The most polarizing topic in Trucking today — electronic logging devices, or ELDs — are creating ripples in the trucking industry.

With the deadline less than 12 weeks away for most commercial truck drivers to be using ELDs in recording their hours of service, groups representing owner-operators, small trucking companies, agricultural and livestock trucking and others reiterated their calls today for a delay.

The delays they’re seeking would push the ELD mandate’s current Dec. 18, 2017 deadline out another one or two years, appealing either to Congress and President Trump or the U.S. Dept. of Transportation (DOT).

The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) led a 31-organization coalition in calling for passage of a bill U.S. Rep. Brian Babin (R-TX) introduced back in July — the ELD Extension Act of 2017 (HR 3282) — that would postpone the ELD implementation deadline till December 2019.

“The electronic logging device mandate is written so broadly that it has far-reaching implications well beyond the traditional trucking industry,” said Todd Spencer, executive vice president of OOIDA.

The coalition argued the mandate should be delayed until the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) addresses “numerous unresolved issues identified by impacted stakeholders.” Those include self-certification of ELDs, which the coalition finds unreliable; potential connectivity problems in some areas or cybersecurity vulnerabilities with ELDs; and the ability of law enforcement officers to access ELD data.

OOIDA also contends that requiring ELDs on commercial vehicles does not advance safety, arguing that the devices “are no more reliable than paper logbooks for recording compliance with hours-of-service regulations.”