With less than six months to go until the final deadline for the installation of electronic logging devices (ELDs), one in five small carriers has yet to make the switch from automatic onboarding recording device (AOBRDs), according to a new weekly FreightWaves and EROAD survey.
Of the fleets waiting until the fourth quarter to switch over to ELDs, 29 percent are planning to do so in October, 37 percent are planning to wait until November and the final 26 percent will wait until the final buzzer in December.
The mandatory deadline for all carriers using AOBRDs to begin logging driver hours with ELDs is December 16th, 2019.
“We saw this in 2017 with the first ELD mandate. Many carriers waited to the last minute and found unexpected problems,” said Norm Ellis, president of EROAD North America, a leading supplier of ELDs and fleet technology. “If you want to stay compliant and make this easy for your drivers and people in the office, I urge you to start soon, research and select the best ELD for your specific needs and give your team time to get accustomed to the different rules and reports.”
Earlier this month, Canada published its own ELD final rule, which mandates third-party certified, ELD devices and will not include grandfathering for similar electronic recorders. All drivers currently required to maintain a logbook will be required to use a third party-certified ELD by June 2021.
AOBRDs were grandfathered in the U.S. when ELDs became mandatory in December 2017. During the changeover to ELDs, carriers had a transition period between the “soft” deadline in December in 2017 and the “hard” deadline in April 2018.
No such transition period is expected for AOBRDs.
Full article here.