Insights - May/June 2018 - 17

Motor carriers report a variety of experiences with the mandate.
"April 1 went pretty smoothly," said Fred Huennekens, CEO of
DDI Transportation, explaining that the company hadn't seen any
sign that the tougher enforcement affected the freight market.

Preparation, Training
Huennekens attributed the smooth transition to preparation
and training in the days leading up to the mandate, such as deploying the use of ELD technology months in advance of the mandate
taking effect.
Christopher Hursey, chief operating officer at Blue Orbis Logistics, agreed with Huennekens that there was no apparent market
impact due to the April 1 enforcement adjustment.
Hursey said there have been positive changes since the mandate originally took effect in December, as customers have become
more receptive to drivers' needs to get back on the road promptly.
However, getting some customers to make these changes
wasn't easy, Hursey noted. The company chose to meet with them,
and show how the ELD mandate would change freight flows. The
effects of the mandate weren't really felt by customers until the day
after Christmas in 2017, he said.
Motor carriers such as Rail Delivery Services and Farruggio's
Express chose to seek exemptions from FMCSA that were related
to the mandate. They requested to exempt their drivers who stay
within the 100 air-mile radius, but may occasionally exceed the
12-hour limitation, from having to complete a daily record of duty
status, but rather to use the electronic logging technology to comply with the RODS requirements when not meeting the conditions
for the exemption. They cited factors such as increasing safety,
enhancing visibility of their drivers, and using it as a training tool
as the benefits they expect to accrue. The FMCSA granted those
exemption requests.

Some Frustration
A survey done in April by IANA of motor carrier participants in
the Uniform Intermodal Interchange and Facilities Access Agreement uncovered frustration about restrictions on operational flexibility.
A sampling of the hundreds of comments received in the
survey:

* "You can't get done what needs to be done."
* "HOS rules do not accommodate drivers when they are held
up at shippers and receivers or are waiting in the queue at a
terminal."

* "We lost half of our fleet drivers to doing local (within the
100-mile radius)."

"There is more [change] ahead of us," Huennekens said.
"Certainly, the market has changed, and there is increased freight
volume. It isn't clear how much of the change was due to economic
conditions and how much was lost efficiency. I do not think the
marketplace has fully adjusted to the ELD mandate yet."
Dave Osiecki, who heads Scopelitis Transportation Consulting and is a former executive vice president at American Trucking
Associations, said, "This transition has been more orderly and less
impactful than many expected.
"We are in a cycle that is very good for trucking," he added. "It
really hasn't been the ELDs. The economy is booming and there
is more freight than there are drivers available. On the surface it

doesn't appear productivity has been hammered as much as many
people thought."
Osiecki was referring to the period before the mandate took effect on Dec. 18, 2017, when some trucking industry stock analysts
and others predicted that the mandate would cut productivity by
several percentage points.

Adjustment Period
"This was a tough change for the entire industry. Some of
our customers have had to completely change the way they do
business (hire more drivers, route differently, take fewer loads),"
David Blackwell, in-cab product manager for Coretex, told Insights.
"We are also seeing prior driver behavior clashing with the
strict requirements of the ELD mandate and leading to noncompliance," Blackwell said. "For example, as drivers cannot move
a vehicle at all while on a break or off duty, a previously common
action like moving across a parking lot during this time is now
being recorded against their logs. Aspects like this are having
quite an impact on driver satisfaction."
In addition, there have been difficulties with training of both
drivers and back office workers, Blackwell said.
Geo Forton, CEO at UTECH,
said the company's customers
have experienced some cases of
inconsistent interpretation and
understanding of the rules among
both drivers and enforcement
personnel.
"The April 1 enforcement [date]
was simply perceived as the final
'spike in the rail' to completing this
long-running ELD transition," he said.
Forton
"By this time, most carriers seemed to
accept the fact that there was now an active plan of enforcement,
and serious repercussions for noncompliance."
When the mandate first took effect, Forton said there was a
definite adjustment period and learning curve for everyone across
the board. Issues that emerged, and were resolved, included
Bluetooth connectivity, cellular coverage, vehicle compatibility,
"unidentified driving" status and transference of the driver's log
data to the government's electronic record of duty status, or
eRODS, system, he said.

Technical Challenges
The early lessons also include technical issues.
Mooney said three different systems actually are being run by
motor carriers - ELDs, automatic on-board recording devices and
ELDs with AOBRD software. Difficulties have surfaced when some
data can't be uploaded between the devices and the [eRODS] software used by enforcement personnel.
It is very important that companies train drivers to make sure
they know which system is being operated and understand how to
use it, Mooney said.
"As with any new regulation, especially one which is such a
change, there will be hiccups," Sgt. Armstrong said, citing two
instances. One is AOBRDs, which don't function like ELDs.
AOBRDs cannot transfer data as well as they should. In addition,
some devices that are supposed to function as ELDs don't.
"We are experiencing challenges with drivers having difficulty
May/June 2018 | Intermodal Insights

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