Research/studies Hours of service Bus/limo/taxi Trucking Transportation

Study questions whether FMCSA’s ELD mandate for truckers ‘has improved safety’

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Photo: Missouri Department of Transportation Flickr

East Lansing, MI — The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s mandate on the use of electronic logging devices to record commercial motor vehicle driver hours of service “did not immediately achieve its goal of reducing accidents,” and may be linked to increases in unsafe driving behaviors and crashes, results of a recent study suggest.

The mandate took effect in December 2017. On April 1, 2018, inspectors were permitted to begin placing CMV drivers out of service for operating without ELDs, which are used in place of manual paper logs to track HOS.

Researchers at Michigan State University and the University of Arkansas analyzed data from about 4 million roadside inspections and all federally recordable crashes between Jan. 1, 2017, and Sept. 1, 2018. Although the mandate triggered significant improvement in driver compliance with reporting HOS, especially among smaller fleets, findings show that the number of incidents increased after the mandate went into effect.

For independent owner-operators, incidents climbed 11.6%, while fleets employing between two and 20 trucks experienced a 9% increase. The researchers also report an increase in violations for unsafe driver behaviors – including speeding, frequent lane changes, following too closely and hard braking – in conjunction with the mandate.

“These results call into question whether increased electronic monitoring has improved safety in this industry,” the researchers write.

After publishing the final rule in December 2015, FMCSA estimated the mandate would help prevent 1,844 crashes, 562 injuries and 26 fatalities each year.

“Drivers have reacted in ways the FMCSA has not fully anticipated, and these behaviors should be accounted for as the FMCSA revisits their hours-of-service policies,” Andrew Balthrop, study co-author and research associate at UA, said in a press release.

“Surprisingly, the number of accidents for the most affected carriers – those operators for whom the federal mandate was intended – did not decrease. In fact, following the implementation of the mandate, accidents among small carriers and independent owner-operators increased, relative to large asset-based carriers.”

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ELDs record – at frequent intervals – vehicle information such as date, time, location, engine hours and miles, as well as identification information for the driver, vehicle and motor carrier.

Proponents of the mandate contend that relying on ELDs rather than paper logs to track HOS improves safety and efficiency. Opponents claim the rule violates drivers’ Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure and lacks concrete evidence that it increases safety.

CMV drivers must carry four items as part of the mandate:

  • A user’s manual that describes how to operate the ELD
  • A sheet listing step-by-step instructions on producing and transferring HOS records to an authorized safety official
  • A sheet that outlines ELD malfunction reporting requirements and protocol for maintaining records during such incidences
  • At least eight days’ worth of blank grids to chart record of duty status reports

The study was published in the March issue of the Journal of Operations Management.

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Richard Davis
January 21, 2022
Common sense should have told people that ELDs would make safety worse. ELDs are in "exact-time ", meaning every single minute is counted. Paper logs are in 15-min. increments, meaning you have leeway on every duty status change. Drivers are in a constant rush all day trying to save or gain minutes. The natural thing to do is drive faster since you get paid by the miles you run and only have a certain amount of hours to do it in. The Government said livestock haulers couldn't do their job in a safe manner using ELDs, so they exempted them. Do you not think that was because of the leeway paper logs afford drivers? Really only two things that will fix this problem. 1- Pay all drivers by the hour, which I think is unrealistic. 2- Eliminate the 70-hour limit. Without a 70-limit, drivers won't be racing the clock so much. Then ELDs won't be a problem, they can be used for what they are intended for, to keep an accurate and electronic time.

Richard Davis
January 21, 2022
The FMCSA didn't anticipate that ELDs would make safety worse, because they really don't know anything about trucks or how it is to drive one. Did they not think, when you put someone on a strict time clock that makes their money by the miles they drive, the natural thing to do is speed up?

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Martin
January 21, 2022
Eld's will not help, we haul livestock exempt year around, no one knows when I need to sleep more then me, every one is different on sleep requirements. So to lump every one together is wrong. And speeding and accidents are up because your racing a clock now all the time... less is more.. let us drivers run on our own, these do gooder ,, people making these rules have no common sense. Secondly if the warehouses theses van drivers go would load and unload in a timely manner might help huh!! Alot of the good Ole drivers quit when all these new rules are shoved down our throats.. open up your eyes law makers , you never driven like us so you shouldn't be making the rules!

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David Christ Sr.
January 22, 2022
It is much more dangerous now. On paper logs, drivers would basically tidy up an imperfect world. They would get the job done, make good money and get plenty of sleep. Now everything has to be logged exactly how it happens. The job isn't getting done. Drivers took a big pay cut. And they are driving tired and driving faster than ever to make up for it. Electronic logs are great. Much easier and faster to do. But the rules are ridiculous. First of all it's all based on a 21.5 hour day. In reality days are 24 hours long. So if you start at 8 am on Monday and drive your 11 plus a half hour break then take your ten off, that starts you off at 5:30 am on Tuesday. So for Friday's shift your starting on Thursday at 10 pm and you have to drive all night long. Then when you get off on Friday at 9 am you can't sleep cause it's day time and you've had too much sleep. So after a day of not sleeping you have to get back behind the wheel at 7 pm and drive all night long again. Why not just let us drive the 14 hours that we are already allowed to be on duty for and take 10 off. Then all drivers would be on a regular schedule like normal people at normal jobs. It would be much more efficient, much safer, drivers would be making more money, and be much happier, more freight would get moved, store shelves wouldn't be as empty and we wouldn't have as much of a driver shortage. I can't understand how the rule makers missed this. This is probably the only reason why drivers ever started lying on paper logs years ago. Wake up rule makers.

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Big dee
January 24, 2022
Come on just people trying to make money for something that's not necessary do the math 20 million truck with with elogs in them pay a politician and you have guaranteed business for years to come

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Jermery
January 26, 2022
With elds look how much parking you have now... Right... 3pm in the day and you won't find a place to park tell 8am the next day... Glad I'm still on paper log.. I can see elds being used to just track your log so you don't forget but telling me when I have to stop when it is not safe is a nother thing

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Kris
January 28, 2022
I could never understand why people who don't know the 1st thing about driving a truck are even involved in making any rules for commercial drivers. When a driver is tired they should take a break and sleep period. When you mandate a driver to take 10 consecutive hours off even though they're not tired it defeats the whole purpose of the rules. I know personally I used to get better sleep with a 15 min nap on the steering wheel on a entrance ramp then I ever did with taking off 10 hours and trying to sleep in a bed. When these rules are thought up, maybe the ones proposing them should adhere to the same schedule for their sleep. Which means you go to sleep 11 pm one night, take 10 hours off till 9am, start your 1st day, drive 11 off at 8pm, take 10 off, start 2nd day at 6am, drive 11 get off at 5pm, off for 10, start 3rd day at 3am , drive 11 off at 2pm for 10 , start 4th day at 12am, are you seeing the pattern here? Would you be able to sleep under these conditions, not to mention that is not how it goes with traffic jams, loading dock issues. Your expecting people to sleep at mandated times when their not tired, and then they stay up during their 10 hours off because they can't sleep and then they get tired on the road because they can't sleep. Vicious cycle rule makers!!! Wake up and get rid of the hours of service rules or at least make them sensible.