Most in the transportation industry are familiar with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) mandate requiring electronic logging devices (ELD) for heavy-duty trucks that went into effect December 18, 2017, with a goal of ensuring regulatory hours-of-service compliance and promoting safety.
For fleets using older electronic log systems that pre-dated the ELD rule—like Ruan—December 16, 2019, brought a key ELD mandate deadline. The initial rule allowed early adopters of electronic logs to continue using their existing systems, classified as automatic onboard recording devices (AOBRD), for two additional years. By December 16, 2019, those carriers running AOBRDs were required to update their systems to an ELD platform. Many large carriers were required to make this switch, which required additional training for office staff and professional drivers alike.
Ruan began the process of transitioning from AOBRD to ELD in May, and as of December 1, 2019, our entire fleet of trucks driven by more than 4,600 professional drivers is operating in ELD mode.
As Ruan began building the project plan for transition, we utilized training resources from our ELD partner, FAQs and resources on the FMCSA website, information from inspectors through various industry associations, as well as various other internal and external networks. We quickly realized the most important element to the mandate was training our professional drivers and support staff on the changes. From May to December, Ruan’s safety and IT teams worked hard to equip each driver with a thorough knowledge base through various training methods. As our local and safety teams trained our professional drivers, our compliance team worked to understand the ins and outs of the back office details.
“As many in the industry have seen, there has been an increased focus on back office support and compliance. We continue to monitor and fine-tune training, but overall, Ruan has been very pleased with how the transition has gone,” Director of Safety Programs Allison Meiners said. “As an industry, we’ve put a tremendous amount of time, energy, and resources into ensuring compliance with the mandate. Thanks to the hard work both internally and externally, we’re excited to be 100 percent compliant with the mandate on this milestone deadline.”