TCA, safety groups push for ELD mandate on older trucks

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration recently asked the public if it should consider requiring trucks with pre-2000 engines to comply with the electronic logging device mandate. Although a majority of the 1,100 comments sent to the agency came from individual truckers who are opposed, several trucking organizations and safety groups advocate for the change.

“Electronic logging devices should be required on as many trucks as possible, including rebuilt or remanufactured engines or glider kits that can accommodate ELD technology,” the Truckload Carriers Association wrote in its comments. “FMCSA should push for expanded ELD adoption, because it is an important tool to track compliance for the hours-of-service regulations, which were designed to improve safety.”

The Truck Safety Coalition “strongly urges” FMCSA to end the exemption for pre-2000 engines, and the Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety contends that the benefits from ELDs are “obvious and substantial in lives saved, crashes prevented and economic savings.”

FMCSA will be tasked with weighing both sides of the issue before it moves forward with any formal proposals.

In September, FMCSA requested feedback from truckers about how it can improve the ELD mandate. The agency accepted comments through Nov. 15.

FMCSA’s advance notice of proposed rulemaking considers changes to the ELD mandate in five areas:

• Applicability to pre-2000 engines.
• Addressing ELD malfunctions.
• The process for removing an ELD from FMCSA’s list of certified devices.
• Technical specifications.
• ELD certification.

Although the notice focuses on various aspects of the ELD mandate, many truckers focused on the agency’s evaluation of the exemption from older trucks.

Truck drivers have largely been opposed to an ELD mandate from the start, saying the devices do not improve safety.

Full enforcement of the electronic logging device mandate began in 2018. Since 2017, fatality crashes have risen by 14.5%.

“The statistics are showing that ELDs aren’t preventing crashes,” Danny Schnautz wrote. “There is a misapplication of technology and authority because we are seeing ‘compliance’ and ‘fatigue’ used interchangeably. There is no guarantee of the hours-of-service regs coinciding with when a truck driver is actually tired (or rested/alert). To remove the pre-2000 exemption is going to hurt highway safety. It also is going to hurt the safest operators, small businesses, many of who operate these trucks in the most safe and efficient manner on the road, since these operators are more than employees, they are the owners of their companies and are ‘all in’ for safety and service.”

Others complained that the agency shouldn’t change the rules after exempting older trucks in the original mandate.

“It is too late in the game and unfair now to require owners of pre-2000 engines to be mandated to use ELDs,” Daniel Cohen wrote. “FMCSA has already made enough of a mess of the ELD regulations to try to fix it.”

The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association also opposes any attempts to end the exemption.

“The agency lacks data confirming the ELD mandate has improved highway safety and has failed to demonstrate how the expansion of existing requirements to vehicles operating on pre-2000 and rebuilt pre-2000 engines would enhance safety,” the Association wrote. “OOIDA is unaware of any research that demonstrates vehicles operating under the pre-2000 exemption fail to meet the same level of safety as vehicles with ELDs.”

One perhaps unexpected opponent of plans to require ELDs for trucks with pre-2000 engines is the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance.

“CVSA does not support expanding the regulation to include commercial motor vehicles with rebuilt or remanufactured CMV engines and/or glider kits,” the group wrote. “CVSA was and continues to be a strong supporter of the ELD requirement. While expanding the ELD requirement to include these types of vehicles would bring more vehicles under the ELD requirement and help improve hours-of-service compliance and roadway safety for those vehicles, this change would be difficult to enforce, eroding any intended safety benefit.

“It is very difficult to verify roadside whether or not a vehicle is subject to the ELD regulations based on the engine manufacture date. Expanding the ELD requirements to include these vehicles will result in confusion and inconsistencies in enforcement of the regulations.” LL