DOT rejects Livestock hrs of Service Waiver

[BA Deere]

https://www.drovers.com/news/beef-production/dot-denies-hours-service-exemption-livestock-puts-burde...

By MICHELLE ROOK November 30, 2022

Farm groups have been working with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration agency for months to allow additional time on the road for truckers transporting livestock, insects and aquatic animals and make them exempt from some Hours-of-Service rules. The livestock industry will retain the 150-mile air radius exemption on the front and back of a shipment, but the agency has denied the HOS request which puts producers at a real disadvantage. It also couldn’t come at a worse time with a trucker shortage and pending rail strike.

The agency rejected the exemption saying it wouldn’t meet an acceptable safety level for drivers. However, farm groups say it doesn’t take into consideration the well-being of the animals being transported and will put a burden on producers. Kent Bacus, Executive Director of Government Affairs, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, says, "We’ve been operating with this extended relief for the last few years and being able to have that flexibility to determine how we want to ship cattle and what the best time is not only given the weather conditions and road conditions but also you know taking all that into consideration the livelihood of the livestock we’re in charge of."

Rock Valley, Iowa, cattle producer Brad Kooima, agrees. "I am disappointed in the news. I think that there is a pretty strong group that’s going to try to get our waiver reinstated. Anybody that’s in this industry knows that this makes no sense for animal welfare."

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Truckers, lately seem to be wired, seems everyday I see an example of boneheadedness. The latest head scratcher was a icy road day I was in the right lane behind a cautious car, left lane wasn`t cleaned but then we get to a clear spot and a hotshot hauler passed me and was going to pass the car, I was also going to pass. A fuel hauler came up on my right blaring the horn and passed me on the right, I backed off for everyone`s good. Got a good passive aggressive chuckle that the hotshot hauler was getting too timid to pass the car and it was slowing down the kook in the fuel hauler 😀

It just seems there`s a rash of these impatient driver, unsafe stories on the road these days. Those driving cars seem to be too cautious and that makes me nervous especially on a 2 lane. If they are duzzeling around about 53, you don`t know what to expect from them, left turn? right turn? signal? no signal? slam on brakes? Then there`s the idiots who go 1/2mph below the speed limit and when you pull out to pass they think "huh, I was going a little slow ... so ya wanna race?" then that old granny who`s on her way to Ladies Aid is suddenly doing 70 in a 55 😀 The worst are those who find your blind spot and hang right with you anywhere from 50mph to 80mph and your exit is in 1000 feet and need that right lane.

[clayton58]

So maybe the truckers are in a hurry to reach their destination before hours of service run out? Another example of good intentions backfiring? Or maybe just putting any warm body you can find in the drivers seat? You tell me

[sw363535]

And all the while Brazilian beef comes in at 46 million lbs per month without trucking restrictions for those transportation miles???

Over reach of the federal bureaucrat !!

[BA Deere]

I was talking to a hog buyer and he said the DOT pulled over a truck hauling hogs on a hot, humid day and slapped a "out of service" on it. They had to scramble finding trucks to off-load in the heat wasting hours. The DOT wasn`t the least concerned. Common sense is out the window, I`m not exactly a tree hugger but animal welfare is first in my book. When live animals are involved, they need to come first! I would say whatever the issue that got the truck out of served, should`ve been MacGyered, git those hogs to Sioux Center for processing ASAP, worry about fines and such after the load is hauled.

From what I`ve heard the issue is getting feeder cattle from the southeast to the feedlots in the west, that trip can`t be made in 11 hours. To let them sit for hours in the lot of a Flying J isn`t looking out for animal welfare. If there`s a husband/wife team that can work, but with the driver shortage, common sense should prevail. It`ll have to effect salebarn bids in Georgia.

https://www.nationalbeefwire.com/channels/3-feeder-flash/#cattle

[bruce MN]

No comment on the issue but hard not to notice and point out that every commodity “producers” group seems to have a convenient Cobbleknocker at ready hand to describe the oppression, discrimination and hardship.

[Blacksandfarmer]

Livestock haulers are still exempt from electronic logs, and as long as paper logs can be used the hours of service don't really matter.... Paper logs are about as useful as toilet paper.

I hauled livestock for 3 years. I started out hauling market hogs, cull sows, and feeder pigs... A total of about 10,000 hogs and pigs a month. The hours were awful but it was local (mostly within 150 miles) work and I was home most nights.

Then, after 2 and a half years of hauling pigs I decided to try cattle hauling. I loved hauling cattle soo much that I considered moving to either South Dakota, Nebraska, or Kansas to be closer to work.... But my wife said NO, she didn't want to be that far from family...

What I can tell you about hauling cattle is that it wears you down really fast, especially the long hauls from the eastern part of the country to the feedyards out west. I hauled feeder calves from Kentucky to Kansas, and Iowa to Colorado. But most commonly I hauled dairy calves to Kansas and back... Most of the large dairies in Michigan, Indiana, and Wisconsin have figured out that one of the keys to growth is to send all of their heifer calves down to Kansas and Texas feedyards where they are fed to maturity and bred. At about a month prior to calving those heifers are hauled back to those dairies.

A typical dairy run from Michigan to Kansas would take me roughly 26 hours total from the time I left home to the time the calves were unloaded in Ulysses, Kansas. I usually stopped at an exit near Topeka for a 2 hour nap. When I brought the bred heifers back it was the same kind of hours, I made a point to stop for a nap during the hours of 6AM to 8AM so I wouldn't risk hitting a bus full of kids if I fell asleep... After 6 months of that kind of work I was beat and coffee and Monster weren't cutting it. I called it quits before I ruined my driving record.

I don't feel sorry for any producer or cattle buyer who's business model revolves around hauling animals 20+ hours. They only care about themselves.