The ELD Mandate: An Update

The ELD Mandate has now been in effect for over a month and compliance is steadily rising. As many fleets have installed and implemented their ELDs, however, new issues and complications have arisen. Driver use, non-compliant devices, and overall enforcement questions have left many fleet managers uncertain about their compliance state.

In the weeks since the ELD Mandate went into effect, two segments of fleet types have developed. For long-haul carriers, according to a CarrierLists survey, compliance has reached nearly 95%. For companies with shorter hauls, however, compliance has stalled at about 75%. While each fleet has its own reasons for non-compliance, some have suggested that these regional companies are hoping for leniency from local inspectors. For long-haul carriers, however, nation-wide routes require inspections from hundreds of inspectors across the country, lessening the chance of friendly leniency.

For these fleets and many other companies, this hope for leniency also relies on a confusion of deadlines. The ELD Mandate went in effect on December 18, 2017, but a second deadline of April 1, 2018 has caused confusion among some fleets. While law enforcement won’t start shutting fleets down due to ELD non-compliance until April 1st, you can still receive citations and fines for non-compliance. December 18th was the official ELD Mandate deadline, so you should either already be compliant, be actively working toward compliance, or preparing for the consequences.

Another common ELD issue has been driver training. As we covered in an earlier blog, simply installing ELDs in your fleet vehicles is not enough. Your drivers and staff must be able to provide necessary logs for inspections, which requires accurate knowledge of your devices. While unfortunate, you can receive a fine for a driver’s failure to provide their Hours of Service (HoS) documentation, so make driver training a priority and be sure to revisit this training until you’re confident in your fleets readiness.

The fleet industry is currently in the development stages of this big movement, so dealing with growing pains is to be expected. As each fleet and organization works through the negative, messy transition, we should see a shift to the positive and beneficial side of the ELD Mandate.