Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/710421
Trucking Topics 28 // COMPANY DRIVER // AUGUST 2016 By Aaron Huff ELD mandate will survive legal challenges, expert believes D uring a CCJ webinar on Thursday, June 16, attorney Brandon Wiseman predicted the current electronic logging device mandate will withstand the legal challenge by the Owner Operator Independent Drivers Association. "If I had to guess," he said, "my inclination would be that the effective day of December 18, 2017, will probably stand." The December, 2017, deadline applies to all commercial drivers that keep a record of duty status. By this date, they will be required to use a compliant electronic logging device. Wiseman, an attorney with Scopelitis, Garvin, Light, Hanson & Feary, P.C., believes that the Seventh Circuit appeals court will not issue a ruling on the OOIDA lawsuit until next year. In December, 2015, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration published the final ELD rule, but OOIDA quickly filed suit with the Seventh Circuit court of appeals, contending that the rule did not do enough to prevent driver harassment. The issue first surfaced in 2010 when OOIDA filed a lawsuit claiming the FMCSA's rule at the time, which would have similarly mandated use of electronic onboard recorders (EOBRs) for commercial drivers, did not do enough to protect drivers from being harassed by fleet management to violate hours-of-service rules. In 2011, the Seventh Circuit ruled in favor of the lawsuit and threw out the EOBR rule. The revamped and current ELD rule is 500 pages long, and much of it specifically addresses driver privacy and harassment, Wiseman said. The rule defines harassment as any action by the motor carrier towards a driver, employee or independent contractor that results in a driver violating the hours-of-service rules,