The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Assn. (OOIDA), which successfully challenged the previous attempt to mandate electronic logs, has now filed a lawsuit over the new ELD regulation published last week by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA).
"This rule has the potential to have the single largest, most negative impact on the industry than anything else done by FMCSA," said Jim Johnston, OOIDA President and CEO. "We intend to fight it with everything we have available."
In August 2011, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit vacated a proposed electronic logbook rule based on OOIDA's argument that the rule did not address the harassment of drivers. The new ELD rule strictly prohibits driver harassment by providing both procedural and technical provisions to prevent harassment resulting from ELD-generated information.
A separate FMCSA rulemaking further safeguards drivers from being coerced to violate HOS regulations, providing the agency with the authority to take enforcement actions not only against motor carriers, but also against shippers, receivers, and transportation intermediaries.
The basic, one-paragraph Petition for Review that OOIDA has filed this time does not outline the arguments that will be used to challenge the final rule. Arguments will be provided in subsequent filings and during oral arguments in front of the court, the association said.
"This regulation is absolutely the most outrageous intrusion into the rights of professional truckers imaginable and will do nothing at all to improve highway safety. In fact, we firmly believe it will do exactly the opposite by placing even more pressure and stress on drivers than they already deal with," Johnston said.
American Trucker
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