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Livestock haulers encouraged by potential ELD reforms

Livestock haulers are encouraged by Hours of Service reforms the DOT’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is considering.

Livestock Marketing Association VP of risk mitigation Jara Settles says LMA participated during a comment period targeting four aspects of the rule, including the split sleeper berth concept.

“Being able to break up that rest into at least two or three pieces so that you can take a short nap when it’s appropriate for the class of livestock you’re hauling and the temperature you’re experiencing might be a helpful tool.”

Current guidelines require 10 hours of rest once truckers drive 11 consecutive hours in a 14-hour workday.

“The 10 consecutive hours is really problematic particularly for livestock haulers because you just can’t pull over in the middle of the day and take a nap for 10 hours while you’ve got live animals on the back of your commercial motor vehicle.”

Settles tells Brownfield the DOT has not provided any timeline for if or when changes to Hours of Service regulations might be announced.

She says livestock haulers are hopeful the current Electronic Logging Device exemption will be extended through the 2020 Congressional spending package.