December 2019 - 24

MANAGEMENT
Tackling Transportation
EFFICIENCY
Going into 2020, how can growers address logistical challenges affecting their businesses?
BY LAUREN SNYDER
ransporting plants economically, effectively and efficiently - all
while maintaining their hard-earned quality - continues to be a
challenge for growers across the nation. As 2019 comes to a close,
we offer insights on the federal regulation and logistics issues facing
growers who transport crops.
FEDERAL REGULATION
Federal regulation and oversight of the trucking industry remains
ambiguous, tedious and bureaucratic. Full compliance has been in place
since 2018 for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's (FMCSA)
Electronic Logging Device (ELD) and Hours of Service (HOS) rules.
Compliance, however, is the least of our industry's concerns. Rather, the
rules' exemption for " agricultural commodities " still remains unclear despite
AmericanHort and others' best advocacy efforts to have this clarified.
Tal Coley, AmericanHort director of government affairs, says, " The
rigidness of these rules has been what people have been griping about,
rather than the rules themselves. Our focus has been in advocating
for flexibility in HOS rules and the specific inclusion of our horticulture
industry in the 'agricultural commodities' definition. "
T
The HOS agricultural commodities exemption allows for some flexibility
when applying ELD and HOS rules to the transportation of agricultural
goods. Traditionally, horticultural products have been considered
agricultural when they are grown and sold, but the language in FMCSA's
rules leaves it open to interpretation whether horticultural products are in
fact included.
Fortunately, there are multiple attempts currently being made to resolve
this issue of language and definition:
* H.R.1673 - Agricultural Trucking Relief Act of 2019, introduced March
2019 (and Senate companion bill S. 2025). Its purpose is to amend
the Motor Carrier Safety Improvement Act of 1999 with respect to the
definition of agricultural commodities and for other purposes.
* Amendment by FMCSA to the rules initiated by an advanced notice of
proposed rulemaking (ANPR), which allowed for public comment about
what should be included as an " agricultural commodity. " What follows
an ANPR is the release of the proposed rule, an open comment period,
and then finally the finalized update to the regulation.
Coley says of these multiple attempts for a resolution, " Legislation is a
backstop in case FMCSA rule changes don't come through. If we can get
as many people as we can educated on the issue and in support of it, then
we can either get the bill passed, or - if it doesn't - we'd have enough
advocates to speak up about any FMCSA rule changes and to advocate for
language that benefits our industry. "
In the meantime, many growers who have
their own trucks have gone ahead and
acted as if they are included in the
agricultural commodities exemption.
Deciding actual exemptions has
largely fallen on state enforcement
officers, who can choose to
issue citations if they decide
horticultural crops are not
included in the agricultural
commodities exemption. The
biggest challenge facing
growers right now then is
these difficult conversations
with enforcement officers.
The risk is that the longer
ambiguity reigns, the
greater the chances
of these difficult
conversations turning
into disagreements
that put growers on the
losing side.
24 DECEMBER 2019 GPNMAG.COM

http://www.GPNMAG.COM

December 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of December 2019