​Rehearing On ELD Lawsuit Denied

February 2017

Grain Valley, MO… A national association of small-business truckers was denied a rehearing of a court decision regarding their lawsuit against a government mandate to electronically track commercial truck drivers.

The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association had filed a petition to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit for a rehearing of their case against the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

OOIDA says the government’s excuses for mandating electronic logging devices (ELDs) are weak and fail to justify violating the Fourth Amendment rights of professional truck drivers.

A three-judge panel on the appeals court ruled against the Association in October of this year on its lawsuit against the FMCSA. In response, OOIDA filed a petition for review asking the full court to hear the case en banc.

Jim Johnston, president and CEO of OOIDA, said that the Association is preparing for the next phase of the challenge with an appeal to the Supreme Court but will also continue to pursue the issue on the congressional side.

“It’s clear now that we have to pull out all the stops to convince lawmakers and the new Trump administration of the need to set aside the ELD mandate,” said Johnston.

OOIDA reached out to its members who are constituents of the House Freedom Caucus, an organization that recently offered the incoming administration a list of regulations that should be repealed. On that list is the ELD mandate along with the proposed speed limiter rule.

Commercial truck drivers are restricted to a limited number of working and driving hours under current regulations. The FMCSA’s 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. OOIDA contends that requiring electronic monitoring devices on commercial vehicles does not advance safety since they are no more reliable than paper logbooks for recording compliance with hours-of-service regulations.

The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association is the only national trade association representing the interests of small-business trucking professionals and professional truck drivers. The Association currently has more than 150,000 members nationwide. OOIDA was established in 1973 and is headquartered in the Greater Kansas City, Mo., area.