The cattle industry continues its efforts to drum up support for the HELP Act.
The legislation aims to support livestock haulers by protecting drivers from what NCBA calls burdensome hours of service and electronic logging device mandates.
While NCBA says the act will support drivers, it also includes protections for the animals being transported.
According to Policy Division Chair Skye Krebs, “It’s an animal safety— health and safety issue. You get those animals on a truck, that truck needs to roll, and they need to get there. They can’t be stopping when they’re out of hours and having those livestock sit on those trucks, especially in your summer months and stuff. So, they need to get there. I mean the data shows that the livestock hauler safety record is the best of the industry— very, very few incidents. So, it’s an animal health and safety deal to get those animals where they need to be in the quickest amount of time.”
NCBA says that during the pandemic, haulers were granted additional flexibility on hours of service and electronic logging devices.
He says that proved livestock could be safely transported under those conditions.
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