FMCSA to Revise ELD Mandate
Of all the various regulations the FMCSA requires, the ELD mandate is one of the most confusing. Truckers are required to use an approved Electronic Logging Device, but seldom does the FMCSA update the list to show which are allowed and which are not. Now the FMCSA wants to revise its mandate, and it wants your opinion as a truck driver or fleet owner.
Details
On September 16th the FMCSA published in the Federal Register its intentions. It lays out six intended changes to the mandate and asks industry stakeholders to comment by November 15th.
These changes regard:
- How ELDs apply to rebuilt or remanufactured engines or glider kits.
- Addressing ELD malfunctions in regards to when the driver switches to paper logs.
- Whether or not an ELD manufacturer should be required to report their continued existence each year.
- Whether or not a driver should have the ability to turn on exempt mode themselves (for, say, a State of Emergency).
- What the ELD certification process should look like going forward.
- What the FMCSA should do to help keep ELD specifications current with constant advances of technology within the trucking industry.
So far over hundreds of comments have been added to the Federal Register from industry stakeholders providing their opinions on the various moves the FMCSA may perform.
The news to update the ELD mandate comes hot off the heels of the FMCSA removing two ELD models off its approved list in the last four months, those being the ELDorado ELD and the ArionT ELD.
Conclusion
ELDs have always been a complicated piece of machinery to handle ever since the mandate has required it on almost every truck. These planned changes are long overdue: up until now the burden of following the guidelines rested squarely on the private company rather than the regulatory agency taking any action to make compliance easier. Should these various changes become official, especially number 3 and 5, truckers will be able to rest easy using their ELDs, pun intended.
If you have an opinion regarding this potential change, you can submit it at the relevant webpage under “submit a formal comment.”
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