Editorial: Trucking Needs Electronic Logging
After carefully weighing the pros and cons in the sometimes overheated debate over whether the federal government should mandate electronic logging devices in heavy-duty trucks, we unequivocally support a requirement for electronic logging to monitor hours-of-service compliance.
We believe that requiring such devices will upgrade highway safety by virtually guaranteeing that all fleets comply with driver work rules.
These devices protect fleets and they protect drivers, since it would be very difficult for either group to skirt the HOS rules when the devices are installed.
However, there is a small group of truckers who continue to rail against an electronic recording requirement, and we printed the case presented by one of them in these pages in last week’s edition of Transport Topics.
As ATA President Bill Graves writes on the next page of this edition, many of those opponents “argue against electronic logging using mostly half-truths and fear mongering to distort and dissemble.”
When all is said and done, it seems to us that the only real argument against electronic logging — generally done via electronic onboard recorders, or EOBRs — is that it will prevent fleets and drivers that have been ignoring the federal HOS regulations from continuing to do so.
These devices are relatively low cost (the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration estimates that buying and operating an electronic logging device costs between $500 and $800 a year). No, the devices aren’t free, but when compared to the cost of even a non-injury accident, they seem like quite a bargain to us, considering the safety gains they provide.
The data are clear that HOS violations dramatically increase the likelihood of truck crashes. Here we have an opportunity to virtually ensure compliance, which should make all of us breathe easier.
As Graves notes, carriers that have already voluntarily employed electronic logging report that their HOS compliance rates have improved.
And most of those fleets reported that driver morale actually improved after the devices were installed, and almost 20% of the fleets in one survey said the devices actually helped them recruit new drivers.
We do agree that there are some details that need to be ironed out before the mandate is issued, including who owns the data the devices collect and in what circumstances that data can be utilized.
But on the whole, we strongly believe that it is time that electronic logging devices become the standard for commercial trucking, for the good of us all.
