A bill has been filed in the U.S. House to delay the compliance date of the federal government’s electronic logging device two years, to December 2019. The change, if enacted, would give owner-operators two additional years to switch from paper logs to an electronic logging device. The legislation was introduced Tuesday and referred to the House’s Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Texas Republican Rep. Brian Babin filed the ELD Extension Act of 2017. Babin’s introduction of the bill came a day after a House panel recommended that the U.S. DOT study whether a “full or targeted delay” of the mandate is... View Article
The Supreme Court on Monday delivered a death blow to the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association’s legal challenge to the U.S. DOT’s electronic logging device mandate. With the high court’s rejection, the lawsuit will go no further. Though there are efforts underway to engage Congress on the issue, spearheaded in part by OOIDA, the issue is likely a nonstarter with lawmakers, multiple sources have told Overdrive in recent months. Just five years ago, a Republican-led Congress required the DOT and its Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to develop the ELD rule. The mandate also has support from Democrats. Such bi-partisan support... View Article
Know the regulations. Cargo securement standards represent the minimum safety requirements for general cargo and some specific commodities. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) outlines U.S. cargo securement rules on its website at www.fmcsa.dot.gov/regulations/cargosecurement/cargo-securement-rules. If you are transporting hazardous materials, they have additional load securement requirements. The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) outlines hazardous load securement rules in 49 CFR Part 177, Subpart B. These regulations can be accessed online at www.ecfr.gov. In the Browse area, select “Title 49 – Transportation” from the drop-down menu. Under the “Subtitle B – Other Regulations Relating to Transportation” heading, select... View Article
View Article Source The Transportation Security Administration has issued an internal report warning of the potential for terrorists to use trucks as weapons to conduct attacks. TSA also released a list of countermeasures, mostly involving awareness of surroundings and reporting suspicious activity, that truck owners and operators should heed to help prevent such attacks from occurring. Though none have occurred in the U.S., high-profile truck-ramming attacks have been carried out elsewhere, including a July 2016 attack in Nice, France, that killed 87 people and injured 430, and a similar attack in December 2016 in Berlin, Germany, in which 12 people... View Article
All compliant electronic logging devices will share a common bond: They can record data coming in from the system that controls the truck’s engine and component parts. The ELD final rule from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration was specific in requiring synchronization with the electronic control module. That’s one of the reasons the agency didn’t require ELDs in trucks of model-year 1999 or older. The rule requires ELDs to automatically record date, time, location information, engine hours, vehicle miles and identification information for the driver, carrier and vehicle itself. Unless the driver is enabled for use of the vehicle... View Article
