Electronic Logging Devices (ELD) Mandate of Livestock Haulers

good morning and thanks for watching the market day report I'm Janet Anderson well there are several provisions in the federal law that regulate the transport of livestock which generally concerns animal health and Driver Safety next Monday December 18th the US Department of Transportation final rule on electronic logging devices and hours of service is set to go into effect joining us now is professor of agricultural law and taxation at the Washburn University School of Law Rodger McGowan Roger thank you for joining us once again let's start with some background on this subject matter of course how does this tie into animal welfare and also the 28 hour law well good morning Janet yes the the federal government has had a pretty long impact in terms of regulating animal health and safety as those animals are transported across the country but back in 1966 the Animal Welfare Act was enacted and that indirect initially addressed the problem of theft of pets and their sale for research but then it was expanded to cover mistreatment of animals when they're transported in animal fighting ventures by live bird dog or any other mammals except man they don't those rules don't bar hunting but another law that also impacts transport of animals is the twenty eight hour law and that goes back even before and long before the Animal Welfare Act that goes to 1873 designed to prevent cruelty to animals in interstate commerce by a common carrier and there are some amendments made to that over time but basically that says that it animals have to have sufficient food and rest and so in a twenty eight hour time limit there can only be a certain amount of time the truckers can drive and then they have to rest and then I have to feed and water animals but there are some extensions that can be granted to that there are some special rules that apply for example to sheep but those are the two major laws that are out there and the way that drivers keep track of that historically back since the 1930s has been by written logs so what does the new rule require and what exactly is the main goal with the mandate taking place well the new rule that was initiated in December of 15 under the Obama administration would require electronic logs be kept by truckers instead of a written logbook the impact on agriculture and of course the the express purpose of the act is safety of the driver safety of others on the road plus animal health and safety but the impact on AG could be bigger there are studies that indicate that of all the accidents involving trucks hauling cargo very very few involved transportation of livestock and so there's very small percentage that actually involved the AG transportation of livestock and there there are some exceptions to the final rule one exists for vehicles built before 2000 for example there's still one hundred hundred fifty mile radius short haul log exemptions and drivers that maintain written logs for no more than eight days during a 30-day period but this has been a big issue for a lot of AG groups they view it as an invasion of privacy they view it as something that they should not be required to do and really I think probably the big issue that's out there for egg is an hour of service requirement that restricts drive time to 11 hours now that rule change occurred back in 2003 and it says truckers are restricted to 11 hours of driving within a 14 hour period and 10 hours of rest is required and that is a really tough rule for long haul cattle transports when you unload and reload cattle that can be pretty detrimental to their health and I think an exception from that restriction seems to be an order but this rule is going to go and play December 18 although the Trump administration is pushed pushing off full enforcement of it until the middle of April or excuse me until April 1 of 18 that 90-day a delay has been put into place as you just mentioned is there a chance that they're going to review it more and that the livestock sector might be able to benefit from that delay a little bit more well there's some history here in the one year of the Trump administration they've done a lot with looking at regulations that have a serious impact on Commerce as well as on tax payers so there is that hope that's out there that the 90-day provision will give the feds enough up time to go back and an opportunity to go back and look at this and maybe take a different course but certainly the livestock industry in the horse industry in particular very interested in this and it does merit a 10 okay Roger thank again thank you again for your insight we appreciate it Ron Dermer : he's with the Washburn University School of Law joining us in discussion on the eld

Channel: Washburn WALTR

Views: 9,719

Rating: 4.5294118 out of 5

Keywords: livestock, haulers, livestock haulers, eld, electronic logging devices

Id: TQzWCk-yVLg

Length: 4min 30sec (270 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 23 2017