Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/1009508
28 | Overdrive | August 2018 SOME PAIN AMIDST THE GAINS after no shortage of difficulty with his ELD, bought from the former One20 company, the least expensive ELD on the market at the time. One20's F-ELD made news this summer following losing the support of its principal investor, the Trimble Companies (PeopleNet's owner). Afterward, One20 ceased production and support for the F-ELD. Hose was put out of service in Missouri after his F-ELD experienced connection problems en route and made inexplicable and automatic changes to his duty status. It happened while he was off-duty one night in June, asleep and staged to load in the morning. He realized the issue when he woke, but continued to his destination, unload- ing and then deciding to head to his sec- ond home in northern Arkansas. Along the way, he was stopped by a Missouri officer in Springfield. The inspecting officer "looks at my ELD, and he said, 'This thing's not even connected,' " Hose recalls. The log showed a further malfunction event that Hose had yet to notice, incurred en route that morning. "I couldn't give a good explanation for it, and it made me look really bad." The officer "just assumed it was me rolling down the road without using the ELD." The out-of-service order with this false The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Adminis- tration in late June broadened the options for carriers dealing with repairing or replacing an electronic logging device. The agency created an email address that can be used by carriers needing to re- quest an extension of the eight-day period allowed in the regulations for handling a malfunctioning ELD. In such an event, the affected driver can use paper logs for up to eight days, after which the carrier would need to request an extension for more time. To date, carriers have been instructed to send such requests through the FMCSA division office that covers the carrier's home base. (49 Code of Federal Regu- lations 395.34 outlines copious driver and carrier responsibilities during an ELD malfunction.) Now, when request- ing an extension, carriers can use the ELD-Extension@dot.gov address. FMCSA spokesman Duane DeBruyne says that email requests received still will be routed to the appropriate state division offices, and the state-based division administrator will determine whether to grant the extension. DeBruyne also notes that, while the established route toward contacting the state division offices directly is still an option, the centralized email also should help FMCSA headquarters keep tabs on malfunctions. To date, only the One20 com- pany's F-ELD has been de-listed from the FMCSA registry of provider self-certified ELDs. The One20 device was revoked by its company itself. DeBruyne adds to expect prompt relay of incoming messages to division offices. .83% Percentage of Driver Inspections with at least one HOS Violation (weekly and daily limits) 1.31% 1.35% 1.36% 1.36% 1.23% 1.22% 1.16% 1.19% .84% .85% .69% .64% 350,000 300,000 250,000 200,000 150,000 100,000 0 May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Jan Feb Mar Apr May Dec TOTAL DRIVER INSPECTIONS HOURS OF SERVICE COMPLIANCE IMPROVES WITH ELD ROLLOUT 2017 2018 This FMCSA chart trumpets what the agency saw as the success of the ELD mandate in reducing the inci- dence of basic hours of service violations, excluding violations related to operations of ELDs and their predecessors, AOBRDs. Annual hours violations and ranked state leaders 2014 534,926 2018 304,071* 2016 468,322 2017 429,956 2015 485,232 1. Arkansas – 29% 2. North Dakota – 24.4% 3. Wyoming – 24.3% 4. Oregon – 23.1% 5. Kansas – 22.6% 6. Indiana – 18.7% 7. Iowa – 18.2% 8. South Dakota – 17.8% STATE LEADERS BELOW 20% TOTAL NATIONAL VIOLATIONS 1. Arkansas – 35.6% 2. Wyoming – 23% 3. North Dakota – 22.8% 4. Oregon – 22.1% 5. Colorado – 21.9% 6. Indiana – 21.1% 7. Kansas – 20.7% 8. Iowa – 17.8% 9. South Dakota – 17.5% 10. Nevada – 15.8% 1. Arkansas – 26.9% 2. North Dakota – 25.2% 3. Indiana – 24.6% 4. Colorado – 23.5% 5. Oregon – 23.1% 6. Wyoming – 22.6% 7. Iowa – 20.3% 8. Kansas – 18.7% 9. Alabama – 17.2% 10. South Dakota – 16.7% 1. Arkansas – 33.1% 2. Colorado – 30.4% 3. Wyoming – 28.1% 4. Oregon – 26.4% 5. Iowa – 24.6% 6. North Dakota – 23.7% 7. Nevada – 23.2% 8. Utah – 22% 9. South Dakota – 21.2% 10. Louisiana – 20.4% 11. Vermont – 20.3% 12. Montana – 20.2% 13. Alabama – 19.9% 14. Washington – 19.5% 15. Maine – 19% 1. Arkansas – 35.2% 2. Wyoming – 25.1% 3. Indiana – 24% 4. North Dakota – 23.5% 5. Oregon – 22% 6. Colorado – 20.9% 7. Iowa – 20.5% 8. Kansas – 18.1% 9. Alabama – 15.4% 10. Arizona – 15.1% Though hours violation totals nationally have been falling for years, this chart shows the extent to which more individual state truck enforcement departments are putting their attention in a big way on hours and associated ELD mandate violations. Percentages show hours violations as a share of the state's total number of violations written. (Not shown in the chart is year 2013, when just four states had hours-violation percentages above 20 percent.) Based on the first four months of 2018, 12 state enforcement departments are showing hours violation percentages above the 20 percent line. In part, that's a result of the plethora of ELD-mandate-related violations encoded but not counted toward carrier CSA scores prior to April 1, but also an indicator that ELD systems have given inspectors new things to find wrong with carrier operations. Having a functional ELD on board, if you're required to use one under the rules, has never been more important in this respect. That's particularly true in states high in the hours violation rankings, an indication of inspectors' close focus on hours and, now, ELDs. *The 2018 total is a projection based on the first four months. It includes ELD- and AOBRD-related violations, as do previous years' totals, where applicable. All contribute to scores in CSA's Hours of Service Compliance category. MORE LEEWAY IN REPORTING DEFECTIVE ELD