Twenty-five members of Congress have signed their names on a letter calling for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) to approve an ELD exemption request submitted by OOIDA on behalf of owner-operators.
In November of last year, OOIDA submitted a request for a 5-year exemption from the ELD mandate for safe and experienced owner-operators. Any small fleet with no at-fault crashes and without an ‘Unsatisfactory’ safety rating from the FMCSA would be exempt from the ELD mandate.
Reps Brian Babin and Steve King, the authors of last week’s letter, agree that carriers with “impeccable safety records” don’t need to use ELDs since the technology “will do nothing to improve their operations.” All the mandate would do is require small fleets to spend their money on devices that “provide them with no economic or productivity benefits.”
Babin and King argue that FMCSA has already demonstrated its willingness to hand out exemptions and delays for applicants who won’t see any safety benefit from using ELDs.
In fact, 5-year exemptions have already been given out to some large carriers, including UPS. In a previous decision, FMCSA even factored the size of Old Dominion’s fleet in to its decision to allow a 90-day compliance waiver.
“We encourage the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) to grant this application submitted by the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA), which would provide reasonable relief from the costly and burdensome regulation for many of the trucking industry’s safest and most experienced drivers,” wrote Babin and King.
The letter was signed by 23 other members of Congress and submitted to the FMCSA on the last day of the public comment period. You can read it here.
Source: truckinginfo, ttnews, dcvelocity, babin
Keepin fingers crossed!
This is wrong…if you are operating legally there is no reason for an exemption. It cost as little as 30 dollars per month to put an Eld in a truck. Companies push for you to violate HOS. If you won’t they fire you. If you get caught they fine you taking as much as 1000 dollars from your check.
What $30? YRC wants me to pay $2800 for device+ installation fee and $32 monthly for internet for the rest of my life.
Your getting ripped, I use Big Road and it costs me $14 per month all in- device and subscription.
Please tell me more about Big Road. Thank You
Be careful, using your phone DOT will have full ability to access ANYTHING on your phone.
That $ 30.00 a month adds up to $ 360.00 a year. Five years and that adds up to $ 1800.00 which can add up to several tanks of fuel which comes out of the O/O pocket. Just saying.
Samuel must not be an owner op. Samuel also must not have read the article which specifies WHY they asked for the exemption and under what circumstances. Samuel must NOT be paying for his own ELD. Samuel must like GOVERNMENT telling him what to do and when you do it.
Put your purse down and pull your panty hose up u no working sick u have no clue and should say nothing.
Most of those $30-$40 ELD’s are not considered compliant to the standards of the FMCSA but at the same time the FMCSA will not state what ELD’s they will support or endorse.
Its a loose loose situation for most unless they can afford the more expensive units like QualComm or PeopleNet
Why won’t you company drivers keep your mouth shut! There is no need to track someone’s private property, someone whose history shows no evidence of unsafe practices! Those of you who see nothing wrong eld’s are brain dead. Hos is the issue, no driver wants to drive more than 11 hours continuously but hos rule forces you to be behind the wheel even when tired to accomplish task of getting to your load to your destination on time.
Well said!!!! It’s a violation of MY rights, I will not be tracked like a criminal.
Rick! You are exactly right. No driver wants to drive more than 11 hours. We can’t afford to stop now once we click into service. Traffic, weather, tired, sick. We are mandated. There are times it takes us 3 to 4 hours to find all our cars and then 2 more to load. Then if you have 3 pick ups in Florida for example, your day never really gets started with driving time.
there is a 20-25% reduction in revenue for the O/O using
an ELD since no use of paper logs…OLD D knows that, is a TLCA
ATA member and thinks they should be exempt with a more than two year heads up??
And why does any safe driver need permission from a desk top
dispatcher to take a nap/ take a leak?
The drivers of today and tomorrow are a bunch of brainwashed
children , who instead of being weaned from their mother’s teats when they were young, are now sucking at the notion that they need to be controlled by multiple electronic devices to do their jobs of being in
control of the truck, like they should have been hired to be.
Instead, there are a multitude of cameras showing they do not
and cannot drive safely.
So, not coincidentally, at the same time there is reported(many years of brainwashing reports) a shortage of drivers, 115,000 empty seats(about 20 billion in revenue setting) withe the same amount of equipment setting, the industry has the ELD,and now the brainwashing of the general public to believe the autonomous truck and car
will make us all safer!
It’s all about the money, folks! ELD’s only keep the imcompetent
from rising beyond the level of a mediocre,unsafe driver.
That is the truly unsafe result ,(see San Francisco pilots who crashed the plane as they did not know how to land an airline, and blamed it on the ATAC, which was shown operational) , two Tesla crashes and one automated bus crash in Vegas, the bus crash being blamed on the truck driver,immediately.
Fools tread where Angels dare not go!
also , this generation will not stand up and protect it’s privacy rights, and neither will Congress or the Supreme Court.
The Ultra rich are rubbing their hands together, from the thought
of all the money they can burn in the fire to get richer, while making many critically needed workers(truckers,etc) unemployed.
Genocide of the American worker in trade for a robot and more money in the bank!
well when you get to be in charge you can make the rules !
It depends on what you hall l haul live stock If you and 50 law makers will let me load you in my trailer in la and drive you to to Greeley co in January 90 degrees stop in salt lake for ten hours you are standing in your own stool now it is 20 degrees in your own stool frozen the one next to you stomping on your toes when I leave ten hours later – 15 degrees. 36 hours standing on my truck no food or water extreme temperature changes let me do that and I will use a eld are you all chicken
Samuel! It’s the variables! Like not being able to find one of your cars for 3 hours. Not being able to load cars in two ! Needs to be some provisions!
Finally we have people on our side in government. We need to all join or donate to ooida and support these congressmen. We need to stop allowing people like Elaine chow who gets a job as transportation secretary because her husband is Mitch Mc Connell. How about somebody running the agency with some real life experience.
Trust me, OOIDA is making plenty of money without donations. Im a member and use their insurance. I also use their CMCI (drug testing) program. Anything else to file the slightest paperwork is VERY COSTLY. So Id say they are fie, lol…. Also I think all of this time and MONEY spent on these ELD rules should be spent on this 14 HOUR RULE. The ELD wouldnt be that big of a deal if they just got rid of that. Ive got almost 29 years in this industry and the 14 hour rule is by far the biggest thorn in our side. Lets DONATE MONEY TO THAT FUND if you want to get something going. I use to always stop during rush hour and catch a few hours sleep and then get up and drive another 4 or five hours. This 14 hour thing is just insane and NOT SAFE.
TWO HOURS IN SB stops 14 hour clock!!!
Problem solved.
Im wjth you. Been out here since 77. I dont do rush hour, ever.. And in snow storms, i wait till the cars are home then pull out.
Just left Montreal the other night after the big snow at 0130. No cars to deal with. No problems till i got to Albany rush hour. Did my 2.5 hour brake there. We need a way to stop the clock or extend it.
No way. Those two hours will be included in your 14 hr and once you hit 14 hr yo’ ll have to stop.
14 HR is your elapsed timer. Means… once you start driving, you have to stop after 14 Hr of your shift. All of your breaks, all of your stops for fuel or anything else, including all of your driving time, must end before/or at 14 HR-s expiring time. Just a week before after stops for fuel, stop for washroom and couple of road closure, my driving hr was ( night time) 8.25 hr showing on my EDL, but I spend 12.5 HR elapsed time. I have decided to go after 14 hr elapsed time roll. So i had 1.5 hr yet to drive. Shortly after I fall a sleep for couple of seconds. Fortunately i woke up at the edge of the cliff and had to turn steering wheel hard to the right in an order to stay on the road and survive and my rear trailer almost rollover because of my sudden action. Had a hard time to straighten it up, but I did it successfully somehow. At the next road side pullover I stop and slept for 12 hr straight, I didn’t care for ETA or anything else. I was lucky I am still alive and didn’t kill anyone on the road. There are 6-figure income people who makes standards for all of us, saying it is good for us and it is for our safety, but they don’t care about us or for the safety on the road. Anyway we are only responsible for any accidents or if we kill someone on the road.They make standards for us which suits carriers only and pushing us to drive beyond our real capability. I am wandering: How much they know about our work, about our shifts, about our rest time, how much they know about trucking at all. They are on the road for pleasure or to go forth and back for work only. They sleep in their beds every nights, they spend their time off with their family, they have weekends off and 6-figures income. What else one can wish. So they have been taken care of all of the time. Personally i wish old time back. I wish to drive well rested and well concentrated on the road. It’ll be more safe for everyone on the road including my self. I have 2 (two) millions safe accident free miles. With these new roles, I am thinking : Maybe it is time to get of the road before I kill someone and end up in the jail, or I get kill my self. EDL is one of the modern scam for all of the trucking industry. Some people makes huge money which is good for government as well because it is been a revenue and government collects money on the taxes.
The 14 hour rule is actually a good thing because it keeps all the push within a reasonable time frame. This rule is NOT the problem: 1. it is shippers and receivers profiting from free labor (us). 2. It is the irrational hos 70/8. Someone must have been drinking to think this up. 3. Solution Is: 10 hour driving window Every Day & pay for every non driving hour Every Day. Most of us just want the opportunity to earn a decent living without jumping thru hoops. 4. Clean up the hos & make the docks pay for our time there and most of us would be a lot calmer and thus a lot safer. THEN start to solve parking. Catchy huh? And it won’t cost the industry 2 Billion to implement either!!
How about paying drivers from the time they dock to the time they leave ? Corporations have gotten away with this for too damn long !!!
How about we shut down all of us for 7 days don’t move nothing and tell companies and all what we need.. that’s all we would need is 7 days no one turns a wheel,
That would be GREAT if u could get people to stick together ?? They support each other everywhere else but not here in the USA ?? I dont understand that ?? Like that old trucking song says “”WE”” r the lifeblood of the Nation ?? We could do so much to cure these stupid problems that we haft to live with every day n the general lack of resapect from everyone from the general public to the scale house ect ect ??
Too many foreign entities laundering their money in the good old USA
I totally agree with you on a 7 days shut down. I’m not a owner operator, I feel for those who are. They pretty much get the crap end of the stick. The thing is, drivers these days just don’t give a crap, and don’t look out for one another. The industry is just not the same. I’ve been doing this 24 years, and it’s hard to even have a conversation with a lot of drivers these days. I guess my point is, the only reason why a seven day shutdown of the industry wouldn’t happen, is because the drivers of today, are just not or into backing the brothers and sisters of this great industry. They’re too scared.
It’s time we all quit screwing each other and get what we want.
You are 100% right.
Out west they are calling for a 7 day shut down.no moving of any freight..
I think that everything is just about money $$$$$$
Let’s mandate just like minimum wage on hourly pay a minimum wage on per mile pay of trucks
$ 3.50 per mile on plus fuel surcharge and tarp pay of $50 on all flatbed loads
$ 3.00 plus fuel surcharge on all reffers loads
$2.50 plus fuel surcharge on all dry vans
And of course delay pay over 2 hours at $75 per hour
Again this should be a mandate as minimum wage on trucks pay
$50 a hour to tarp n tie down ect ect ??
I’m not getting ELDS in my truck, Have been watching the load board to see if the rates are going anywhere’ and they aren’t moving to much’ truck to load ratio is going up but brokers and shippers are holding tight to the regular BS rates’
As for the ELD KMA no big brother in my truck and no funking computer telling me i have to drive when I’m tired’ or miss my appointment and I don’t need any additionall expences’I have no preventable accidents not one’ and what you have to give up for the job is already to much for what you get back’ you guys still crying about the 14hr are just doing ATA’s bidding’ they want it to go away so they can run there drivers like slaves and still keep eyes i the cab.
Agree about the 14 hour. That, at least, puts some limits on the company guys and gals.
Did you know that Gateway Foods in La Crosse, WI paid their drivers by the mile to each stop, $12 an hour while there, and then mileage back to the warehouse? This was in 1989. You’d think we would have progressed to this method, industry wide, a long time ago, but the carriers still haven’t gotten the word. Also, they are so against training, right? Did you know that in WI comb and scissors operators need 1800 hours of training and truck drivers only 120. I rest my case.
14 hours is the biggest bunch of baloney anybody has ever dreamed up. Allow 11 hours driving total, every day. Get rid of the 8 day garbage so you aren’t penalized for what you did a week ago. Throw away the half hour break. Just let people sleep when they are tired and drive when they aren’t. It worked for over 50 years, so why does it need to change now?
14 HR is your elapsed timer. Means… once you start driving, you have to stop after 14 Hr of your shift. All of your breaks, all of your stops for fuel or anything else, including all of your driving time, must end before/or at 14 HR-s expiring time. Just a week before after stops for fuel, stop for washroom and couple of road closure, my driving hr was ( night time) 8.25 hr showing on my EDL, but I spend 12.5 HR elapsed time. I have decided to go after 14 hr elapsed time roll. So i had 1.5 hr yet to drive. Shortly after I fall a sleep for couple of seconds. Fortunately i woke up at the edge of the cliff and had to turn steering wheel hard to the right in an order to stay on the road and survive and my rear trailer almost rollover because of my sudden action. Had a hard time to straighten it up, but I did it successfully somehow. At the next road side pullover I stop and slept for 12 hr straight, I didn’t care for ETA or anything else. I was lucky I am still alive and didn’t kill anyone on the road. There are 6-figure income people who makes standards for all of us, saying it is good for us and it is for our safety, but they don’t care about us or for the safety on the road. Anyway we are only responsible for any accidents or if we kill someone on the road.They make standards for us which suits carriers only and pushing us to drive beyond our real capability. I am wandering: How much they know about our work, about our shifts, about our rest time, how much they know about trucking at all. They are on the road for pleasure or to go forth and back for work only. They sleep in their beds every nights, they spend their time off with their family, they have weekends off and 6-figures income. What else one can wish. So they have been taken care of all of the time. Personally i wish old time back. I wish to drive well rested and well concentrated on the road. It’ll be more safe for everyone on the road including my self. I have 2 (two) millions safe accident free miles. With these new roles, I am thinking : Maybe it is time to get of the road before I kill someone and end up in the jail, or I get kill my self. EDL is one of the modern scam for all of the trucking industry. Some people makes huge money which is good for government as well because it is been a revenue and
yep!!!
I agree with the 7 day shut down. We should do it for 14 days to be sure the economy and shippers/receivers are affected. Then “WE” change most if not all the rules.
Individually, we cannot do anything; when we are united we can do anything!
Also agree with 2hr is SB stopping the clock and being paid to bump a dock until we leave. How we ever came to giving 2 hrs away w/o Pay was a huge mistake.
Also, I liminate the driver for being responsible for lumper fees. That is between the shipper and receiver; the truck driver shouldn’t spend his/her time be a collection agency
I’m an O/O 100% independent and I’m proud of it. Since the rates began plummeting after the first week of January , I run so far (2/10/18) about 2,000 miles. I have the luxury to do this because, I’m disciplined and I take pride for what I do. I work hard when the rates are fair and good and I refused to run for cheap dirt rates.
I refused to believe that “if your wheels keep moving , you make money”
Please, If you are not an O/O 100% , like someone said , shut your mouth and follow the rules of your handler, because you are a sheep, period!!
Have the balls to lead and take the risk.
ELD is for big companies to control you!
real O/O don’t need someone to tell us when, where, how, who , how much….. we have the discipline to take care our business and be safe for the well being of this society.
so, if you work under someone else authority or you lease the truck from someone else don’t even think you are an O/O and do not write a non sense opinion about ELD.
little trucker, I drive for a four truck outfit, and I love being an employee, for several reasons. You can take your super trucker attitude and shove it where the sun doesn’t shine.
That is exactly why you continue to be a driver. Because you don’t have a valid argument, so all you do here is being ignorant and stupid. obviously you did not understand when I say “if you are not an O/O 100 % independent , shut your mouth”!
Tim, you should taste the freedom, is priceless!!!! don’t limit yourself.
I’m sorry, may be I was ignorant too. I have a lots of respect for professional drivers. What I don’t agree and makes upset is that some guys here are not O/O and act like they are one.
ELD is a driver control tool for big companies. So if you drive for big sharks, please stick with your company and don’t think ELD is also good for O/O.
the main reason why we as O/O take the risk to own a business is because we have the discipline to conduct our business. We drive safely because if we don’t, our insurance goes up. if don’t drive safely, our safety rates plummets and we don’t get loads , do you guys get it?
so when we complain against ELD is because we already are safe and responsible business owners. Plus this is America!!! I understand that there should be laws and rules, but this ELD doesn’t have nothing to do with safety, if you think differently , you are not an O/O.
I’m very sorry if I offended to anyone here.
Just for the record, I am not for mandatory ELDs, or any other bureaucratic mandates.
I owned my own construction business for 25 years, so I know the benefits and disadvantages. With my current job, I get plenty of home time , and I don’t have to think about the truck, taxes, DOT audits, plummeting rates, ect, while I’m off.
When you tell people with a different opinion to “shut your mouth”, you loose the argument. If you think about it, that is the same tactic the progressives use.
As a steering wheel holder, I respect the OO, but like I told my last employer when he asked why I quit without notice, “respect is a two way street”.
some will always be offended…Trolls.
The ELD should only be on company driver trucks. The O/O
should be exempt. They takes the risk and should have the rewards!
ummmm, what’s a damn good woman driver to do here mr littletrucker? O/O for 28 years etc, and did it all without a single testicle. So don’t give us that manly crap.
Because buricratic politics they are not getting the money they need for there stupid pet projects,,no one cares about us but us; trucking companies have layed down for so long they have forgotten what it is to drive a big truck!! Prime example they take the much needed power away from trucks and slow us down when we are not the problem, and they say it is for safety!!! Bullshit it’s all greed!! Safety would be letting the truck run the way it was designed, not turn shit back; would get better fuel mileage and more loads per week,and still be safe,and I agree with the part about getting rid of ELDs the only people they help is the ones that make them!!!!!!!!
What they to need change is do away with the 14 hour rule ,and everything will be fine.
14 HOURS ITS THE PROBLEM……What happens if Im at home for more than 34 hours and get a load and go to my truck to do pre trip inspection and then drive my truck for 1 miles away and then the broker call me and say “hey brother your load its cancell”……you start the 14 hour clock just for move the truck 1 minute….14 HOURS RULE
Than you’ll have to take another 10 Hr off. It is better than wait for another load a few HR and once you get it, start driving again and after a few hr have to stop for 10 hr in the middle of nowhere to reset the day
make the broker pay for the day! in writing before you move the truck!
we all need to get on the same page, no matter what the request. I would like to trash the 14 hr rule and add at least one other split/ bunk option ( besides 2-8). we have to give them something in return; it’s just how it works. This ELD —- is for the birds.
Split bank option was the best rule for us and for the safety on the road. If you feel tired and can’t drive, pullover take a rest and keep going well rested after.
It is also good for rush hours.Take a rest and avoid rush hour, it is better than waist your driving hr at the rush hour time.
Yes the 14 hours rule is crappie they need to bring back the old spilt to where u can spilt the sleeper l like we use to that way u can take short break when the rush hour is at it worse
Problem is everyone can’t sleep well during the day. It’s better to live as regular a day as you can out here. That’s what we do. Good for you if you can work it.
Otherwise no experience drivers going to ne on the roads, last 2 months accident are increased, problems here the big trucking companies can not find a experienced drivers, so they pushed the trucking association to push this stupid eld ruls to on every body, theu problems is not to pay good to their driver
WOW! 25 congressmen out of 535! That is impressive!
We should not be mandated and forced to use them. If you like them good. Leave the rest of us a lone. So we can still do our job and continue to feed our family. And keep our freedom. We have a job to and don’t need a babysitter. Have some balls stand up for your rights.
Well if the brokers dont pay we need to not play show them who runs the life line. We need to stop driving all of us they’re not going to fire drivers if we all do it we have more power then people think
ELDs, HOS are not a one size fits all. Some are happy as an OO, others as a company driver. To each their own. Dont be so ignorant and self indulging. Respect and appreciate each other.
The eld by itself is ok. It’s the 14 hour limit that’s the problem. We do so much work that we don’t get paid for which takes a lot of time and eats up the clock especially if you pull flatbed. Tarping, chaining, strapping etc. On a day when you unload and then reload, you’re lucky if you get in 5 or 6 hours driving that you actually get paid for. What if in that 5 or 6 hours of driving you feel like you need to stop and take a nap. Well now you can’t, because you can’t afford to. The 14 hour limit is very dangerous.
What we NEED in the industry is more common sense, and more backbone! We’ve had guys for years who are too spineless to stand up to dispatchers and load planners because “they’ll fire me if I don’t create more hours on my log book”. Seriously, dipstick?!? And there aren’t a hundred other companies looking for drivers??? If a driver doesn’t have the good sense to go to bed when he’s tired, and tell the company stuffed-shirts where the bear goes in the woods, then he is the problem with the industry! The same way we should be handling FMCSA and Congress; with common sense and backbone! Two things that have been increasingly lacking for 30+ years!
Stop eld mandate help small trucking companies
If it’s not thrown out and stopped all together, it should be made optional left to the company to determine if they want/need ELD or not. This industry is too diverse with many moving dynamics to force a spying/tracking device across the board! This is massive govn overreach and has nothing to do with safety or cheating rather control! Megas been cheating on it for years and they fatality/accident rate continued to rise! End Eldmandate and fix FMCSA existing issues like HoS medical examiner website hacking issues safer rest/parking area for truckers, better training programs for New mega drivers instead of having steering wheel holders and improve training for officers in Field to fairly and consistently enforce regs! Time for change and end to the corruption going on!