Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
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LEADING NEWS, TRUCKING MARKET CONDITIONS AND INDUSTRY ANALYSIS Texas to require intrastate drivers to use ELDs by 2019 T exas has updated its hours-of- service code to require intra- state truckers to use electronic log- ging devices by Dec. 19, 2019. The effective date of the federal govern- ment's mandate requiring ELDs for interstate truckers is Dec. 18, 2017. Texas' new regulations are sparse on detail, simply pointing to the U.S. Department of Transportation code requiring ELDs and establish - ing an effective date. The minimum device specs will be the same as the federal government's mandate, but it's unclear whether the exemptions to the federal mandate will apply to intrastate operators. The state specifies an exemption for truckers hauling agricultural products within a 150-air-mile radius of a commodity's point of origina - tion or distribution during harvest season. Though Texas appears to be the first state to issue an ELD require- ment for intrastate truckers, other states likely will follow soon, said Joe Rajkovacz, head of regulatory affairs for the Western States Trucking Association. Federal regulations require states to adopt laws for intrastate truckers compatible with national laws. Most states will comply without fanfare, Rajkovacz said, but there could be a few standouts, at least initially. "In the end," he said, federal laws requiring state compliance "will probably win the day." – James Jaillet OOIDA takes ELD case to U.S. Supreme Court T he Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association has taken its lawsuit against the federal government's electronic logging device mandate to its last possible stop. The group filed a petition April 10 with the U.S. Supreme Court asking it to hear its case for why the mandate should be tossed. OOIDA, whose legal team is representing independent truckers Richard Pingel and Mark Elrod in the case, has asked the nation's high court to reevaluate a lower court ruling issued in October that upheld the U.S. Department of Transportation's rule to require truckers to use logging devices to track hours of service. The rule was published in December 2015 and requires nearly all truckers, with a few exceptions, to use an ELD starting Dec. 18, 2017. The Supreme Court receives hundreds of petitions a year but generally hears only a few dozen cases. Four of the nine justices must vote to hear a suit for it to come before the court. There's no timetable for when the court will make its decision on whether it will hear the case. OOIDA filed its suit against the mandate in March 2016, claiming the mandate violates truckers' constitutional rights to privacy. The rule, it says, "fails to establish regulations at the federal level to serve as a constitutionally adequate substitute for a warrant" as required by court precedent, OOIDA argues. The group wants the Supreme Court to evaluate whether the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, which heard the cast last year and issued a decision Oct. 31 in favor of DOT and the logging device mandate, "erred by extending the pervasively regu- lated industry exception…beyond the administrative search of business premises to include the search of drivers in support of the ordinary needs of law enforcement." The 7th Circuit Court, which is just a step below the Supreme Court, rejected OOIDA's arguments. A three-judge panel heard oral arguments last September in Chicago before issuing its decision six weeks later, ruling the ELD mandate "is not arbitrary or capricious, nor does it violate the Fourth Amendment." The 7th Circuit appellate court is the same court that in 2012 overturned DOT's previous attempt at mandating ELDs. – James Jaillet Scan the QR code with your smartphone or visit ccjdigital.com/ news/subscribe-to- newsletters to sign up for the CCJ Daily Report, a daily e-mail newslet- ter filled with news, analysis, blogs and market condition articles. OOIDA wants the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn DOT's rule to require logging devices to track records of duty status. commercial carrier journal | may 2017 9