The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has required full industry compliance with the ELD mandate since December 2019, so it’s reasonable to ask, is the device making the trucking industry safer?
While there is as yet no government-approved study providing definitive answers, Ronnie Brown III, who drives for Waterloo, Iowa-based Gray Transportation, says no.
“ELD and hours of service as they are set make drivers such as myself drive tired at times without the ability to stop for a nap without interfering with the hours of service for that day,” Brown said in his FMCSA petition for a five-year exemption from the rule.
The majority of the over 1,200 public comments on Brown’s petition — which come from independent owner-operators — agree with him. Many complain that the electronic device’s lack of flexibility in logging hours of service, versus the paper logs that the devices replaced, forces them to drive while tired and rest when they feel alert.
“The extreme overregulating control of this ruling creates vastly more unsafe conditions than it eliminates,” said Prabhasa Ishaya, an independent trucker from Shenandoah, Virginia, in his comments on Brown’s petition. “While intending to ensure absolute compliance with HOS regulations, this mandate ignores long-standing features of such regulatory provisional allowances that have become, in practice, impossible to use.”
Ishaya also asserts that the cumulative effect of not being able to round off drive times logged into an ELD “potentially cuts an additional half hour or so of legal drive time out of the day. The elimination of this aspect alone greatly increases the need to ‘race the clock’ when drive times are tight to begin with.”
Others commenting in support of Brown have cited statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration showing that crashes involving large trucks have increased since the mandate was issued.
But the Truck Safety Coalition argues that FMCSA mandated the use of ELDs “in part because [they] bring about improvements in safety by making it difficult for drivers and carriers to falsify drivers’ duty status, which in turn deters violations of the [hours-of-service] rules,” the group noted in its comments on Brown’s petition.
The coalition further contended that the devices are “a crucial component” of efforts to ensure trucks are safely operating since they are used in on-site and off-site motor carrier inspections. It also cited recent FMCSA reports revealing that the two most common critical violations in carrier audits are not using the appropriate method to record hours of service and false reports of duty status records.
The industry will soon accumulate even more data on how well ELDs are working. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act signed into law last year required the U.S. Department of Transportation to report on the cost and effectiveness of the devices, along with efforts made to protect personal information obtained from them.
In addition, FMCSA last week began soliciting the public on ways to improve the current regulations governing the use of ELDs and address concerns about technical specifications that have been raised by the industry.
The 400-plus comments received in just the first week, however, might be summarized by one anonymous submission: “For the love of God, please leave us alone.”
Kevin Shea
Part 1, I think some of these drivers who say they are having a hard time dealing with a 14 hour schedule may be taking energy stimulants near the end of their time and have extra energy when their clock ends.
Part 2, other drivers I’ve met say that their schedule is out of order, because their carrier hired people who set their appointments, but don’t understand the 14 hour rules.
Mark Putnam
it’s time for government to get out of trucking I’ve seen more change reaction wrecks since elds why drivers now are forced to drive tired because machine regulates sleep patterns and there’s a clock ticking and the dispatch pushes to use every second on that clock it’s time for the driver to have control of his truck his life no more pushing from freight groups if can’t haul a load safely the load should not be taken period the truck driver knows his limits
Bert Grau
I drove for 44 years, I don’t care what the DOT say, when they made everyone go to ELD, there were more truck crashes. Because of people have to wait for 5 or 6 hours to get loaded, then expected to deliver the load 400 miles. And get there before you ran out of hours. When they changed the law so that after 2 hours it stopped your clock that was a big help. I think the ELD is still creating more problems than they were supposed to help. I’m retired now and have no intention of keeping my CDL. I would hope the DOT would do a study to find if the ELD helped or hurt, they won’t Because they know the outcome will prove they hurt safety not help
Jeff
elds have improved the industry as we cannot falsify logs but it has made the roads more dangerous as many more drivers are speeding in order to get as many miles as possible in a shift… also it has increased the accidents involving trucks due to speeds and driving fatigue
Tracy Gilcrest
hell no!! Them ELD,s are for the rich to get richer. hire some Damm Hwy patrol folk to stop some of these trucks. then hiring a 3rd party to do you all works. or you can get a eld have it on something live to were a trooper can scan that truck why riding behind beside or in front of them. that will determine if the driver has been driving to long or you just wanna scare truck to see if paperwork is OK. or #3 leave the Damm trucks alone. and when they get pulled over in the trooper check stuff. every thing he check and if it’s not right fine them. or put they butt in jail. for sleeping using drugs just doing dum stuff why driving a commercial equipment. who would agree
Martin Torres
after being in the industry for over 30 years for company driver to owning my own company you were able to bring home a good pay check now your racing the clock you have no control over maybe these politicians making these rules should go out with a real driver because even the training these so call schools are offering is all about how many students we can push through is has become very unsafe for the true safe drivers
Larry
how about changing the Law to where Truck drivers get paid by the hour instead of by the mile. do you think he would continue to drive if he’s no longer being paid. as soon as his hours runs out. he will stop the truck. I quit over the road trucking and now I drive local and it’s way better. hourly pay and overtime pay after 8 hours and then go home and sleep in your own bed.
Tracy Gilcrest
big facts!! am like that aswell.
Kevin Shea
I agree that ” hourly based performance pay” would change things, it would put more responsibility on the shippers and receivers to stick to less time wasted at the dock, but could also leave drivers with decisions like , ” the only loading time available is 2 am, or you might have to wait 36 hours”
Shawn
no there not making it safer guys are falling a sleep beside the wheel alot more then ever beforego back to paper and stop and check more offen check the driver to see if he is tired or shaking for lack of sleep I think it would be much safer for all