Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/925196
Voices 2 | Overdrive | January 2018 The long-awaited and largely dreaded start of the electronic logging device mandate took effect Dec. 18. However, nationwide blanketed enforcement of the mandate is yet to come. Enforcement personnel in at least 14 states will not be issuing tickets/citations with associated fines for noncompliance with the ELD mandate until April 1. That's the date estab- lished by the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance when out-of-service orders for ELD violations will be- gin being issued. Those and other states will, however, document violations on inspection reports, though those violations will not contribute points to carrier safety scores before April 1. At press time, 11 other states said they have left the decision to issue tickets or citations for ELD-related violations up to the officer. Many among them, howev- er, said fines/tickets in the early going were unlikely. Those state-to-state variations were not the only things that made the first days of compliance and en- forcement far from uniform. Some drivers lacked an ELD, while others weren't using the system they had. Some enforcement systems weren't quite functioning at their intended level of operation. KeepTruckin, one of the larger suppliers of phone- or tablet-based systems popular with independent operators, said the first-day spike in users caused its service to remain inaccessi- ble, primarily for new users, for most of Dec. 18, but the problem was fixed that day. Legacy provider Omni- tracs reported brief issues with fleets accessing a central portal. Among four other providers contacted by Overdrive, no ELD disrup- tions were reported. Respondents to a Dec. 18 Overdrive query posted to Facebook reported mostly smooth sailing on the first day of enforcement. Some reported an uptick in enforcement personnel, others noted a perceived dip in truck traffic, and others continued railing about the mandate. "I'm not going to do e-log," wrote Duff Nelson. "I'm staying on paper." Others, meanwhile, chided their peers, relaying a common refrain. "Don't see what all the fuss is about — the driving regulations have not changed," said Jim McWilliam. "All you people that don't like ELDs is because you can't cheat on two or three log books now," said Mi- chael Shelton. "Adapt and overcome," said commenter Thomas Plummer II. "The way of the outlaws is gone." "Nothing different than the norm happening today," said Gwen Lutes. "Still running 11/14 as usual. Just logging by push of a button rather than getting the crayon out." Overdrive Senior Editor Todd Dills visited a Ken- tucky scale house on I-65 at the Tennessee border on Dec. 18. He noted that of the first three inspections conducted by Sgt. Jason Morris of the Kentucky State Police Commercial Vehicle Enforcement unit, none of the drivers were using an ELD. One report- ed he'd placed orders for an ELD but that the unit ELD enforcement gets slow, rocky start Owner-operators' ELD adoption status OverdriveOnline.com poll, Dec. 11-18 Ready for the enforcement date 39% Covered by 90-day ag extension, will wait/Other 7% Will take a chance on fines/violations and install before April out-of-service date 12% Not ready, unsure about plans 27% Exempt from the mandate 15% David Bell spent 12 years hauling for Maverick Transportation, using electronic logs for much of that time. His only beef with the devices is that they don't always let you get home when you otherwise might. With Maverick, he often dropped his trailer and used personal conveyance to get home when he was out of hours. Inspected on the morning of Dec. 18 by Kentucky State Police at their scale just across the state line in Simpson County near Franklin, Bell didn't have an ELD but wasn't con- cerned. Most of his loads now keep him within the 100-air-mile short-haul exception to the hours of service.