According to trucking industry leaders who have implemented ELD (electronic logging device) mandate over the recent few years, there is a need to train people at all levels of a trucking industry on the ELD mandate.

The federal ELD rule which is going into forth since Dec. 18, requires that all commercial drivers are mandated to prepare hours-of-service records of duty status and implement the devices.

A sales representative from R.E. Garrison Trucking, Lamar Quinn said it is important to educate not only truck drivers about ELDs, but it’s essential to educate everyone in the company, specifically in the sales team.

In addition to drivers and executives, ELD education must apply to payroll as well as human resources officers said vice president of vans and dedicated operations at Gypsum Express.

“The rules haven’t changed. It’s just a different manner of recording it,” Harris said at the McLeod Software User Conference Sept. 18. “How you approach the change with your people is one of the biggest things. You can’t do it halfway. It’s got to be everyone in the organization pulling in the same direction.”

ELDs mechanically track how many hours a trucker has worked. It makes it harder for carriers to bother drivers into violating HOS restrictions. As a result, the ELD mandate will stop carriers from requiring drivers to operate when their ability or attentiveness is hampered because of tiredness. Some industry representatives including small truck companies and owner-operators have struggled the ELD rule.

Harris told that Gypsum Express has been using ELDs for five years. According to him, the company had 500 truckers. Two of them leave the job without even giving a chance to ELDs. Also, the Best Logistic group lost its two truckers out of 300 who could not adjust transition to ELDs.

How you present the ELD mandate to your people is one of the important things. You cannot do it midway.

Harris said that the most concerning issue related with ELDs is working with planners in order to be sure that truck drivers spend their time usefully. For instance, he told that sometimes truckers come to the distribution center after a run and the planners would waste time thinking about what should be the drivers’ next delivery while sending the driver on his or her road immediately.

Harris said.  “Too often, my planners were reactors. It really forces you to plan. If they get up, start their clock, drive into our office and stand there for three hours while we figure out today’s game plan, we just wasted a third of their day. Really be cognizant of the clock running and not running.”

Another concern is harmonizing the demands of people who want a firm delivery time but do not make parking places for truckers, which Harris compared to throwing a dart to hit a target 500 miles away. A lack of truck parking countrywide was the fourth subject on the American Transportation Research Institute top 10 concerns before the trucking industry in 2016.

HOS laws direct how and when truck drivers can function. The main objective of HOS laws is to avoid tired truckers from endangering themselves as well as others on the way. The 14-hour driving schedule says that truckers are allowed a period of 14 uninterrupted hours in which they should drive up to 11 hours and should be off duty for 10 or more uninterrupted hours.

Harris said “Things have to fall so specifically in line to make that happen. I tell them we’ll be as close as we can, but if we can’t park there, we do have to take our break and we have hours-of-service laws to contend with. Those places become a real challenge. We’re not there yet. All of our in-house people who need to be educated, we’ve accomplished that. The outside world still doesn’t get it. That’s a constant battle, and I believe it will be for years.”