Legislation Aims To Ease Livestock Transportation Rules

New legislation in the United States Senate aims to relax federal rules for transporting livestock, but it might not benefit the farrier industry.

Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., introduced the Transporting Livestock Across America Safely Act in late May.

The U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) created a mandate in December 2017 that required commercial vehicle drivers to use an electronic logging device (ELD) to monitor the number of hours they drive and to have a mandatory rest period of 10 hours after driving 11.

The controversial rule sparked considerable backlash from the equine and agricultural communities with concern that the mandatory rest period would harm livestock, especially during times of extreme heat and cold.

Sasse’s legislation would remove these regulations by doing the following:

• Hours of service (HOS) and ELD will not kick in until the driver has traveled more than 300 miles.
• Loading and unloading time will not count toward HOS.
• The HOS would change to a minimum of 15 hours and a maximum of 18 hours.
• Drivers will have the flexibility to stop and rest at any point without affecting their HOS.
• Drivers can complete their trip regardless of their HOS if they are within 150 miles of their destination.
• When drivers finish a delivery, they only need to take…