During the last few weeks since we published our All About ELD Mandate blog post we received a lot of inquiries about the exact date when will ELD Mandate take effect.
And finally the date is set by Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration for the 16th December 2017.
This way they are ensuring that all drivers and companies have sufficient time to do all the necessary purchases and installation of the devices to stay compliant with the rule.
As said earlier this new rules will have a huge impact on the entire trucking industry, truck drivers and every american life.
In my opinion and calculation there will be slight retail price index increase by 1,2% due to this rule.
Simply shipping cost of goods will increase which is ultimately leading to higher retail prices.
But there is some important things all involved parties should have in mind:
Driver Requirements
- After starting to use ELD drivers are not required to keep paper logs anymore.
- Drivers are required to keep and maintain supporting documentation and send it to the company so that they can store it.
- Drivers must send these supporting documents to their company within 13 days of receiving them.
- Companies must keep documents along with records of duty status for six months.
- Owner operators need to store the documentation and keep it on file.
- Drivers driving vehicles built 2000 and before are not required to have installed Electronic Logging devices in their vehicles.
Truck Requirements
Trucks built 2000 and before are not required to have ELD installed.
Electronic Logging Device Requirements
- Devices must be installed and in use no late than 16th December 2017.
- FMCSA released the standards every device should satisfy so if you are a ELD hardware developer please consult the rules to have a complied hardware.
- ELDs are not required to track the driver and vehicle in real time.
- ELDs must be able to be able to automatically record date, time and location information; engine hours; vehicle miles; and ID information of the driver using the device.
- Devices must be able to send data during roadside inspections upon request via either a wireless Web-based services, email, USB 2.0 or Bluetooth.
- Devices need to have a capability to “present a graph grid of a driver’s daily duty status changes either” on the units themselves or they need to have an option to print it.
Mandatory Supporting Documents
Drivers must keep maximum of 8 supporting document on truck either print or electronic version for every 24-hour period that includes on-duty time.
Supporting documents include:
- bills of lading, itineraries, schedules or other documents that show trip origin and destination
- dispatch records, trip records or similar documents
- expense receipts
- electronic mobile communication records sent through fleet management systems
- payroll records, settlement sheets or similar documents that show what and how a driver was paid.
Important Harassment of Drivers Rules
FMCSA also released a set of rules when it comes to driver harassment ruling that companies are not allowed to interrupt in any way driver off duty hours and the ELDs will have an option that drivers can report that kind of violations directly to FMCSA.
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Reading the new changes mentioned above may seem like a dramatic change but the fact is that the market will provide with amazing hardware options and features that will make this implementation very easy and smooth.
Electronic Log Book companies already announced that they will provide easy to use and easy to install ELDs to make all the companies comply with the rule in easy way.
Unfortunately the cost of implementation will go on side of the trucking companies estimating the total costa for purchase and installation up to $1000 per truck.
