Why is the Government Requiring Truckers to Use Electronic Logging Devices?
1 Mar 2017
The year 2017 is set to bring about big changes for many fleet businesses that involve trucking. This change is the new Electronic Logging Device (ELD) rule requiring trucks currently using paper logs or other logging software to transition to officially sanctioned electronic logging devices software and services by December 18, 2017.
If you’re like many in the industry, you may be wondering why this is happening – and why it is happening now. There are quite a few benefits to businesses within the industry for making the transition, these are just a few of the reasons the government believes electronic logging devices are the right solution.
Ensures Compliance with Current Safety Regulations
There are many safety regulations related to trucking that have been put into place to protect drivers, company assets, and other people on our busy roadways each year. Unfortunately, paper logs, and much of the logging software in the past, was easily tampered with to create false reports of the numbers of hours and miles driven in a day.
The ELD software solution prevents false reports and data tampering, helping to keep all parties on the same page and using the same information.
The U.S. Department of Transportations believes that this rule will ultimately save 26 lives while also preventing approximately 562 injuries related to crashes involving these large trucks annually.
Reduces Paperwork Burden on Trucking Businesses
Paperwork is expensive for small, medium-size, and large trucking businesses. Not only do paper logs have to be kept accurately and recorded, but they must also be stored for long periods of time. This also takes money for storage space for this critical information, plus money for the people to manage the documents in case they are ever needed. ELDs record and store the data digitally, requiring no giant record vaults and complex filing systems to access them.
While there is a cost-burden benefit to businesses for complying with the new regulation, investing in GPS tracking technology for ELDs can provide significant cost benefits that greatly help to offset those expenses. GPS tracking devices can help business save money in a variety of ways, streamline the paperwork process, identify problem areas for efficiency, and conserve fuel, to name just a few.
The bottom line is that the government believes these changes can save lives, reduce the number of accidents for large trucks on the roads today, and practically eliminate harassment of drivers, from some organizations, to ignore the laws that were put into place to protect their safety.
To learn more about our ELD software solution and how it can help you to be ELD compliant, give us a call here at LiveView GPS at 1-888-544-0494 or email us at info@liveviewgps.com.
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