ELD Mandate

In December of this year, the Electronic Logging Device (ELD) mandate will come into full effect in the US. Canada will follow suit in 2018 with a proposal expected in the spring of this year. Since 80% of freight goes southbound the ELD mandate is in effect for all of us this year.

Len Dubois Trucking is starting to roll out ELD’s fleet-wide now. It’s a change that affects not only drivers but operations and dispatch.

Operationally there are a ton of advantages to the ELD mandate. ELD’s connect drivers HOS electronically to dispatch. Dispatch will be able to see how drivers are doing with their hours-of-service and book and plan loads accordingly. Our safety department will be able to see in real time any HOS infractions. Electronic logs also reduce the risk of form and manner violations. These violations drive safety departments nuts industry-wide because they are preventable with some attention to detail and they go against safety records. Safety and compliance are key; our number one concern.

ELD’s also will mean less time messing around with logbooks which will save drivers time. Not only is your location automatically logged but DVIR’s are quickly filled out on the e-Logs.

E-Logs will be a change for drivers but we’ll adapt just as we have for every change and innovation in the trucking industry.

Tips for E-Logs

The key to adapting to e-Logs is to get into good habits. We put together a few tips for common e-Log use.

  • Get into the habit of changing your status immediately. With paper logs, you could update your log book when you left a shipper, or after fueling, if you chose. If you do this you need to break this habit. Go into On-duty and make your notes right away when you arrive at shippers, receivers, fuel, etc. You can change non-driving statuses but you want to keep that to a minimum or your safety manager or DOT will have some questions for you.
  • Proper trip planning. Proper trip planning has always been important. Make sure you have enough time to get to safe parking before you need to stop. Give yourself several options for parking at least an hour before you’re required to shut down. Parking can get sketchy sometimes. Also, be realistic about your arrival times at shipper and receivers.
    You cannot change Driving. This is the whole point of the ELD mandate. Our e-Logs do have a status Off Duty-Driving (Off-DRV). This status is only for using the vehicle for personal use.
  • You need to be On-Duty or Off-Duty for at least 2 minutes for your log to record it. For example, when you do a tire check you need to log 2 minutes On-Duty to flag it on your e-Log.
  • Log your border crossing. You can find it in our e-Logs under the Clocks tab. Hit the Border button and while you’re there, change your region to USA or Canada Main.
  • Update your load info when you pick up a load. If you don’t it is missing info on your e-Log and is a violation under form and manner. Save John from pulling out his curly-cues.

E-Logs are intended to improve safety in the trucking industry. Don’t try to game the system. We should be operating in compliance with all regulations in the first place. If any Len Dubois Trucking driver has questions about e-Logs John and Ken are always available. Safety and compliance is a team effort.