FMCSA says no ELD for Livestock haulers until further notice

Because the regulation is already there. Part of driver fitness is scheduling drivers to prevent what happened. Our policy had a loop hole that violated that reg. We fixed it.

When Cargill, JBS, Tyson are finally named in a lawsuit and loose instead of paying folks off, that side of the industry will change as well.

 

Cargill and JBS already have eld’s in their trucks. So your example is akin to an o/o getting into a wreck on his way to a Walmart DC and the lawsuit somehow involving Walmart.

I’m not going to sit here and say that if things changed you wouldn’t be able to afford a steak. I will say that for the majority of the livestock world running team isn’t a viable option and I’ve explained my opinion in previous posts. I’ve also explained how testing cattle at an auction yard is a terrible idea because of cross contamination between herds. So that leaves sanitary rest facilities that also wouldn’t be a good idea financially because they’d only be needed for a few months out of the year. The cost to start up an EPA compliant trailer washout is upwards of $2mil so I imagine it would cost more for rest pens just due to the land needed and amount of wastewater you’d be treating.

And if they did come up with a solution it wouldn’t be the billion dollar corporations footing the bill.

 

I am referring to lawsuits when drivers are held for hours on end, then at the last possible moment the load is released despite the fact clearly the driver could not legally deliver on time.
Plausible deniability is no longer valid with the crunch running legal has placed on them. And their use of "exempt" trucks.

Go ahead say it will not happen. It has and they settled rather than face a jury. One day The Hammer is going to decide to retire on a case like that and not take the seven figure settlements.

Why do you think major shippers and retailers are moving to systems where carriers must set their appointment. Our system has completely changed. That was not by accident. Now we have an arrive by date. If you make we unload it. If you do not we reject it with fines. Carriers are responsible for requesting their appointment and are given a disclaimer that they are fully responsible for legal and safe operation of their drivers.

Again that is not done by accident.

 

I’m not sure what you’re even talking about. I’ve never been held while waiting to load. They want them loaded and gone. Detention isn’t an issue, like I’ve stated previously. Shrink is everything.

Beef Packers Inc out in CA was one of the last companies I’ve heard about where a driver did time for log violations after a fatality accident. That was back in the mid-2000’s.

The big packers that have the money don’t have much to do with the transport end until they’re fats going to the plant and that is mostly short haul. All the times they’re hauled before that it’s on the ranchers or buyers tab. There’s not enough there to go after to get the Hammer’s interest.

It’s funny to me how many are upset with the exemption or even the MAP21 exemption. Many states have had Ag exemptions in one form or another for years and nobody said a thing because they didn’t know about them. But all the sudden everything isn’t fair now that it’s out in the open.

Here’s another Ag exemption, in South Dakota if you’re driving your own truck hauling your own product or cattle you don’t even need a CDL anymore. My cousin’s farm truck is a flattop Pete that looks nicer than a lot of trucks on the road and his father in law drives it without a CDL. Money talks in all aspects of life.

 

What Walmart DC's do does not affect me in the least. The threats of what could happen always have been there. Walking around in fear is no kind of life.


The opinions of a guy that cannot change the regulations nor knows nothing about what I do or why it's done that way doesn't matter to me. If you eat meat guys that do what we do help get it there. I think a good protest would be not eat the meat that may or may not been hauled by a guy cheating on his book. I mean were low lifes for doing it all the while driving rates down and wages. And so many still support it by eating it.

Have a good day Walmart hand
Channel clear

 

My son was driving our semi between farms when he was 16. Yeah, it blows the mind of the city slickers, but in Idaho, it's perfectly legal, pretty much normal,and nobody worries about it. No log books, no CDL, no CDL training, no training period, no hand holding safety seminars, no fuel solution or electronic nannying. Kid, here's the keys, your turn to make the run. 89,000 lbs, a farm kid, and the job gets done right.

I really, really, really laugh my ##* off when I see all these idiots and their new rules, regulations, guidances, studies and government doo-gooders of all stripes. They try to regulate common sense into guys that shouldn't be behind the wheel of anything larger than their kindergarten Big Wheel, and that's pretty hard to do.....

 

The two black trucks in this pic are both county plated farm trucks. When they’re shined up going down the road you’d never think the guy driving may or may not have a CDL.

 

Because it is. Lol.