The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, along with Agricultural Retailers Association, American Pipeline Contractors Association, American Pyrotechnics Association, Associated Equipment Distributors, Distribution Contractors Association, Livestock Exporters Association of the USA, Lucas Oil Products, Mid-West Truckers Association, National Association of Chemical Distributors, National Association of Small Trucking Companies, National Aquaculture Association, National Corn Growers Association, National Cotton Council, National Electrical Contractors Association, National Federation of Independent Business, National Grain and Feed Association, National Ground Water Association, National Hay Association, National Motorists Association, National Precast Concrete Association, National Ready Mixed Concrete Association, National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association, New England Fuel Institute, North American Wood Pole Council, Petroleum Marketers Association of America, Power & Communication Contractors Association, Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute, SikhsPAC, Southern Pressure Treaters’ Association, United States Cattlemen’s Association have formed a coalition that is growing in membership while making an appeal to delay a federal regulation requiring trucks to be equipped with electronic logging devices.
Industries represented include agriculture, pyrotechnics, utility contractors, livestock and several others that say they will be negatively impacted by the mandate.
“The electronic logging device mandate is written so broadly that it has far-reaching implications well beyond the traditional trucking industry,” said Todd Spencer, executive vice president of OOIDA.
The group supports a bill proposed by U.S. Representative Brian Babin (R-TX) that would delay the ELD mandate for two years. Babin’s bill, the ELD Extension Act of 2017, would extend the current implementation date from December 2017 to December 2019.
The coalition says the mandate should be delayed until the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration addresses numerous unresolved issues identified by impacted stakeholders. They say there are significant technological and real-world concerns that have not been addressed by FMCSA. These concerns include the certification of devices (or lack thereof), connectivity problems in remote areas of the country, cyber security vulnerabilities, and the ability of law enforcement to access data.
The ELD mandate is estimated to cost impacted stakeholders more than $2 billion, making it one of the most expensive federal transportation rule-makings over the last decade. According to the coalition, this is a massive unfunded mandate that provides no safety, economic, or productivity benefits for most ensnared by the mandate. Notwithstanding the significant costs associated with the rule, they contend it simply will not be ready for implementation on December 18, 2017.
H.R. 3282 will provide FMCSA and impacted stakeholders more time to work out fundamental problems associated with the rule.
Commercial truck drivers are restricted to a limited number of working and driving hours under current regulations. The FMCSA’s mandate requires that truck drivers use ELDs to track their driving and non-driving activities even though such devices can only track movement and location of a vehicle.
OOIDA contends that requiring electronic monitoring devices on commercial vehicles does not advance safety since they are no more reliable than paper logbooks for recording compliance with hours-of-service regulations.
