My Congressman's Response To H.R. 3282

Wrote my congressman, Peter DeFazio, and asked him to support H.R. 3282, the ELD Extension Act of 2017. This was his response:

Dear Mr. #########:

Thank you for your message regarding Electronic Logging Devices (ELDs) for commercial motor vehicles and your support for H.R. 3282, the ELD Extension Act of 2017. I appreciate hearing from you.

As you may know, in 2012 Congress passed the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21), which instructed the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) to prescribe a rule requiring the use of ELDs in commercial motor vehicles to improve compliance with hours of service (HOS) regulations. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has long called for the installation of ELDs in all interstate commercial motor vehicles to combat fatigued driving. While the vast majority of professional drivers abide by the HOS rules, a small number unfortunately alter or falsify their log books in order to exceed HOS limits. Throughout USDOT’s development of this rule, I have monitored their progress to ensure that a variety of technologies are available to meet the mandate and limit the costs incurred by professional drivers.

While I share independent truck drivers’ concerns about the burdens of compliance, it would be detrimental to safety to further delay the required deployment of ELDs as specified by H.R. 3282 and allow the continued use of paper logbooks that can be easily falsified. You can be sure I will continue to monitor implementation of the ELD requirement to help ensure that drivers and law enforcement officials are provided with clear direction by USDOT and that the cost of compliance is not a significant burden on small trucking companies. Currently, drivers can choose from more than 70 ELDs - which are registered by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) - in order to meet the ELD requirement. FMCSA requires that these devices provide either a display or a printout of a driver’s logs when an authorized safety official requests a physical display of the information. Furthermore, FMCSA requires that manufacturers provide step-by-step instructions for drivers to produce and transfer the logs to a safety official.

During my time in Congress, I have been a champion of improving surface transportation. Last Congress, I was a key negotiator of the bipartisan Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, the first long-term surface transportation bill in a decade. Language that I included in the FAST Act requires USDOT to establish a standardized process for tracking “detention time” – the lengthy delays experienced by truck drivers when picking up or dropping off a load. Detention time is a big problem with the shipping industry, and truck drivers bear the costs of these delays. I’ll continue to make sure that professional truck drivers aren’t needlessly delayed by shippers and receivers as they try to earn a living.

Thanks again for contacting me. Please keep in touch.

Sincerely,

U.S. REPRESENTATIVE PETER DeFAZIO
Fourth Congressional District, Oregon

The old ELOGS prevent fatigued driving and thus make the roads in America safer argument...

 

LOL. Really? When and how is that going to be implemented?

 

Of course, he's a typical bureaucrat that lives inside of the D.C. bubble.

 

I've been thinking a lot lately how most of these politicians, pundits, news organizations and such, live and operate in a circle of reality that is so detached from the average American. Yet, they claim to represent and "champion" our causes and values. It's such a load of crap.

 

Well, in the world in which he lives, the "few" HOS violaters are a real safety threat to the well-being of those who traverse our interstate system and thus warrant the ELD mandate.