Safety, trucking groups blast ELD exemption bill for ag, livestock haulers

The Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety and The Trucking Alliance, a coalition of trucking companies, have written senators asking them to oppose legislation introduced in May that would exempt livestock haulers from ELD requirements. The bill, “The Transporting Livestock Across America Safely Act (S. 2938),” was introduced on May 23 by Sen. Benjamin Sasse (R-NE). In their letter, the two groups said the bill will do nothing for improving roadway safety and will just open the door to livestock drivers potentially driving for 24 hours or more with no breaks. “We acknowledge that livestock haulers are unique, in that they are delivering live cargo; however, they are not the only carriers who haul time sensitive commodities,” the letter, signed by Catherine Chase, president of the Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, and Lane Kidd, managing director of The Trucking Alliance, states. “Produce haulers, for example, use other legal means such as teams or relays to get their products to market safely and timely. Instead of exempting livestock haulers from this safety requirement, they should be encouraged to develop an answer to their logistics management issue. Regardless of commodities hauled, we should never sacrifice the safety of the general public sharing our highways or the truck drivers delivering them for the purpose of getting any product to market.”...MORE