In a late-game effort to postpone the date by which truck drivers must begin using electronic logging devices to track hours of service compliance, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association on Wednesday announced the formation of a coalition to back a two-year delay of the Dec. 18, 2017, ELD mandate compliance deadline. The coalition, which includes 31 organizations, supports a bill introduced in the U.S. House earlier this year by Rep. Brian Babin (R-Texas) that would bump the ELD mandate’s adoption deadline to December 2019.
The move is the latest attempt by OOIDA to have the mandate stalled or struck down outright. So far, those attempts have been unsuccessful, and the mandate’s looming compliance date remains in effect.
Despite drawing dozens of co-sponsors, Babin’s bill has seen no movement in the House, and no such bill has been introduced in the Senate. Moreover, another attempt by Babin to attach an amendment to delay the mandate at least through Sept. 30, 2018, failed in a vote on the House floor, potentially signaling the House’s reluctance to proceed with such legislation.
OOIDA filed a lawsuit challenging the mandate in 2016, but the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Oct. 31, 2016, to uphold the mandate. OOIDA later appealed the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, who denied OOIDA’s petition for the nation’s high court to hear the case.
The group also filed a petition with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration claiming that nearly 30 states had not specifically adopted the mandate as their own and thus state enforcement personnel tasked with enforcing the federal mandate couldn’t do so.
OOIDA’s new coalition includes industry trade groups representing agriculture, pyrotechnics, utility contractors, livestock and others — groups OOIDA say would “be negatively impacted by the mandate.” The coalition includes a couple other for-hire trucking-focused groups, including the National Association of Small Trucking Companies and Mid-West Truckers Association.
“The electronic logging device mandate is written so broadly that it has far reaching implications well beyond the traditional trucking industry,” said Todd Spencer, executive vice president of OOIDA. See the full list of coalition members below.
