NCBA Looks for More Efficient Cattle Hauling Rules

The National Cattleman's Beef Association is pushing on several fronts to make livestock hauling easier for the industry. Director of Government Affairs Zoe Wallace talks about efforts to address the hours of service limitations tied to electronic logging devices.

“Currently, a livestock hauler can work for 14 hours, they can drive for 11 of those 14, and then they need to take a 12 hour rest period. This creates a lot of issues for the haulers involved, it adds stress to the cattle, increasing risk of disease and illness, but also it puts a safety risk on the driver, if they're having to constantly load and unload those cattle.”

Truck weight limits have not been updated since the 1980s And Wallace says that NCBA is actively working on policy to increase those limits for livestock haulers, so that it makes hauling animals more efficient.

“We could haul more cattle with less trucks. This benefits everyone. It addresses a shortage of truck drivers. You're going to have less trucks on the road, but it's one of those things we're trying to get states to onboard for this pilot program. Essentially, what we're pushing for is an optional opt-in pilot program, where we would increase truck weights from 80,000 to 91,000 pounds if they add a sixth axle,”

Which she says has proven to be safe by the Department of Transportation.