X Reasons that make ELD mandate the major concern in Trucking Industry
What are the ELDs?
An ELD is an electronic program that allows professional truck drivers and commercial motor carriers to easily track Hours of Service (HOS) compliance. In 2015 December FMCSA (Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration) released a mandate according to which since 2017 December truck drivers will be required to use DOT approved ELDs (electronic logging devices) instead of paper logs. The ELD rule must apply to practically everyone, besides those whose commercial vehicles were manufactured before 2000 (https://www.dotoperatingauthority.com/safety-regulations/#ledRule).
According to government regulators, the rule is intended to make truck driver’s work environment safer as well as it will make faster and easier for truckers to truthfully track, accomplish, as well as share driving data records.
However, there are strictly opposing views in trucking industry regarding the issue whether ELDs should be obligatory or not. There are many owner operators as well as carriers who think that ELDs are not able to benefit the trucking industry. There are even many truck drivers who promised to quit if it will become mandatory to install ELDs in their trucks.
Within the framework of the current article, the main reasons why ELDs are unwelcomed by the majority of truckers will be discussed.
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Cost of ELDs
One of the main reasons that make truckers opposite of ELDs is the higher price of ELDs compared to paper logs both for small trucking companies as well as for independent drivers. According to American Trucking Associations, the mandate will negatively impact more than 3mln truckers in the US. In addition, the initial expenditure to purchase and install ELDs in a truck can be an excessive expense for individual truckers or for small trucking companies as well. FMCSA estimated that the price for ELDs can be $$165-832 per truck. This is not expensive for large carriers, while small and medium carriers cannot afford that.
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Need of Training
Since ELDs will become obligatory truck drivers would be provided with awareness raising special training in order to get acquainted how to use this new technology or what to do in case of they lose connection or they are unable to get GPS location and any other issues that may happen on the way. These training would be time-consuming as well as costly for truckers.
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The feeling of losing privacy
The majority of truck drivers justify their opposite attitude towards the ELDs by saying that they feel over-controlled when there is an ELD installed inside of their vehicle. This is because ELDs use GPS tracking. …. It will cause some truckers to quit long-way trucking or switch to the roads that do not require to use ELD.
