ELD compliance due date

I hear you brian991219 but I think you might be wrong. I feel after this next Dec the older trucks will become more expensive because more O/O's will be buying them. Parts are still available for these old timer's and emissions always have grand father clauses.. Unless your in CA..lol I don't see me driving more than 10/15 more years, God willing and I think I will be alright till than. Your are right about one thing, in my opinion, eventually old trucks will be gone and the trucks of today will be the old trucks of tomorrow.

 

Maybe I am missing something but I don't get the problem with elds. Now before y'all tar and feather me I am a third generation driver with over 25 years on the road myself, owner operator then small fleet owner for most of the last 14 of those years. I used to run outlaw and fake my book then one day I decided it wasn't worth it anymore.

As for monitoring and surveillance, if we are doing our logs correctly then we are already self reporting our daily activities and whereabouts. The eld is not tied to any government computer, only the motor carrier can monitor you in real time, and most of them can already do that anyhow.

None of the hours of service rules have changed, only how we document compliance. Besides, if you are running up against your clock daily you need to rethink your business plan.

Last thought, and this could be a fair compromise, I would love to see a return to the rules in effect prior to 2004. 15 daily limit, 10 drive, 8 off and able to pause your clock with 2 hour breaks. Also return split sleeper and keep the 34 hour restart, or better yet do away with the 60/70 caps all together. Those hours combined with an eld would be flexible enough to be managable.

 

I would love to see more old trucks on the road, they had class! I was at the Outpost Cafe outside Hesperia, CA on Friday and the front row of the J next door looked like a fleet parking lot with all the Cascadias there looking bland and boring. I miss the older trucks with class and personality.

 

I learned on the old system. Started in 96. I maintain that all the rule changes that have been written and enacted are written for CONTROL. And as a cost saving for big business. The rules as they are written are clearly written for company drivers. That way they don't have to have people checking your paper logs that must be somewhat knowledgeable of the rules. Saves them money. Whatever the computer says. I am firmly against them for no other reason than they are inflexible and inherently more dangerous, IMO. Only I know when I am capable of working, of course I was only a company hand.for 2 months a long time ago. Been self employed ever since. As stated just my opinions. Good luck to everyone!

 

The way I interpret the current rule is I could wait until Dec 16 of this year, install big road or something similar on my phone, start using it that day and be in compliance until Dec 2019. That being the case I don't see a downside to waiting until the last minute, or, foresee there being an issue getting equipment. Please set me straight if I'm wrong, but i dont think I am.

 

You are partial correct, however the device installed prior to Dec. 18 must be a compliant AOBRD, and the cell phone apps are not. Just like an ELD, an AOBRD must have connectivity with the vehicle engine control module. Most cell phone apps do not have this connectivity. Those that do would satisfy the AOBRD extension, although there is also a catch to the AOBRD extension, when you change trucks you have to upgrade to a full ELD unless you can prove the new truck was a direct replacement for the prior truck and it was removed from service.

As for waiting until the last minute, think about what happens when a new phone or video game cones out, they sell out quickly, same thing is likely to happen when everyone waits until December to order their eld solution.

 

We've been running Big Road E-logs on tablets, we were told that we're good until 2019, but, come 2019, all the neat features like edit on the fly that we currently have will go away at that time.

 

So please site anywhere that it says it has to be any more compliant than any electronic form of logging I could be using now. And If that was the case what would be the point of extending a deadline to 2019 if everyone is already compliant?

 

Thanks for the info. I'm not an expert on all the other systems out there. Does the Big Road have a device that plugs into your trucks data port under the dash? I would assume it then connects to the tablet with bluetooth? Or is Big Road doing like some of the other tablet/smartphone based systems and shipping out hardware to update the system prior to the end of this year?

 

@brian991219 this is straight from the fmcsa website. So Please enlighten me. Wouldn't an app like big road be considered an AOBRD at this point?


Carriers and Drivers who are subject to the rule must install and use ELDs by the appropriate deadline:

• Carriers and drivers who are using paper logs or logging software must transition to ELDs no later than December 18, 2017.
• Carriers and drivers who use AOBRDS prior to the compliance date must transition to ELDs no later than December 16, 2019.