All You Need To Know About CSA Scores And ELD Violations

An announcement was made by Federal motor carrier safety administration (FMCSA) Southern Regional Road Show by safety
officials discussing the ELD mandate and its implementation. The ELD violations won't affect the CSA scores until April 1, 2018
but the truckers without ELD are subject to citations and fines post December 18, 2017 ELD Mandate.

CVSA Statement

CVSA gave its statement regarding the deadline of putting the commercial motor vehicles out of service after April 18, 2018:

“The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance supports moving forward with the compliance date as specified in the rule. However,
setting an April 1, 2018 effective date for applying the ELD out-of-service criteria will provide the motor carrier industry,
shippers, and the roadside enforcement community with time to adjust to the new requirement before vehicles are placed
out of service for ELD violations.”

The trucks found without a compliant ELD or grandfathered AOBRD device after December 18, 2017 are being fined and the
companies that continually violate the rule can be subject to federal investigation as well. The enforcement officials or
roadside inspectors are exercising discretion in issuing citations since December 18, 2017. The FMCSA Field Administrator
Jon Dierberger said that ELD citations would not affect the SMS (Safety Measurement System) ranking.

Use Of Grandfathered AOBRD

AOBRD device that were installed before the ELD Mandate deadline and ELDs that meet the requirements set under
49 C.F.R. 395.15 are deemed compliant. Cathy Gautreaux, FMCSA Deputy Administrator, said that FMCSA trained safety
officials in each state so that all jurisdictions were ready for implementation the ELD mandate.

Make sure to have compliant ELDs before the compliance deadline. If you haven't implemented with the new regulations, try
Hutch Systems ELD solution. Hutch Systems offer FMCSA certified electronic logging devices with advanced features and
are available at competitive prices.

If you have any queries, give us a call at 206-401-9600 or send us an email at support@hutchsystems.com.

Fleet Management System - Overview (Infographic)

How To Choose The Right Fleet Management System

Managing a fleet is an endless task from ensuring the fleet compliance with local, state and federal regulations to track fuel usage of the fleet. The task of managing a fleet can be challenging. Can every fleet management system available in the market ensure a smooth and efficient management of

daily operations? 

Probably not! This is a question that you need to ask while choosing an appropriate fleet management system that is a right fit for your trucking operations. 

So, here are few tips from the industry experts using which you can find a fleet management provider that can increase the efficiency as a manager

Live Vehicle Monitoring

Your fleet management solution just should not be limited to electronic logs. You should be able to able to oversee your fleet from the comfort of your office. With a simple click, you should be able to check myriads of important things. 

The features that you can use to: - 

Location Of Vehicles And Large Equipment

• Create and schedule maintenance after monitoring the diagnostics data
• Optimize route of driver for better fuel economy
• Monitor dangerous driving habits for better road safety
• Reduce misreported info through automated logs

Monitor Assets And Fleet Through Location Based Features

Geofencing is one such feature that allows you keep cargo and fleet safely at one place and at the same time, check the reporting time of your drivers through simple boundary alerts. This way, you can also

improve the response time of your driving staff. 

Accurate Feet Data In Real Time

• Analytics can be done if you have proper fleet data for:
• Reducing revenue due to human errors
• Accurate fleet reporting
• Real time stats for making informed decisions

Better Economy For Operations

Smart fleet management can assess the health and performance of your vehicles and help you get information such as:

• When your vehicle needs repair
• How often are your trucks used and how many miles they travel in a certain amount of time
• Idle engine hours
• Driving Behaviour

No matter whether you have a large fleet or you are an owner-operator, there is a significant need for a fleet management system that is intuitive and effective in providing you with the required features for

smooth operation management. 

Hutch Systems is a fleet management company based in Abbotsford, BC, Canada that offers advanced features for easy management.

Why Use Fleet Management System - Principal Advantages

Fleet management services are designed to minimize operation cost, investment risks, reduce transportation and insurance costs, streamline efficiency of the company.

Fleet services can optimize company’s management process by improving customer service quality, optimizing productivity, ameliorate time management, boost employee and customer satisfaction through different aspects.

Benefits Of Fleet Management System

Time Management

Fleet management can help fleets save time of drivers, fleet managers, mechanics and administrators. GPS tracking allows fleets to plan and optimize the route according to different dispatches needed to be done on the way.

• Route Planning
• ETA prediction
• Optimized work schedule
• Track Fleet Assets
• Repair history for mechanics
• Easy monitoring of fuel and maintenance data

Fuel Optimization

Reduction in fuel cost is possible if carrier make use of fleet management solutions with its various functionalities. Tracking system can keep track of assets and prevent excessive idle time expenditure and unplanned route that leads to long miles of additional drive.

• Optimized route
• Planned refuel time and location

Good Customer Service

Customers receiving their goods safely on time always leads to customer satisfaction. This can lead to long term business with current client giving us long-term revenue.

Staff Satisfaction

Fleet management systems can make the job of staff members of a carrier simple and easy. Fleet managers can smoothly monitor the data of carrier and driver’s activities through fleet management systems. Drivers can reduce the manual labour with e-logs and improve safety factor while on-duty.

• On the spot two-way communication
• GPS Tracking of fleet
• Automated logs
• Auto calculation of IFTA

Reduced Insurance Costs

Theft prevention minimizes the risk of disastrous accidents that create huge bill of insurance costs.

• Better Road Safety
• Less accident rates
• Reduced insurance costs

Less Maintenance Costs

Pro-active maintenance solution can be possible due to allocated alerts for fleet that signal to driver and fleet manager for maintenance, showing the notifications based on calendar time and other chosen criteria.

Hutch Systems offers fleet management solutions that allows you to smartly manage your carrier by bringing down operation costs, risks and manual work.

Know Your Right - ELD Rule Against Harassment

Definition Of Harassment In ELD Rule

An action by a motor carrier towards one of its drivers that would result in driver violating Hour Of Service Rules in 49 CFR 395 or 49 CFR 392.3. The Harassment Rule prohibits fleets from having their drivers work when their ability or alertness is impaired due to fatigue or illness.

The action must be considered harassment when information is available to motor carrier with an ELD device or similar technology.

Preventing Harassment

The ELD Rule by FMCSA offers several provisions to help prevent harassment:

• Carriers are prohibited from harassing drivers

• A process/platform is offered for written complaints can be filed by drivers

• ELD Mute function can be evoked so driver can rest uninterrupted in sleeper berth

• Anti-tampering functions are also included in ELD Harassment Rule

• Limited editing ability by motor carrier or driver

• Driver certification required for ELD record editing done by fleet manager

• Original ELD record retention even after editing is done

Penalties

Any fleet that is responsible for harassing the driver is subject to a civil penalty for harassment along with penalty for HOS Violation.

How To Report Harassment

Reporting harassment has a proper process through different portals. A driver who believes he/she has been the victim of harassment can file the complaint within ninety days of the incident by using:

• The National Consumer Complaint Database at http://nccdb.fmcsa.dot/gov 

• The FMCSA Division Administrator for the State where the driver is employed at http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/mission/field-offices

Coercion

FMCSA prohibits coercion of drivers that is different yet broader than harassment. Other transportation intermediaries such as brokers, shippers, motor carriers and receivers can also be involved parties in Coercion.

Coercion can be used as a threat to take actions on their employment status, withhold business or work opportunities from drivers or get them indirectly to violate FMCSA regulations.

Threats and blackmails used to punish drivers who refuse to violate the rules also constitutes coercion. According to the ELD Rule against harassment, fleet cannot coerce drivers to falsely certify his\her data entries or record of duty status.

Whistleblower Protection

Drivers can get assistance regarding harassment with the Department of Labor’s Whistleblower Law at  http://www.whistleblowers.gov.

AOBRD VS ELD: Key Differences

What Is AOBRD?

AOBRD is an Automatic On-Board Recording Device that records the Hour Of Service electronically and is compliant with 1988 regulations. AOBRD is regulated in § 395.15 and  defined in § 395.2 regulations.

The device needs to be synchronized with specific operations and must at least record engine use, date and time, road speed, and miles driven. However, AOBRD can be used in Commercial Motor Vehicle until December 16, 2019 after which all AOBRDs must be upgraded to ELDs.

Electronic Logging Devices

ELDs ( Electronic Logging Devices) are defined in § 395.20 regulations and they are required to be installed in CMVs under Record of duty status (RODS). ELD vehicles must capture vehicle location, engine power status, vehicle speed, total miles driven, engine hours, and vehicle motion status through vehicle’s ECM.

Difference Between ELD And AOBRD 

Automatic Data Record: ELDs are required to automate the capture of RODs data automatically at:

• Change of duty status

• Every 60 minutes while the vehicle is in motion

• Power On and OFF cycle

• Personal Use

• Yard Move

• RODS data transferred to FMCSA

FMCSA Compliance: AOBRDs could be installed prior December 18, 2017 in CMVs . It is much more flexible in terms of regulations.

Drivers Can Edit Their Logs Without Leaving Edit History: Transitioning from paper logs to elogs can be challenging for the fleet. AOBRDs makes it relatively easy for drivers to correct mistakes on logs and it does not display the corrections.

On the other hand, ELD displays the edit history which can actually make the mistakes apparent to DOT inspectors during inspections.  Drivers can actually use the additional two years to get used to the new rules and technology.

However, drivers are still required to uphold regulations and the law. If elog is found to be tampered with and HOS violated, the fleet and driver is still liable for penalties.

More Features And Value For Money: ELD collects more data from ECM than AOBRD device. ELD has more features to offer, including, but not limited to, IFTA reporting and diagnostics, adding more value for money.

Rather than hiring another party to do these services for you, you can simply utilize ELD and save a reasonable amount of money in the process, thus, bringing down the cost of operation.

On-Duty Switching And Unassigned Hour Alerts: If a truck is stopped over the duration of 5 minutes, then ELD automatically switches the status from OFF Duty to ON Duty. AOBRD does not include that feature.

Also, ELD alerts driver of unassigned hours when he or she logs in, thus, allowing them to authenticate if it was them who drove their vehicle or someone else did.

Hutch Systems offers AOBRD and ELD devices at competitive prices with diverse features. Their products are FMCSA certified and DOT Inspector approved.

Fast Facts : Various Merits of Electronic Logbooks

ELD Mandate 2017 was introduced to make the record keeping of the Hour of Service efficient and less time consuming through electronic logbooks.

Simply put, ELD is an electronic solution that allows trucking operations to easily track HOS without depending on the manual paper logbook.

Information recorded by ELD:

Automated process of electronic logbooks eradicates the requirement of manual edits.

·              Keeps 7 day previous log record

·              Reduces various road violations

·              Helps with Quick roadside inspections

·              Efficient use of hours

·              Maintains evidence of safe driving

It allows the transportation and shipment companies to keep a record of their services electronically and make sure that HOS compliance and other DOT regulations are kept in check.

So, from reducing the paper logs and manual labour required for keeping the daily reports, ELD solution is a boon to monitor truck drivers and the entire feet in an organized way.

Make sure to employ the services of ELD vendor that is registered at FMCSA.

Hutch Systems offers ELD and other fleet management solutions that are DOT and FMCSA approved at competitive prices.