The Trucker Newspaper - April 15, 2018

THETRUCKER.COM
Nation April 15-30, 2018 • 3
Trump signs $1.3 trillion spending bill;
some ELD exemptions are in for now
Dorothy Cox
dlcox@thetrucker.com
WASHINGTON — After hinting that he
might not sign it, President Donald Trump
inked a $1.3 trillion spending measure last
month, averting a midnight government shutdown.
Under the appropriations bill, livestock
and insect haulers are exempt from the
electronic logging device (ELD) mandate
through September 30, because that’s when
the appropriations end, according to Adrienne
Gildea, deputy executive director of
the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance
(CVSA), whose officers are tasked with enforcing
ELD compliance and various safety
regulations.
Other argi haulers have until June 18 to
comply with the ELD mandate, she noted,
“unless FMCSA issues any further waivers
or exemptions.”
However, some agriculture transporters
are exempt from the Hours of Service if
they’re hauling within a 150-air-mile radius
of their farm or ranch, Gildea added.
That may beg the question of why an exemption
would be needed in the first place
since ELDs are a tool to electronically log
HOS, said one trucking observer familiar
with the proceedings.
What’s in the omnibus bill bothers some
stakeholders a lot less than what’s not in it.
It doesn’t contain what’s known as the
Denham Amendment, which would keep
states from adopting their own HOS rules
concerning meal and rest breaks and lead to
what are referred to as “patchwork” rules differing
from one state to the next and more
importantly, from the federal HOS, themselves.
Opponents to the amendment say it would
keep states from requiring carriers to give
drivers paid meal and rest breaks and keep
carriers from being required to pay drivers
for non-driving tasks.
Both the Truckload Carriers Association
and the American Trucking Associations
have argued that having one federal rule
across the board and across state lines is the
safer and simpler way to govern HOS.
TCA Vice President of Government Affairs
David Heller said the Denham Amendment
was “negotiated out” of the final budget
and a “casualty of war.”
According to the FMCSA website, “covered
farm vehicles of 26,001 pounds or more
operated by a farmer or an employee of the
farmer are exempted from the HOS and CDL
regulations if the vehicle is operated anywhere
in the state of registration or across
state lines within a 150-air mile radius of the
farm or ranch with respect to which the vehicle
is being operated.
“Drivers who transport agricultural commodities
within a 150-air mile radius of the
farm or ranch with respect to which the vehicle
is being operated are also exempted from
the HOS regulations.”
Trump did say he was “very disappointed”
in the funding package, in part because
it did not fully fund his plans for a border
wall with Mexico and did not address some
700,000 “Dreamer” immigrants who are now
protected from deportation under a program
that he has moved to eliminate.
But the president praised increases the
bill provides for military spending and said
he had “no choice but to fund our military,”
The Associated Press reported.
“My highest duty is to keep America
safe,” Trump said.
The bill signing came a few hours after
Trump tweeted that he was “considering” a
veto, although The Hill and several Republican
members of Congress had said he would
end up signing it. 8
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