Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/911782
32 | Overdrive | December 2017 THE MANDATE DESCENDS most state and federal law enforcement representatives are aware of the special cases that arise on the road, and some of them say that a standard of reasonable- ness is being encouraged in situations that unavoidably force truckers into violation. And as many have remarked, the practices used with automatic onboard recording devices (AOBRDs, ELDs' regu- latory predecessors) will carry well into Phase 3 of the ELD rule's implementa- tion. What that means is likely heavy reliance by officers on reviewing hours of service information on the display of the devices themselves, or in some cases obtaining a printout from the device. Truckers using somewhat less-regulat- ed AOBRDs today can continue using them in current form through the end of 2019, and newer ELDs make the graph-grid display of hours informa- tion a requirement. The grid is a form Some in the industry have worried ELD data would be used at roadside or, more likely, by compliance-review auditors to uncover violations other than just hours of service infractions. Their thinking was that GPS position data recorded by an ELD would make speeding infractions easy pickings after the fact based on average speed over a stated route. Congress' codifi cation of the ELD mandate in the 2012 MAP-21 highway bill expressly forbid this practice. The bill says the federal government was required to "institute appropriate measures to ensure any information collected by electronic logging devices is used by enforcement personnel only for the purpose of deter- mining compliance with hours of service requirements." This notion of enforcement drift with ELD data was brought up by a Seventh Circuit appeals-court judge who was part of the panel that heard oral arguments during September 2016 in the Owner- Operator Independent Drivers Associa- tion's lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Transportation over the ELD mandate. Joshua Waldman, DOT attorney, said the department had issued an offi cial policy on Dec. 4, 2015, that expressly limits ELD data use to hours. "State partners who enforce the federal regulations are subject to the policy guid- ance" too, Waldman said. Months ago Overdrive made a Freedom of Information Act request for a copy of the memorandum, but it has not received a copy. During the 2016 oral arguments in OOIDA's case, Waldman noted it was not a matter of public record. USING ELD DATA FOR PURPOSES BEYOND HOURS The uncertainty around detention timing in live-load/-unload situations is perhaps the biggest potential problem for drivers and carriers using ELDs. It's also one in which ELDs may be the best tool for combatting the issue, to the benefi t of drivers and fl eets. Some observers believe that for ship- pers and receivers to avoid sabotaging drivers' schedules, those customers will need to be involved in ELD implementation – in a sense, trained by carriers and drivers for the new reality. "The customer has to change their expectation," says Heartland Express driver Bob Stanton, who advises drivers and carriers alike to get as hard-nosed as possible with them. Whenever delays put him behind schedule, where a reasonable expectation of load or unload times would cause him to exceed his on-duty maximum, "I document that I don't have legal hours and stop fi ve minutes from my customer, and we move [the pick or drop] to the morning" or pursue another fi x such as a relay, he says. Owner-operator Charles Alexander, leased to Landstar, also acknowledges the issue in his operation. He's been taking a high-touch approach with customers since his move to e-logs in 2016. "I like to call and let them know I'm coming," he says. "I let them know what my hours are. I think they appreciate the fact that I let them know." Similarly, he keeps communication lines open with the Landstar agent on the load to clue them into the extent of wait times, if any. If there's an issue with hours, he uses annotations within the e-log to create a re- cord of what happened. That feature — and the reality that such annotations then are readily available to company management — is something he appreciates about the electronic hours-recording environment. No more "pinning everything on the driver," Alexander says. "I can show [the issues] on the ELD," which wasn't neces- sarily the common practice on paper, given log book-catch-up dynamics. "It can create a dispute" down the line about just what happened in the event of a service failure "if I can't show it." "Dealing with a live load or unload near the end of the 14-hour on-duty period" on paper logs often involved hiding time spent fi nding a safe place to park after the load was off and the driver was out of hours, Stanton says. With e-logs today, "the days of going in blind, not knowing what you're getting into at a live-load customer, are over for me." Stanton uses the Dock411 app/service for intel on unfamiliar shipper and receiver locations as a backup to other resources. ELDS PUT SPOTLIGHT ON REDUCING DETENTION Courtesy of Rico Muhammad Independent owner-operator Rico Muhammad, host of his own Rates & Lanes podcast, joined Overdrive's Todd Dills in November for an Overdrive Radio dis- cussion of lessons learned over the two-plus years he's been running e-logs in his reefer operation. Visit OverdriveOnline.com/OverdriveRadio, or sub- scribe to the podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Music or another service to hear it.