In response to reports that the implementation deadline for electronic logging devices (ELDs) could extend past December, the American Trucking Association recently sent a public letter to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) opposing any efforts to delay the Congressionally-mandated rule.
Bill Sullivan, ATA’s executive vice president of advocacy, said the association had heard from their members, loudly and clearly, that they were vehemently opposed to the attempts to delay the regulation.
He continued, stating that the industry stood ready implement ELDs and that it was incumbent on the regulators and Congress to dismiss a last-ditch attempt to evade the critically important safety law.
According to the FMCSA, the ELD rule is intended to assist in creating a safer work environment for drivers and make it easier to track, manage, and share records of duty status data. Each ELD device synchronizes with a vehicle’s ending to automatically record driving time for a more accurate representation of hours of service recordings.
“This technology has proven effective in improving safety and increasing compliance many times,” Sullivan wrote. “FMCSA’s 2014 report titled ‘Evaluating the Potential Safety Benefits of Electronic Hours-of-Service (HOS) Recorders,’ found that carriers using an ELD saw an 11.7 percent reduction in crash rate and a 50 percent drop in hours-of-service violations over carriers using traditional paper logs.”
Sullivan took umbrage with a number of arguments made in favor of delaying the rule including infringing on drivers’ rights to privacy, which Sullivan responded to by stating the regulation simply required drivers to record their hours of service electronically compared to traditional pen and paper.
Further, on claims that the rule would adversely affect Americans’ shipment during the holidays, Sullivan stated that the ELD rule did nothing but ensure compliance with hours of service rules and that it did not add any new limits on the number of hours could drive in a day or within a week.
“At the end of the day, I believe the implicit reason opponents of electronic logging oppose this regulation is because they intend to cheat on their hours-of-service,” Sullivan wrote. “It is the same reason an individual with an exotic sports car buys a radar detector: it is an implicit admission that they intend to break the speed limit. Arguments against the ELD mandate are arguments in favor of violating the hours-of-service rules.”