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New regulations pose challenges for livestock haulers

A set of Congressionally mandated trucking rules are set to go into effect next month and the Livestock Marketing Association (LMA) says the rules don’t work for the livestock industry.

Chelsea Good tells Brownfield says Congress didn’t take into consideration the welfare of animals when mandating the Electronic Logging Device (ELD) rule.  “Right now you can drive 11 hours in a 14-hour time frame,” she says.  “If you’re just 12 hours from the time you pick up livestock to your destination – it doesn’t make sense to stop, offload that livestock, rest for 10 hours, and then reload that livestock, and then drive for one additional hour.  That adds stress to the animals and there is the risk of injury to animals and humans.”

She tells Brownfield adding a few additional hours of drive time for livestock haulers could be beneficial.

Good says LMA is working with a coalition of livestock industry groups to find additional solutions.  “The other thing this coalition is looking at is some sort of a split sleeper provision,” she says.  “Where maybe you can take your rest period and break it up into smaller chunks instead of a 10 hour rest period.”

Other concerns include the deterioration of cattle condition and performance by spending additional hours on the trailer during transfer as well as the increased possibility of cross-contaminating other cattle by forcing livestock haulers to off-load cattle at facilities along the way.

The regulations were intended to create safer driving conditions and eliminate the need for paper logs.  The ELD rule is regulated by the Department of Transportation and goes into effect December 18.

AUDIO: Chelsea Good, Livestock Marketing Association