How You Can Run A Competent Fleet Business While Also Adhering To The ELD Mandate

The FMCSA and the DOT enforced the ELD mandate to promote the safety of drivers by avoiding crashes and preventing fatalities. 

The rule requires ELD (electronic logging device) use by commercial drivers who must plan hours-of-service (HOS) as-well-as records of duty status (RODS). 

While it can be a headache to portray compliance with the rule, fleet management software solutions, and consultants can facilitate fleet owners to achieve a smooth transition.

The ELD mandate, combined with the emergence of sophisticated mobile fleet management software, is driving fleet owners towards modernization.

Fleet Management While Complying To The ELD Mandate

Using technology in place of the traditional paperwork has eased the pain points that a majority of fleet owners as-well-as employees experience daily. 

Below are some ways by which you can run a competent fleet business and enjoy ELD mandate compliance simultaneously –

• Improved Safety

With fatalities on the road increasing by the day, you need to have a system that guarantees the safety of your fleet as-well-as the driver. 

In-cab safety has improved by implementing ELD by accomplishing –

1. Reduced distracted driving – ELDs provide turn-by-turn directions for drivers to follow that is hands-free.
2. Automated alerts – Drivers receive alerts related to hard-braking, speeding or critical events during an accident.
3. Reporting on unsafe driving – Fleet managers can use this data to coach drivers into safer behavior or to record events that occurred during a mishap for insurance and liability purposes.
4. Provide roadside help to a driver experiencing a breakdown – ELDs increase the rate of assistance to drivers experiencing a malfunction.
5. Monitoring Performance – ELDs help drivers and management by monitoring speeding and thus, reducing fines associated with speeding tickets.

• Reduced Fuel Costs

When drivers receive hands-free directions to their destination using ELD software, fleet owners can cut fuel costs by excluding unnecessary turns or long routes.

As ELD cuts fuel costs, your business can witness an escalation in profits and a reduction in mishappenings that occur when drivers take a wrong turn.

It would also boost customer satisfaction because drivers would arrive on time. Many GPS and telematics providers integrate with ELDs as-well-as fleet management systems to ensure the safe storage of data.

Samsara is the leader in Industrial IoT. You should look at approaching them for a global positioning system, and you can use their telematics services for optimum results while tracking your fleet in transit.

• Enhanced Driver Productivity

Through the use of an ELD, drivers dispose of the need to fill out paper driving logs completely. 

As per the FMCSA, drivers spend about 20 hours per year on paperwork or about 15 minutes per workday. This time wastage reduces productivity by making the drivers focus on paperwork and not on core activities.

ELDs help truck drivers – 

1. Eliminate HOS paperwork time by 15 minutes a day.
2. Add 5-10 hours a week of drive time by rounding-off to the nearest minute for stops.
3. Reduce the average time spent on tedious check-calls and sending hours to dispatch

Eliminating paperwork includes more driving time every day to your driver’s log and also boosts overall productivity.

• Mitigated Troublesome Errors 

Human calculations are susceptible to errors, and paper driver logs are the ideal place to see their imperfection in action. 

Committing errors such as recording the time incorrectly or entering an incorrect location while filling paper-logs can lead to consequences such as rising CSA scores and fines. 

ELDs have automated HOS logs, DVIRs, and IFTA fuel tax reporting, which has eliminated paperwork, let alone the errors that came along.

ELDs have not only eliminated errors while recording driver hours but also added the precision of automation. 

ELDs have eliminated those pesky home office calls, inquiring about information the driver might no longer have or remember. 

• Build a Roadside Resume for a Commercial truck driver

There are more safe and compliant truck drivers on the road as compared to unsafe drivers. With an ELD, drivers can produce a documented history of responsible job behavior when they interview for a position with their standard carrier.

By tracking Hours of Service compliance, truck speed, as-well-as delivery within an ideal window, ELDs prepare the data that characterizes a driver’s commitment to safety.

For many commercial truck drivers, such a resume can lead to higher rates, incentive program payouts, and also the chance to outshine their fellow drivers in a friendly competition.

• Driver Safety Documentation During an Accident

Most systems that come equipped with electronic logging device functionality also record critical events such as car-truck accidents.

In the event of an accident, these black boxes precisely capture driver and vehicle behavior right before, during, and after an accident. 

Route documentation can help carriers reconstruct accidents and safeguard against lawsuits where crashes were the mistakes of other drivers.

Such a feature would reduce not only the carrier’s but the potential for personal liability by the truck driver as well.

• Effective Communication With The Home Office 

Before ELDs, check calls were a vital part of the driver’s and dispatcher’s day. 

Something as simple as relaying location data or the number of hours a driver had left would become a streak of phone calls that diverted the driver’s attention away from the road.

With ELDs, dispatchers can monitor the driver’s location on a map, providing customers with accurate location-tracking and ETA information with no driver interaction.

With accurate tracking, carriers can counter claims from shippers and receivers that their drivers delayed their deliveries when they were waiting at the location, and it was the warehouse crew who caused delays while loading the cargo.

• Added Convenience on the Road

From integrated navigation to paperwork elimination tools, ELD providers can make life convenient for truck drivers on the road.

Automated workflows eradicate many of the steps required to collect the data that drivers need to report each day. 

Arrival and departure alerts identify the location, time, and customer data to help eliminate check calls.

Using a smartphone or tablet as an ELD provides many entertainment choices, in and out of the cab.

The benefits and implementation of ELD might be a challenge for some, and thus, you can check out Samsara to fully understand the HOS within a fleet management company.

Final Words

Commercial truck drivers might act resistant to introducing ELDs. However, it brings better accountability to people working within Hours of Service compliance constraints.

ELD records a driver’s time while on duty or driving and causes everything to be more transparent.

ELDs have reduced paperwork and mitigated human errors, which have benefitted the fleet industry by monumental leaps.