Revisiting the Digital Logging Machine Mandate [Commentary] – Fleet Administration

A part of my job is keeping track of how the digital content material on our web site is performing. Taking a look at what matters are garnering essentially the most visits may also help us see developments and higher plan upcoming articles, movies, webinars, and so forth.

One piece that continues to pop up within the high 20 or so is a 2017 article, “70 Solutions to Prime ELD Questions.” This was from a particular print complement we ran in HDT journal, “The ELD Rule: Time to Comply.”

Actually, I’m a bit stunned that greater than 5 years later, this piece would nonetheless be so standard. A few of it’s not related, and we’re planning an replace. However a lot of it’s nonetheless very relevant, from fundamentals equivalent to what’s an digital logging system to understanding exemptions and what to anticipate from enforcement.

That bought me to excited about what we’ve discovered since that was first revealed — and about questions that stay.

First, how effectively have the foundations labored? Have they saved drivers from dishonest on hours of service guidelines?

In accordance with FMCSA, a “false report of driver‘s document of responsibility standing” continues to be one of many high 5 most-cited roadside violations. That appears like a giant “no” to the query of how effectively ELDs have labored, however Brandon Wiseman, proprietor and president of Trucksafe Consulting, sheds some extra gentle on the query.

In his expertise working with fleets on security and compliance points, Wiseman says, the vast majority of these violations aren’t what he would name intentionally falsified logs, however moderately have been attributable to a driver’s misunderstanding of the hours-of-service guidelines — particularly misuse of private conveyance standing. (Which additionally most likely explains why a 2018 article on “6 Issues You Ought to Know About Private Conveyance is one other that also commonly seems in our high tales stats.)

I’m not the one one who’s been musing on the subject of the ELD mandate lately. FMCSA final fall had some questions of its personal. The company requested for feedback on some adjustments it was contemplating making to the ELD guidelines. That rulemaking docket garnered greater than 1,300 feedback.

One of the important issues it requested about is the certification course of, together with whether or not the U.S. ought to go to a third-party certification like Canada did for its ELD mandate. It additionally had a number of questions in regards to the course of for revoking non-compliant ELDs from its checklist of registered self-certified ELDs. (The company has revoked the self-certification of 4 ELDs up to now this yr.)

However most likely the most important query in regards to the ELD mandate is: Has it made the trade any safer?

When it finalized the rule in 2015, the Federal Motor Provider Security Administration estimated that the ELD mandate would save a mean of 26 lives and forestall 562 accidents annually.

As a substitute, truck-involved crashes leading to accidents and fatalities have steadily gone up. Deadly crashes involving a big truck, per 100 million miles traveled by truck, elevated by 5.4% from 2016 to 2020, in line with the federal information (though one should remember the fact that authorities statistics outline “massive truck” as over 10,000 kilos, so it’s not simply heavy-duty.).

In fact, in contrast to a managed science experiment the place you modify a single variable with a purpose to take a look at your speculation, there are various different elements at play in truck crash numbers aside from ELDs.

And right here’s the factor about plenty of security rules: Compliance with security rules doesn’t mechanically equate to higher security.

Simply ask Garth Pitzel, affiliate VP of security and driver growth at Bison Transport. Bison earned the Truckload Carriers Affiliation’s high security award for giant carriers for the thirteenth yr in a row.

He advised me in an interview that earlier than the corporate began turning round its security program about 23 years in the past, “all we nervous about was compliance. We thought if you happen to did the compliance, you would be protected. Properly, we had proof to say that that did not work.”

What has labored for Bison? A program centered on empowering drivers and constructing a tradition of security.

What are your present questions on ELDs? Let me know and we’ll attempt to handle them in our replace.