News

Nebraska coalition calls for flexibility on trucking regulations

A coalition of Nebraska livestock stakeholders is calling for increased flexibility on truck hauling regulations.

We Support Agriculture (WSA) executive director Kristen Hassebrook says they’ve received numerous reports of livestock and agricultural haulers being pulled over, despite the additional 90-day Electronic Logging Device (ELD) waiver issued last week.

“We’ve had several reports throughout last week that carrier enforcement in Nebraska was pulling over livestock haulers and specifically asking to see a copy of the federal register notice that highlights the ELD exemption,” Hassebrook says.

Complicating matters, she says, is that the federal register has not been updated to reflect the newest waiver. The previous exemption expired on March 18th, but was recently extended to June 18th.

“While the extension of the ELD exemption will provide time to examine this regulation and work with FMCSA to address our concerns, the livestock and ag hauling community should keep in mind there are still requirements related to ELDs, and agriculture is absolutely still subject to Hours of Service (HOS) regulations, an area where additional flexibility and common sense is needed,” Hassebrook says.

AUDIO: Kristen Hassebrook