ELD Compliance: More Thoughts From Key Executives
More comments from key executives on the state of ELD compliance, one month after the mandate went into effect. (See main story, ELD Compliance Rises, but Training, Enforcement Still Problematic)
Joel Beal
Beal
From Joel Beal, president of LoadTrek, on ELD compliance:
“ELD interoperability is the next hurdle for our customers. Many employ part-time drivers or temporary drivers to handle surges. These drivers work for more than one carrier, and there is no standard to electronically transfer hours-of-service information from company to company, if that company uses a device other than LoadTrek.”
Tom Reader
The rapid adoption of ELD devices has strained the resources of vendors and enforcement personnel. Tom Reader, director of marketing for ELDs and Services at J.J. Keller & Associates, comments on that and gives his assessment of market acceptance.
Q. Have you seen technical issues with some devices, including your own?
“We’re aware of issues with essentially all devices on the market. For us, it’s been really a combination of new customers that are learning new technology and the ramp-up time is longer than they allowed for, and a heavy increase in our user population that’s put a short-term strain on our resources. We’re deploying updates to our app at a regular pace, with improvements and added features.”
Q. Have your customers experienced any problems with the way roadside enforcement is being handled?
“We’re aware of a few situations where drivers and enforcement needed guidance on whether the device was AOBRD-compliant or ELD-complaint. Some confusion, but certainly not chaos. We even talked to enforcement directly during an inspection, to walk through our situation. Generally it seems that there’s patience with enforcement.”
Q. What’s your general assessment of how things are going in terms of compliance and utilization of ELDs?
“It seems the market acceptance is strong. Fleets have adopted devices and [are] adapting their operations as necessary. We’re not hearing of significant changes to scheduling and routes. It’s a big change, but now a new normal and ELDs put all fleets operating under the same criteria.”
