News
‘Capricious’ ELD mandate challenged by OOIDA
CHICAGO, IL -- Claiming that the coming U.S. mandate for electronic logging devices to be used by interstate truck drivers is "arbitrary and capricious", the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) has filed an appeal to challenge the rule. OOIDA is challenging the U.S. ELD mandateELDs won't improve safety, the organization claims, adding that the mandate propagated by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is in violation of 4th Amendment rights against reasonable searches and seizures. The mandate requires that truck drivers use ELDs to track their driving and non-driving activities even though such devices can only track movement and location of a vehicle. The FMCSA finalized the rule late last year. OOIDA, representing small-business truckers, stated its arguments in a legal brief filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit. "The agency provided no proof of their claims that this mandate would improve highway safety," said Jim Johnston, OOIDA president and CEO. "There is simply no proof that the costs, burdens and privacy infringements associated with this mandate are justified." His point is not made in a vacuum. In fact the FMCSA is now being urged, and strongly, to make a bunch of improvements in its data and research methods "to support a more comprehensive understanding of the relationships between operator fatigue and highway safety and between fatigue and long-term health."
