A group of senators has penned an open letter to the two highest ranking members of the Senate endorsing a partial delay of the Electronic Logging Device mandate compliance date – not to give carriers more time to become compliant, but to give the FMCSA enough time to address Hours of Service concerns.
Twenty Republican and Democratic senators have signed the letter addressed to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer asking their leaders to support the House bill that would give ELD compliance waivers to vehicles transporting agricultural commodities through at least September 30th, 2018.
The House bill was introduced after the FMCSA announced that it would be granting a waiver to livestock haulers, giving them an extra 90 days to become ELD compliant. But those members of the house supporting the extended waiver believe that the problem isn’t that not enough carriers are compliant – it’s that the HOS rules that ELDs would enforce are themselves problematic.
According to the letter, all of the signing senators come from states where “livestock production is a key contributor to the economy.” The main concern that they bring up however is not the wellbeing of the drivers who haul livestock, but rather for the wellbeing of the livestock itself – a position that was laid out first by livestock hauler trade groups.
Livestock haulers are already exempted from the mandatory 30-minute break in order to cut down on the number of times the truck has to stop and to get the livestock from one place to another as quickly as possible. That same argument is used to advocate for the need to further adjust the HOS rules.
“Long distance transportation is often the most stressful event in a livestock animal’s life,” states the letter. “It is impractical and inhumane to stop, offload multiple times, or significantly delay delivery of these animals.”
While the senators are advocating for HOS changes on behalf of livestock haulers, they don’t go so far as to seek a reprieve from HOS or ELD requirements for other truckers, saying that “some commercial operators without live cargo may have the ability to more easily transition from paper logbooks to ELDs.”
Ok,why don’t all senators just jump in a truck for 2 weeks,then adjust the law accordingly,or is it like Obama care good enough for the people but not our glorious representatives.The biggest landslide victory since Hoover with no results.What is this the temple of syrinx.(Rush 2112)
Thank You Mitch McConnell,my representative from KY,mister rubber-stamp man for Obama.Totally out of touch with the people as usual.Dont count on receiving another term.Mitch,YOUR FIRED!!!!!!!
So, again, the welfare of animals is more important than that of humans! It’s been a fact that a pet in the truck overrides the no idle law across the country in extreme temperatures. Now livestock is more important than the human drivers. I have nothing against animal rights and I have had pets in my truck to avoid no idle regulations.
Just do away with ELD’s and solve this problem.
ELD’s are supposed to make drivers safer, won’t happen, we are not robots!
Hey dummy… the ELDs aren’t the problem, its the HOS that is the problem.
Exactly. Who the hell came up with forced sleep every 14 hours? Its not even approved by the medical community. They call its condition a recipe for death.
Hey doofus
Both are the problem. Along with commen sense people that don’t think as like in u
Great post
Screw the drivers, but let’s not stress out the animals we are about to kill for food.
Lol…yeah that bout sums it up!
Solution…if you want an ELD in your Truck, fine put it in but for it to be mandatory for every Trucker is not the answer to “SAFETY”. That’s the same as everybody wearing a size 9 shoe
Petermobiling with my Elf.
Nope, can’t get no country song bout dat, homie.
If you make it mandatory for trucks to have ELDs then make it mandatory for all vehicles all or none…
It help in keeping better read logs but it’s not about safety but money and the kick back to leaders to force everyone to spend on a device that still requires drivers to carry the same paper log(money) they had before 🤔🤔. 4wheelers need them more then truckers because they are not professional drivers and cause most accidents with truckers but the trucker gets all the blame!!
I love eld’s. I am done with working 18 hour shifts because “the load has to be there” I no longer spend 6 hours waiting to be loaded because when that happens I keep my eld “on duty” and this cuts into the carriers revenue. I get my full sleep every night and the carriers I worked for had to boost pay to keep drivers so I no longer have to bust my @ss driving long hours to get a decent check. Can I see your logbook is no longer a problem as officers wave me off when I tell them I am on a eld and what number do they want the logs faxed to. I am at all times 100% compliant and when I hit 70 hours or my daily limit I am off duty with no arguments from dispatch. Yes, it can bite you on the @ss sometimes but some careful planning mitigates most of that. Some of the arguments are pretty lame. We all know the loudest screamers about elds are driven by greed not safety. When elds are mandatory I think after a year or so most drivers will agree they are better off then before
So as a company driver you been making like $500 a week so far…right?
Now you make $350…still good?
You see, I used to feel sorry for you guys…but not any more!
Whole this crap about ELDs is to “kill” us…the owner-ops, and to give you chance to express your thoughts.
So pls STFU no this topic
The ELD is not a dumb thing, its a nice tool actually. But the dumb thing is the HOS with no allowances for weather, traffic, driver health, or common sense. If I drive in heavy winter traffic for 8 hours and get past it I think I should be able to un stress, prevent fatigue, get a few hours of bunk time but Nooooo, the HOS and the carrier is pushing your exhausted ass down the highway because GOOGLE maps and dispatchers 1000 miles away say you can get there in another 3 hours. No matter what your condition is, they use the HOS to lock you into unsafe conditions.
I agree 100 percent..!!!!
Amen to that!! Right on……their protest is about greed……not safety!!!!! Also the shippers/receivers have to get the lead out and load/unload our freaken trucks on a timely basis without a bitch session !! ✌️
You obviously do not own your own truck or your own company easy for you company drivers to say but it’s harder for the one truck owner to make a living with an E log
Jerry is a computer bot run by the government. Nobody in their right mind wants to be watched every minute of their work day.
I say we as truckers go to the House/Senate with video cameras and go follow our congressmen/senators around all day–everyday.
Jerry I think You are payed to say that or You say that for free?
COMPANY DRIVER! YOUR BOSS TOLD YOU TO SAY THAT. THIS IS THE LAND OF THE FREE. NOBODY SHOULD BE TOLD WHEN TO SLEEP AND WHEN TO WORK. WHY NOT MANDATE THE SHIPPERS AND RECEIVERS, WHEN WE ARE HELD UP FOR HOURS. THE WHOLE SYSTEM IS SCREWED UP. MAKE THEM BE LIMITED TO ONLY AN HOUR TO LOAD AND UNLOAD. WE SPEND ANYWHERE TO 3 TO 8 HOURS OR MORE TRYING TO GET LOADED OR UNLOADED MAKE IT FAIR!
The eld is not the problem. It’s the hos. Whether the hours are recorded manually or electronically, the hos rules need to change. I’d rather go back to the original rules than deal with the bs we have now.
If elds are evet required in cattle trucks 1 of two things will happen..either one will pretty quickly get the price of a single hamburger at mickey d’s up to about oh 33.00 each..a several weeks/months total strike
Do you really think ELD’s increase operating costs that much? Either you don’t know much about ELDs or you don’t know much about the trucking industry. If ELD’s cost that much then most greedy cheap companies would not have them and would be fighting their implementation tooth and nail. If the livestock industry would just start running team, they could deliver all their loads of livestock faster. That would be better for safety and for the animals. Not non-compliance with HOS regulations. The bottom line is most of these companies do not have a problem with using ELDs as much as they have a problem with obeying the HOS. That’s all it is.
Well sir who is gonna pay the other driver.
The eld mandate or the president
I vote for you to pay so everybody will be happy
My only ? Is have u ever ran livestock? Most live stock haulers don’t do teams n second livestock hauler load anytime of the day. They don’t choose when to load that’s all in the farmers hand. So before go thinking people want to share a truck with someone please doe research on live stock haulers. Once loaded they have a set time to get the livestock off.
Let’s park the trucks for two days friends let the dor catchup and the people of this country understand who the hell we are that deliver their goods I am tired of seeing and hearing no trucks allowed or being scrutinized for trying to get the job done when these 8 hour a day pukes look down their noses at us Help us out President Trump we voted you in to take our rights back
WTH ya gonna find another driver to 2 man! Livestock hauling is a specialty that requires skilled professionals that not only can drive a truck but that also can handle livestock. Finding one driver to drive is damn difficult because there just aren’t enough skilled professionals out there that can do both. We have been in the business since 1958 and I can tell you drivers for Livestock trucks are very difficult to find. We don’t suggest the freight haulers 2 man… And it does take Alot for 2 people to be in one cab day and night for weeks at a time…. Again drivers won’t do it if drivers where easy to find….
Are u even a driver ED.why do u think the big carriers turnover rates are well above 100%.
Some of us don’t do drop n hook some of us unload and reload almost everyday.so if we can’t get to our next del on time u tell me how much that cost to lose a load or more a week
ALREADY DRIVER SHORTAGE! SO WHERE ARE THEY GOING TO COME FROM. THE BABY DRIVERS OUT HERE IS BAD ENOUGH. MORE BABY DRIVERS WILL JUST MAKE IT WORST.
AMEN!
I’ll bet those idiots never took into account that part of the industry that the driver’s have do do some serious physical labor.
I drive a flatbed, and more than once I’m either forced to drive tired, or someone gets their load late.
These logs have already cost me money when they force me to shut down minutes from a delivery I’m bad traffic, and I get back charged for being late.
I lose the pay, plus I have to pay whatever they demand.
Right.
I don’t care for their brand of safety, all I see it as is a device to restrict profits.
No more, no less.
I won’t even get into the tracking of a private citizen doing a critical service that parts of require being incognito to the general public.
What I will get into is the flow of information aspect, where they loudly boast about the virtues of how they can track a person and convict them of a crime, but that same information is impossible to get when it becomes exculpatory evidence.
Someone needs to address that with a nice test case and put a serious hurting on the FMCSA.
Oh don’t worry, I’m already working in it. On the grounds of cruel and unusual punishment. Starting with the fact that they’re forcing us to have these “private built” devices put in our trucks, without the FMCSA ever having tested any of these platforms.
I’m running the JJ Keller Mobile app, and this thing has more bugs than any app I’ve ever used. I’m basically, being forced, by the federal government, to buy a product, that is being refined/developed at my expense. And most of them are like that.
I’ve already spent practically days on the phone in the last couple weeks trying to get these issues resolved. One of the largest scams ever pulled off by our government in the name of “safety”. And we need to rip off their testicles for it.
Cajun–ya can’t rip off what they apparently don’t have!!
they have a test. swift is their model they keep wrecking and we keep paying for it
It seems to me if you want justice or to keep your rights’ you need lots off money, and you’ll need to know whose campaign to contribute to.
In another words’ do you have enough money and know who to bribe.
Fire all the senators congress and governors and start over.
We need campaign finance reform now.
The only common sense with ELD’s yet is no break for the livestock carriers.
Oh my senators congress and governor. Lets state looking and monitoring the government vehicle. No personnel use on them big fat joke. we the tax payers pay for all the fuel and then the employees get miles reimbursement. Got to love the government.
Now that trucking will be regulated and ran by the government we will all be out of business in 12 months.
Thanks
America
Lady’s and gentleman’s
Everything comes down to $$$ on the long run anyway so place the eld mandate along with pay mandate.
All loads for dry vans at 2.00 a mile
Readers at 2.50 and flatbed at 3.00 a mile minimum plus 100 for delay time over 2 hours and we all will be fine
Money money money
Is America great yet?
Exactly. Regardless of where it started, the Republican Party was in complete command of Washington DC, and they did -nothing- to stop this. Let us not forget next election.
Sorry. But I think we’re out of parties to vote for. Neither have done the US any good with the idiots that fill the Seats at present. Fire them all, put in Term Limits, Get rid of special interest & Lobbyist!
AND WHATEVER LAWS THEY PASS FOR US…. WILL ALSO BE FOR THEM!
IF IT IS, I WAS LEFT BEHIND! ALL YOU #45 SUPPORTS CALL HIM AND TELL HIM WE ARE STILL WANTED ON THE MAKE AMERICA GREAT !
What a crock. The reason they are able to do this is because the ATA isn’t involved in livestock hauling. They have no corporate competition so they are being listened to. If this was truly about safety, everyone would have to do it. No exemptions. So basically they are saying a cow is more important than that family that gets killed.
The current HOS are unsafe. In particularly the hard 14 hour rule, which added with the 30 min break required after 8 hours gives drivers only 13.5 hours. The problem here is that drivers who become tired during their day will feel a need to push through instead of resting…. I have been driving for over 20 years. I have what I call my whitching hours. The hours just before sun up, and sometimes in the afternoon, my body wants a nap. With the hard 14 rule, I can not waste the time resting have to try to push through. Before I admit, I would take my nap and doctor my paper logs to finish my run. With the ELD, I will have to to either push through tired, or take a hit on my runs…
Agree!!!!!!!!
JUST THINK ABOUT THE FARMERS. HOW PRODUCE IS GROWN. THERE IS A SHELF LIFE TO FRESH FOOD PEOPLE!.
The government is enforcing ELDs to control our paychecks. We’re just “stupid truck drivers.” We for the most part dont have college degrees, so we’re not suppose to make that much money in this rigged economy.
A year maybe two house paid for I’ll be done
They will stop all this nonsense when a multi billion dollar company has to shut down production and they loose millions of dollars because some computer told a driver that he/she is out of hours and they are 15 minutes away from destination
Try having a drive/cam and eld…….we need more $$ for all this aggravation !!
Only tiring first of the year
Go to whitehouse.com contact the president. Demand he write an executive order to delay and later overturn the ELD mandate. He promised to stop costly unnecessary regulations. Now we need action!!
Brian Schroeder, are you kidding, Trump is in bed with the ATA.
That’s whitehouse.gov
I take this job not to have boss 12 years ago. Now its no point doing this sh…t but its like a trap get in easier than to get out.
Until every trucker in the U.S. can organize and mobilize a 3 day total shut down in protest of not only the mandatory ELD toboccle but equal pay for equal work and a thousand other concerns you may have won’t snot change. Shippers and receivers hold you up and you don’t get paid for it. 2hr windows is 2hrs of your lives you won’t get back. This is not a safety mandate or an issue in public policy in as so much another way to stagnate wages. Think about it.
The one thing all Drivers, Owner Ops and Small fleets need to understand is this: The ELD mandate is the first step in the direction to full Commercial Transportation Automation. Eventually there will not be a human in a Commercial vehicle. This is the Large corporation and Large Trade groups goal! Keep up the fight this is all we have, Our fighting Independent Spirit.
THEY WILL SEE THEY ARE CREATING MORE PROBLEM THAN THEY ARE SOLVING, THEY WILL SEE PRETTY SOON. DRIVERS THEY HAVE TO MOVE THEIR PRODUCE BUT WE CAN MAKE IT COST THEM BAD! COMPANIES DONT HAVE ENOUGH DRIVERS TO SUPPLY THE CHAIN. WATCH WHAT I SAY. SO LETS JUST SIT BACK AND WATCH THEM
The problem for me is: I working in containers from the port. more of the times I waiting long time for the crane, to get the empty box. Long time to get the load box. I loose more than four hours.then I have to do my appointment delivery, wait to unload the box. return to the port to drop the empty box.wait another hour or more to wait for the crane to get the empty box. and my hours to work GONE.