Based on a recent survey, there is a market for potentially 70% of truck drivers surveyed to switch electronic logging device (ELD) providers, said Road Hunter founder Mikhail Dzarasov.
In an interview with FreightWaves, Dzarasov said he conducted a survey among Road Hunter’s app users to find out more about their ELD providers with the intent to form new partnerships with major providers. Those strategic partnerships, he said, would enable Road Hunter to give its users more useful information.
Drivers experience an average of seven detentions per month, FreightWaves reported previously. The article noted that efficient ELDs can provide time stamps for required vehicle checks, rest breaks and driving to help truckers stay compliant.
Combining ELD data with navigation data could open up additional insights for drivers, helping them better utilize available driving hours and remain in compliance with hours-of-service (HOS) regulations. Dzarasov said Road Hunter would like to combine its data with those of leading ELDs to help drivers uncover these insights and avoid shutting down their trucks early.
The survey’s results found only a fraction of drivers are completely happy with their current ELD device, indicating a potential opportunity for device makers.
About 200 truckers using the app filled out the survey, according to Dzarasov. He shared the results of the survey, which consisted of the following three prompts for truckers:
Rate your ELD
Because only 30% of surveyed drivers are “satisfied with their ELD providers … [potentially], there is a market for 70% of other truck drivers [to switch to] other ELD providers, which is a huge market opportunity for these ELD providers,” Dzarasov said.
Another 30% of drivers surveyed gave their ELD four stars, and 24.4% rated their ELD as acceptable, with three stars. Dzarasov said a large portion of drivers surveyed expressed how their ELDs were not acceptable and often malfunctioned.
Who is your ELD provider?
These four ELDs held the majority: Omnitracs (24.7%), Keep Truckin (22.6%), Samsara (11%) and Garmin (9.6%). Dzarasov said he was surprised that Garmin still held 9.6% of the market share considering he hasn’t seen many ELD ads from Garmin. He said this showed openings for newer ELD providers, such as TruckX, to gain market share.
Are you an Owner Operator?
54.9% of truckers surveyed said they were not owner-operators, 41.1% said they were and the remaining 4% answered “not applicable.” FreightWaves did not find any information about whether or not there was a correlation between owner-operator status and ELD providers chosen.
Road Hunter is a navigation app for truckers. It provides information about traffic, weather, truck stops, weigh stations and parking availability. Dzarasov said Road Hunter is used by over 400,000 truck drivers in the U.S. and Canada.
Click here for more FreightWaves articles by Alyssa Sporrer.
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