How ELDs Could Help Fix Problems with Truck Driver Hours of Service Rules
The end of paper logbooks may be just what the industry needs to make its case about unrealistic hours of service regulations. Photo: Jim Park.
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The end of paper logbooks may be just what the industry needs to make its case about unrealistic hours of service regulations. Photo: Jim Park.
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In my March editorial, I wrote about how the electronic logging device mandate could actually be the path to revising some of the problematic aspects of federal truck driver hours of service regulations.
David Heller, vice president of government affairs for the Truckload Carriers Association, contends that by digging in their heels and resisting the ELD mandate, fleets are only hurting their cause for revising the HOS regs to something that better reflects the day-to-day realities of trucking.
“They need to start embracing technology,” he told me. “If we want to fix hours of service — which believe me, we’re trying to do — arguing against ELDs is not the way to do it.
“As an industry, I can’t emphasize this enough, we can’t advocate non-compliance. 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.”
After a reader wrote to ask me what he could do to help, I asked Heller for some more details.
He pointed out that the problems with the 34-hour restart, which the industry fought and managed to get rescinded because a study could not prove they improved safety, were just the tip of the iceberg.
“The issues that coincide with the current rule are long and problematic to say the least,” Heller said. “The 30-minute break has proven that this provision is not …Read the rest of this story
