FMCSA is looking for a feedback on ELD exempt trucks

Hear all ye with pre 2000 trucks.

 

Comments:

Regulations.gov

 

Before leaving a comment (because if you don't, you're part of the problem), do a little research:

Timeline of the ELD Mandate: History & Important Dates

 

Be careful what you say or the FBI will knock on your door.

 

You don't have to open the door. Let them pick you up at a fast food joint like they're supposed to do!

 

Nothing like reading ELD timeline history from a company that wants to sell you an ELD!!!

@rch10007 thanks for posting the link to make a comment. I certainly will!!!

 

Think this will get me in trouble? If I stop posting after this, you'll know...

Comment:
"...ways to improve the clarity of current regulations on the use of electronic logging devices..."

One way to improve the clarity of the current regulations about ELDs is to remove the regulations altogether. They aren't necessary. Having ELDs have done zero to improve public safety (or any other attempted justification). The insurance industry is who lobbied to have ELDs installed in the first place and Americans are sick and tired of watching you agencies dictate our very existence while stuffing our money into the pockets of these lobbyist via increasingly, suffocating regulations. You better listen to these people. The old ways of doing business are just that, old. Where's the fresh, new approach to governance? Something like, reducing regulation. You can start with ELDs.

Technology has allowed Americans to see exactly what you are doing now and if you continue on the same path as you are, you'll severely restrict the options working class citizens have to express grievances. The fact that I am even commenting on this regulation proves that the servants of our country have zero respect for those they serve. If they did, why keep adding more regulations? Maybe because without the regulation, there wouldn't be a way for the insurance to justify charging higher rates. ELDs have been nothing more than equity for the lobbyist pushing the agenda.

Again, old school. We all see what's been going on. Which of you will stand for removal of the regulation altogether? Wouldn't that be the best way to clarify it? It's a win for the agency as they would have time to spend on something else that does matter to the drivers, their families, and the safety of those traveling on the highway, like more rest areas. It would be a win for the drivers so they could judge for themselves what the best use of their time is.

Seriously, who in the world wants to be harassed about when they sleep? If a company wants to use ELDs, ok! That's their business. However, I bet those companies would have great difficulty retaining drivers. Wouldn't that be an valuable indicator of how drivers feel about ELDs? If ELDs are causing stress and strife, and removing stress from a person rolling 80,000 pounds within 5 feet of another human being at 70 miles per hour, wouldn't removing stress seem the more important thing to do rather than create more regulations and stress? Unless, of course, driver stress levels and their safety are of no concern.

Actions speak louder than words. Driver's are sick of being disrespected with regulations that add more responsibility to them without additional benefit. Maybe the question that you should be asking is what should the FMCSA do about the insurance companies charging new authorities $30k for an insurance policy. Oh wait, I forgot the insurance companies dictate to you, not the other way around. We see it. It's going to stop. There is NO reason that taxpayer dollars should be entertaining these regulations. There are NO studies to show ELDs were ever needed and NO studies to show they are still needed.

An ELD is an unnecessary added expense and maintenance cost and one more way to track and control a blue collar worker. There is no way to justify ELDs at all. There's no independent data to support their need. There's no independent research studies showing the need to keep adding regulations. Another way to clarify ELD regulations is provide a timeline of the ELD, and why it was lobbied for by the insurance industry in the first place, and show how the regulation does anything other than provide another means of financial punishment for the middle class.

In the commenter checklist, you want us to provide data for our claims, how about you do the same? What data supports me being forced to somehow hardwire an ELD into my Pre 2000 truck? It adds unnecessary expense. It adds another maintenance item to my list. It adds one more report to file. It takes away more time from my family. It opens me up to more regulation in the future by studying the data ELDs provide to add yet more regulations onto my business, for no reason.

There is just no good reason for having ELDs. It's another line item for DOT officials to fine me for. I cannot think of one thing that adding an ELD to a Pre 2000 truck will do for the benefit of the driver, the truck, the carrier, the troopers required to constantly keep up with expansive and ever changing regulations, or the public at large.

Carriers pick up goods and deliver them safely and on time to keep our economy moving. The FMCSA should focus on taking things off a driver's plate if you want them to be successful. You don't add burdensome and stressful technology into the mix and then add more regulation on top and then propose changes to the burdensome regulation by adding more of the same...

Please share why the ELDs are even still being required when nothing supports they should be mandated at the Federal level, or at all.

Clarify the regulations by removing them.

 

Feedback: I like my exempt truck. And how about maybe extending that local exemption to 200mi radius

 

My door is unlocked just in case any Fed thinks it’s a good time to leave the earthly realm.