Small Trucker Lobby Group Salutes Indiana Attorney General ELD Mandate Delay Request

 

Small trucker lobby group, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, has applauded a request made by the Indiana attorney general asking that a federal mandate for electronic logging devices on commercial vehicles be delayed.

The letter from Curtis Hill, Jr., the Indiana Attorney General, to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration cited numerous concerns that reflect many of the same issues raised by truck drivers.

Among the concerns is the self-certification of the devices that truckers will be required to purchase to comply with the mandate.  At present, none of the 193 devices listed on the FMCSA website have been validated by the agency or any unbiased, third-party testing program.

“Most small-business truckers can ill afford to make these purchases only to learn later that their ELD is non-compliant.  Yet they are required to do so or risk violation,” said Todd Spencer, executive vice president of OOIDA.

“This request from a state agency is a prime example how states are beginning to understand the reality of this broadly written mandate and its negative consequences. Law enforcement is simply not ready for this,” said Spencer.

Some say the ELD mandate is estimated to cost impacted stakeholders about $2 billion annually, making it one of the most expensive federal transportation rulemakings over the last decade.

“The mandate provides no safety, economic, or productivity benefits for most ensnared by the mandate, which includes businesses that are not in trucking, but rely heavily on trucks as their business models,” said Spencer.

Category: General Update, News