GOVERNMENT WATCH
INTERNATIONAL | WASHINGTON | CUSTOMS | SECURITY | REGULATION
38 THE JOURNAL OF COMMERCE www.joc.com SEPTEMBER 5.2016
THE CONTROVERSIAL MANDATE requiring
electronic logging devices in U.S. trucks by
the end of 2017 will reappear before a federal
court this month, with the fate of the rule
itself, and the so-called capacity crunch it
was expected to generate, uncertain.
A group of independent truck drivers
seeks to win an injunction against what
they see as an unconstitutional attempt at
federal overreach. If successful, it could pre-
vent upward pressure on trucking rates that
would have driven more cargo from roads
to rails.
Once-certain industry experts now say
there's a chance the federal regulation will
be tossed out before it's ever implemented,
giving shippers some hope that the current
market, already in their favor, lasts longer.
Late last year, the Owner-Operator Inde-
pendent Drivers Association announced it
would take the Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Administration to court, seeking to win an
injunction against a 2015 federal regulation
requiring truck drivers to use electronic
rather than paper logs by Dec. 18, 2017.
A hearing before the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago
will be held this month. Like previous
OOIDA lawsuits, the case likely would
launch years of litigation involving the
FMCSA and supporters of the ELD man-
date, including the American Trucking
Associations, the industry's primary lob-
bying group.
The rule could reshape the trucking and
shipping business. The U.S. Department of
Transportation, for example, said it believes
the ELD mandate will eliminate 1,844 truck-
related accidents per year, saving 26 lives
annually and preventing 562 injuries. The
rule also stands to force off the road those
drivers and carriers that make a living by
breaking the rules.
The mandate is expected to reduce truck
capacity in the U.S., putting upward pres-
sure on truck rates. That, in turn, is expected
to drive many shippers away from over-
the-road options and toward intermodal
shipping.
Last year, industry experts and analysts
were fairly certain that was destined to be
the case. "As long as there's not an injunc-
tion against ELD implementation or other
changes in the regulatory landscape, we're
going to start seeing some tightening, and
that will work to intermodal's benefit,"
Larry Gross, a senior transportation ana
-
lyst at FTR Associates, told The Journal of
Commerce. "But those are two pretty big
assumptions. It could go the other way."
OOIDA in 2011 successfully sued the
FMCSA over a previous ELD rule, but an
appellate court overturned the decision.
"The court knocked it down before, there-
fore we are confident they will do so again,"
Norita Taylor, a OOIDA spokeswoman, told
The Journal of Commerce in August.
In its previous lawsuit challenging the
FMCSA's 2010 rule requiring certain fleets
to install electronic onboard recorders, as
ELDs were then known, OOIDA argued
the devices violated privacy rights, could be
used to harass drivers and wouldn't improve
truck safety.
The federal court decided the transpor-
tation agency hadn't done enough to address
concerns about driver harassment, and
overturned the rule, sending it back to the
FMCSA. The court didn't address the pri-
vacy or cost-benefit and safety issues raised
by OOIDA in its lawsuit.
Congress in 2012 stepped into the fray
with an order to the agency to mandate
ELDS' NEXT COURT
CHALLENGE
The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association
heads back to court to stop the FMCSA's controversial rule
By Reynolds Hutchins
