The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) recently denied the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association’s (OOIDA) request to be exempt from the electronic logging devices (ELD) mandate.
The ELD mandate requires truck drivers to track their driving and nondriving activities. ELDs, however, can only track the location and movement of a vehicle. Additionally, many ELD manufacturers are self-certified.
The ELD mandate is estimated to cost the industry more than $2 billion annually. This means many carriers cannot afford to invest in the devices only to later learn they are noncompliant, OOIDA said.
In its November 2017 request, OOIDA asked for a 5-year exemption for motor carriers classified as small businesses and with a proven safety history. Five years would allow time for problems in the mandate to be worked out.
“We are puzzled and disappointed at the response from the agency,” Todd Spencer, OOIDA president, said. “For months, the FMCSA has been granting exemptions to other organizations, some not even actually in trucking, but relying on trucks for their businesses.”
Annually, ELDs will prevent 1,844 crashes, 562 injuries, and 26 fatalities, FMCSA said.
ELDs do not increase safety, OOIDA argued, and are no more reliable than paper logbooks for recording compliance with hours-of-service regulations.