Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/904267
16 | Overdrive | November 2017 Logbook Truckers driving short-term rental trucks for eight days or fewer at a time will not be required to keep logs with an electronic logging device while in the rental, due to an exemption granted to the Truck Renting and Leasing Association. Under its terms, drivers still will be subject to the hours of service rule and must maintain paper logs for the cur- rent and prior seven days if required. Drivers also must keep a copy of the rental agreement in the truck to show law enforcement, along with a copy of the exemption notice, while operating under the exemption. Operating for longer than eight days without an ELD will be considered a violation of the exemption and a failure to use an ELD, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. TRALA asked for the exemption on truck rentals of 30 days or fewer, but FMCSA determined an exemption period of up to 30 days "is unneces- sarily long given the importance of ELDs to ensure the accuracy of HOS records." The agency says that having the exemption apply to rentals of eight days or fewer "would give most carriers sufficient time to repair or replace their usual vehicles." FMCSA settled on eight days be- cause it matches the ELD malfunction window in the mandate, which requires drivers to reconstruct their record of duty status for the current 24-hour period and the previous seven con- secutive days in the event of an ELD malfunction. TRALA is made up of Ryder, Penske and other commercial vehicle renting and leasing companies. – Matt Cole ELD exemption allowed for rental trucks The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association last month an- nounced the formation of a coalition to back a two-year delay of the electronic logging device mandate's compliance deadline. The coalition, which includes 31 or- ganizations, supports a bill introduced in the U.S. House by Rep. Brian Babin (R-Texas) that would bump the man- date's adoption deadline from Dec. 18, 2017, to December 2019. Absent from OOIDA's coalition are the American Trucking Associations, Truckload Car- riers Association and Trucking Alliance, all of which support the mandate. Despite drawing dozens of co-spon- sors, Babin's bill has seen no movement in the House, and no such bill has been introduced in the Senate. Moreover, an attempt by Babin to attach a similar amendment to another bill to delay the mandate at least through Sept. 30, 2018, failed in a vote on the House floor, potentially signaling the chamber's re- luctance to proceed with such legislation. OOIDA's new coalition includes industry trade groups representing ag- riculture, pyrotechnics, utility contrac- tors, livestock and others — groups the association says would "be negatively impacted by the mandate." The coali- tion includes just one other trucking-fo- cused group, the National Association of Small Trucking Companies. "The electronic logging device man- date is written so broadly that it has far-reaching implications well beyond the traditional trucking industry," said Todd Spencer, OOIDA executive vice president. – James Jaillet OOIDA coalition seeks ELD delay The move is the latest attempt by OOIDA to have the ELD mandate stalled or struck down outright. A POTENTIAL PROBLEM with certain Dana D-Series and E-Series steer axles has prompted a recall of more than 17,700 model-year 2016 Peterbilt and Kenworth trucks, nearly 1,200 model-year 2016 Navistar trucks and about 1,000 trucks manufactured by Volvo, Mack and Autocar. The castellated nut on the steer axles may not be torqued properly, which can cause a complete loss of steer- ing. NHTSA's recall numbers are 17V-533, 17V-534, 17V-536 and 17V-575. CALIFORNIA TRUCK DRIVER Kurt von Tillow was among the 59 killed in the mass shoot- ing at a music festival in Las Vegas Oct. 1. Von Tillow, who owned Von Tillow Trucking of Cameron Park, warned his sister, Dee Ann Hyatt, and her daughter about gunfire before becoming one of the first people killed. "Because of him, we got on the ground and stayed there," Hyatt said. "He saved our lives." BESTPASS TOLL management services now are available for expressways around Orlando through a new partnership with the Central Florida Expressway Authority, adding more than 100 miles to the Bestpass network. CFX manages seven expressways, 64 interchanges and 301 bridges in a four-county area. CFX will extend the same discounts to Bestpass users as it does to its own E-Pass users. CRASHES INVOLVING large trucks were responsible for 4,317 fatalities in 2016, a 5.4 per- cent increase over 2015 and the highest since 2007, according to an annual National Highway Traffic Safety Administration report. Of that number, 17 percent were truck occupants, 72 percent were occupants of other vehicles and 11 percent were non-occupants.