LIVESTOCK HAULERS NO LONGER REQUIRED TO USE ELDS

The U.S. Department of Transportation this week permanently suspended the requirement that livestock haulers use electronic logging devices (ELDs) in their trucks. As part of the 2012 Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act, the Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Enhancement Act mandated that drivers of commercial motor vehicles replace by Dec. 18, 2017, their paper logs with ELDs, which record driving time, engine hours, vehicle movement and speed, miles driven and location information. NPPC requested on behalf of the U.S. pork industry and other livestock sectors a waiver from the requirement. The organization also asked for an exemption from the regulation, citing the incompatibility between transporting livestock and DOT’s Hours of Service rules. Those regulations limit truckers to 11 hours of driving daily, after 10 consecutive hours off duty, and restrict their on-duty time to 14 consecutive hours, which includes nondriving time. NPPC was granted the waiver, but a permanent fix was not determined. NPPC applauds the Trump administration’s commitment to U.S. agriculture, marking this as a huge win for U.S. livestock producers and haulers.