ELDs, Hours of Service, Detention – And Data
A common complaint about mandatory electronic logging devices is that they will no longer allow drivers to (illegally) “fudge” their logs to compensate for overly long detention times at shippers and receivers. Yet the data that ELDs can provide could help carriers and the industry at large address the detention issue, both on a shipper-specific basis and on a regulatory level.
As I pointed out in an HDT editorial earlier this year, the underlying reason many drivers and fleets don’t want ELDs really wasn’t so much the notion of using an electronic device to track driver hours — it was the hours of service regulations themselves.
But by digging in their heels and resisting the ELD mandate, driver and fleets are only hurting their cause for revising the HOS regs to something that better reflects the day-to-day realities of trucking.
“Nobody can advocate for a change in the rules by saying we’re not going to follow the rules. The best way is to embrace the benefits of the technology and argue the [HOS] changes at a later time. We can emphasize problems with truck parking, with detention time, and ELDs will go a long way toward doing that, because we will have sound data and sound science behind us.”
ELD provider KeepTruckin has been doing just that, using the data it has gathered to create a petition to the FMCSA to allow drivers to extend their 14 hours to 16 hours when they are detained for extended periods of time.
Some of the findings in the data:
75% of drivers are detained at a pickup or drop off location for 2+ hours every week.35% of drivers are detained at a pickup or drop off location for more than 6 hours every week.On average, a driver faces seven Extended Detention Events every month.Drivers …Read the rest of this story
