of its own.

Compare that with the federal short-haul exception in 49 CFR 395.1(e)(1).

So the Maine radius is shorter, and the relief inside it is much broader. A federal short-haul driver drops the log but keeps the clock. A Maine intrastate driver under 100 air miles drops both.

Hazardous materials get no exemption

Section 4(A)(1) says there are no exemptions for motor carriers, vehicles or drivers transporting hazardous materials of a type or quantity that requires placarding under 49 C.F.R. Part 172. That sentence sits above every State amendment in section 4, the 100 air-mile exemption included.

The statute backs it. Section 555(2)(A-2) bars the State Police from adopting any rule that exempts placarded hazardous materials carriers from a federal regulation the bureau incorporates. A placarded intrastate load runs on the full Part 395, hours and ELD, at any distance from the yard.

Beyond 100 air miles: the federal rule, ELD included

Intrastate work at or past 100 air miles gets no Maine hours relief. Part 395 applies as adopted, and since the adoption follows the federal text as amended, the ELD rule in 395.8(a)(1)(i) comes with it. The federal exceptions in Part 395 come along too, the 150 air-mile short-haul exception among them.

The federal paper-log cases in 395.8(a)(1)(ii)(A) still apply: a driver who needs a record of duty status on not more than 8 days in any 30-day period, two driveaway-towaway cases, and a vehicle manufactured before model year 2000 as shown by the VIN on its registration. The ELD mandate page walks through each one, and the federal hours of service page covers the 11, 14, and 60 or 70 hour limits that apply here.

One Maine difference does reach these longer runs. Section 4(C)(2) exempts intrastate drivers operating more than 100 air miles from their regular place of business from the federal age-21 rule in 49 CFR 391.11(b)(1), and says those drivers must be at least 18. The Maine CDL page covers the license side.

Home heating oil: an authority, not an exemption

Section 555(2-B) of the statute lets the State Police grant temporary exemptions from the weekly limits in the intrastate hours rules for winter home heating oil deliveries, on the terms of a past federal pilot program. That is a power to grant relief. Chapter 4 as published contains no such exemption, and we found no separate rule granting one. A heating oil carrier working past 100 air miles should ask the State Police before counting on it.

Traps worth knowing

The rule says "less than 100." Section 4(D)(1) covers carriers operating less than 100 air miles out, and section 4(C)(2) speaks of more than 100. The rule does not say what happens at exactly 100. Plan routes with room to spare.

The radius runs from the regular place of business. The federal rule measures from the normal work reporting location. For a carrier that dispatches from somewhere other than its business address, those two points can differ.

One interstate load changes the rule. Section 4(D)(1) covers intrastate carriers, vehicles and drivers. A load that crosses into New Hampshire or Canada is interstate commerce, and federal Part 395 governs that work.

The ELD can stay in the truck. Nothing in chapter 4 forbids running a device inside the exemption. A fleet that mixes local and long intrastate runs, or hauls placarded loads now and then, may find one rule set easier to manage than switching by trip.

The USDOT line is a separate question. Maine's intrastate USDOT threshold comes from a different part of the same rule, section 4(B-1)(1). The Maine USDOT number page covers it, and the Maine intrastate authority page lists what an in-state carrier still holds.