After setting one record high after another in the early weeks of 2018, the weekly DAT Dry Van and Reefer Barometers have pulled back but remain in a strong growth range.
Despite repeated efforts, confusion still reigns when it comes to hours-of-service compliance and when drivers can use personal conveyance or the agriculture exemptions available.
“I am unaware of anyone using ELD to make these smart matches. We are excited about pioneering this approach that benefits drivers, carriers our economy and our ecology,” Russell Jones, Cargo Chief’s CEO, tells FreightWaves.
Understanding hours-of-service and ELD regulations and their exemptions can help fleets better manage driver’s time.
The FMCSA has posted a new infographic on its website, which it says it plans to update monthly.
Fleets that run without an ELD could get into a lot of trouble with the inspectors, insurance companies, and customers, who can access the CSA data with regard to crash incidents and violation details.
Efforts are being made to exempt livestock and certain agricultural haulers from ELD and hour-of-service rules, but a trucking group and safety advocacy organization are fighting back.
The new Trucker Path whitepaper finds that 70% of truckers have had to violate HOS, and 96% have parked in areas not designated for trucks. 48% spend an hour or more to find safe truck parking, driving time that does not translate into fleet revenues.
The recent clarification of personal conveyance rules have left some questions in the market about the expected impact. We go back to the data to make our own assessement.
Cashflow Corner presented by TriumphPay …Unless you are one of the many drivers who have proclaimed the next three days as vacation days, there is a good chance you will run into an inspection somewhere. If so, will you be prepared?
Cashflow Corner presented by TriumphPay …If your ELD provider suddenly shuts down service and goes out of business, do you know what to do?
The proposed legislation would radically change the HOS rule for the livestock industry, which describes its problems as unique.
Less than one week after announcing it was selling many of its business entities to TruckThat, One20 has said it will cease supporting its electronic logging device (ELD) as of June 18, 2018.
While April 1 turned out not to be the total disaster so many predicted, the hard enforcement date has brought pain to some individual truck drivers and fleets who continue to be tripped up by common mistakes.
The survey includes responses from more than 100 trucking companies of various sizes with the intention of keeping a pulse on the industry.
Freight market activity is stabilizing as carriers move into new contract cycles. The ELD hard enforcement period appears to be a non-factor so far.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has formally extended an ELD waiver for livestock and insect haulers until Sept. 30, 2018, under terms of the waiver that was included in the Fiscal Year 2018 Omnibus Appropriations Bill.
There has been a lot of hype surrounding the arrival of the hard enforcement period of ELD carrier compliance, but according to the Tender Rejection Index it has mostly been a non-factor to the overall freight market.
One thing that hasn’t changed (yet) with the ELD mandate is the way drivers get treated at shippers and receivers. The old adage of “hurry up and wait” has never been more apt, especially in the over-the-road truckload sector.
The KeepTruckin ELD is providing useful data that the company is turning into actionable information for customers.
KeepTruckin announced yesterday it secured $50 million in Series C financing—bringing the company’s total funding to $78 million.
KeepTruckin raises $50M in a Series C financing. Plans to have 400,000 subscribers by the end of the year
The sector gets another 90 days to comply, while the rest of the industry faces April 1 enforcement.
“We are committed to creating technology to enable drivers to improve their lives,” says Konexial CEO, Ken Evans.
Even with lower levels of automation, trucks could essentially work around the clock, but what will regulators do about the ELD hours-of-service rule?
Used Class 8 truck prices increased 2% year-over-year in January, but fell 3% over December 2017, according to latest data from ACT Research.
Konexial uses its ELD device to leverage its dynamic load matching solution, which can act as a one-stop solution for both carriers and shippers.
Several states are looking at ways to exempt truck drivers from the ELD mandate, but at least one expert says any laws passed by states to do so would likely violate federal regulations.
Drivers using certain J.J. Keller ELD devices have had issues transferring data to roadside enforcement, but the company is working on fixes and expects to have all devices updated by the end of the month.
We discuss our list of cities that made up our long-wait times for drivers and our methodology for how we came up with the list
Washington D.C., is often credited with killing the American truck driver and their ability to work. Now, we have ELD data to prove that, in-fact, Washington D.C. is where a drivers available hours go to die!
According to a report from Tech Crunch, Elon Musk’s Tesla is preparing to test autonomous driving on a cross-country trip within 3 to 6 months.
Seasonality has finally hit van rates as available loads dropped 6% last week, according to DAT.
With one round of electronic logging device (ELD) madness behind, and another likely upcoming ahead of the April 1 hard enforcement date, Transflo President & CEO Frank Adelman says his company is prepared for another round of drivers rushing to get compliant devices.
Telematics and data expert joins FreightWaves to help develop thought leadership and a forum for interpreting telematics and market data for the freight markets
Typically, about 12% of any fleet of drivers on any given day or night will fall well outside the company’s operational safety parameters. How can you use your ELD and GPS data to improve driver safety and productivity? Compliance doesn’t necessarily mean safer.
The race to self-driving and electric vehicles has focused medium and heavy-duty vehicles lately, even though many believe local and urban is the best place for electric trucks. udelv, though, is focusing on that last-mile.
The overall compliance ELD compliance rates have been going up since the ELD mandate in December. But there is a noticeable difference in rates between the long haul and the short haul fleets.
According to a survey of participants on a recent FTR webinar, only 11% of the people believe the ELD impact has been severe. A full 52% say the impact has been moderate while 34% say it is minimal. Three percent don’t believe it’s had any effect.”
Industry-wide ELD adoption is forging a yellow brick road for blockchain and other technological marvels.
American Trucking Associations President & CEO Chris Spear took to Medium on Thursday to tout the benefits the trucking industry will see from passage of the new tax law, including noting an ATA survey that says 50% of fleets are planning wage increases or one-time bonuses.
The long-awaited infrastructure plan from the White House is taking shape and could be part of President Trump’s State of the Union speech on Jan. 30, according to Reuters. CNN, however, reports that the plan will not likely be finished by that time due to the president’s travel schedule.
A combination of factors continued to drive dry van trailer orders as 2017 came to an end, with December orders up 38% year-over-year, according to FTR.
FreightWaves’ readers made the past year a great one for our young brand. Today, we take a fond look back at your favorite articles from 2017.
On Friday, the U.S. Department of Labor published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that expands the ability of associations to offer health insurance plans.
Like many carriers, Santa has been stressed about the ELD mandate, knowing that compliance is impossible and kids would not understand that the FMCSA was operating alongside the Grinch in a coordinated effort.
Fleet execs are talking about the driver shortage as if it were the worst thing to happen in the industry, but they should be thankful. It keeps gives fleets pricing power.
Just like everyone else who is familiar with the new regulation and the way that the trucking industry works, we expect that adoption of, and enforcement of, the ELD rule will initially lead to some constraints on trucking capacity. How big will that reduction be and how long will it last is yet to be seen.
Global technology company Wabco Holdings has acquired a 1% equity stake in Nikola Motor Company with a $10 million investment. Nikola is designing a hydrogen-electric Class 8 truck.
Travel around the DuPont area of Washington remains snarled this morning as officials work to clear wreckage from the Amtrak derailment over Interstate 5, just south of Tacoma, that killed at least 3 people and injured dozens more.
One of the big mysteries around hours of service is personal conveyance. When can a driver use a vehicle for personal reasons without it counting against their driving time? The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is now attempting to clarify that usage through regulatory guidance.
For many fleets, the electronic logging device (ELD) mandate presents a new variable in the regulatory landscape that must be carefully navigated. Following best practices will help fleet managers identify the most common mistakes and pitfalls that may result in a fine, expensive roadside delays or even worse, a business shutdown.
With truck drivers across the country being required to have electronic logging devices in their vehicles as of Dec. 18, some have complained about the move to electronic recording of hours when paper logs work just fine. For BigRoad CEO Tony Lourakis, the rule presented an opportunity.
Everyone who is even remotely aware of the trucking industry in the U.S. knows that the ELD rule goes into effect on Monday. Time will tell, but if there are not massive numbers of trucks parked on the side of the road, and shippers are actually able to find trucks to move loads, we will not be surprised.
CSX Corp. CEO Hunter Harrison has taken a medical leave of absence from the railroad due to complications from a recent illness. Investors sold off the company stock, causing a 12% drop and $6 billion loss in company value in morning trading.
To get a more detailed look at the impact ELDs are having on the industry, FreightWaves talked with drivers and a fleet that has been running the devices, and each has reported different experiences, but in the end, the concern of all of them is that the devices simply work.
Last-minute efforts to delay or stop the electronic logging device rule (ELD) are continuing, but it may be too little, too late unless President Donald Trump throws a Hail Mary.
The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) has issued a letter to state attorneys general in all states asking them to review potential problems surrounding upcoming enforcement of the electronic logging device mandate.
Yesterday, the Small Business House Committee heard how forthcoming ELD regulations will stifle competition, and how it won’t actually provide safety benefits.
Could the economy be starting to slow? That is a conclusion that FTR’s Don Ake has drawn after reviewing a number of economic indicators. He bases his evaluation on current GDP growth and what he thinks will be coming in 2018.
Innovation is sweeping across the trucking industry; technologies such as autonomy, blockchain, and electrification are beginning to demonstrate real value potential. However, the question is, where innovation has been stagnant in the past, is the industry ready for change?
The spot market, which has been trending up for much of this year and is near record highs, is showing no signs of slowing down, according to DAT.
Following on the heels of a 90-day waiver from the ELD rule for agriculture haulers, and several other exemptions granted by FMCSA in recent months, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) has submitted a new exemption request to the agency.
FMCSA has made two recent changes to hours-of-service and ELD compliance that affects the agricultural community.
Executives at V3 Transportation, one of the nation’s largest expeditor fleets, spoke to me about how the ELD mandate will change their segment of the industry.
Offering long-haul truck drivers the opportunity to extend their day by 2 hours is the goal of a new petition to FMCSA from KeepTruckin. The ELD provider said an analysis of data collected from devices found a troubling pattern of safety concerns when drivers are detained at shippers.
The U.S. has its first electrified highway. While not a long stretch, the one-mile catenary system on the north- and south-bound lanes of South Alameda Street from East Lomita Boulevard to the Dominguez Channel in Carson, CA, are providing a proving ground for the technology.
The price of diesel fuel jumped last week, rising 6.3 cents per gallon to $2.882. The increase follows a rise in oil prices and a 20-cent jump in fuel taxes in California, that went into effect on Nov. 1.
With less than two months left before the ELD mandate goes into effect, statistics coming from ground zero on the compliance of carriers to the proposed rule are far from satisfactory.
Agriculture industry representatives are still waiting for a response from the U.S. Department of Transportation regarding a delay for agricultural carriers concerning electronic logging device (ELD) rule enforcement.
Trucking companies that have not installed electronic logging devices (ELD) are in a race against time to get them installed on their trucks before the Dec. 18 deadline. Omnitracs and Samsung Electronics are giving drivers another option to meet the regulation, according to Reuters.
In its simplest form, the electronic logging device (ELD) mandate is designed to replace paper logbooks to better track drivers’ Record of Duty Status (RODS) and ensure compliance with hours-of-service (HOS) requirements. In theory, these rules help improve driver safety and reduce fatigue, but fleet managers can’t expect the rule to eliminate driver fatigue.
When the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) announced in late August that it would delay out-of-service orders for ELD violations until April 1, 2018, many cheered the decision. According to Collin Mooney, executive director of CVSA, many assumed that meant officials would not enforce the ELD rule at all until April. That is simply not true.
While the Federal Motor Carriers Safety Administration (FMCSA) has issued an exemption to the electronic logging device (ELD) rule for certain rental vehicles, the exemption has opened up several questions, including whether there is a potential loophole in the rule.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has granted a waiver to the Truck Renting and Leasing Association (TRALA) that will exempt all commercial rental vehicles from the electronic logging device (ELD) rule for drivers using a “property carrying commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) rented for 8 days or less.”
Protests on both coasts in the past few days have placed truckers in the spotlight. Truck drivers in California and Washington, DC, staged protests to highlight the implementation of the electronic logging device (ELD) rule.
Hino Trucks will expand its product offerings to include Class 8 vehicles, starting in 2019, the company said this week.
In recent years, players in the transportation industry have embraced technology and this has greatly helped in solving the many challenges associated with manual operations, and the future is even brighter in the years to come.
The ongoing and future transformation in the industry will not only benefit the carriers, truckers and shippers, but also the controlling authorities as well as positively impact other industries in the market and the economy at large. Here are a few of the technologies already impacting the industry.
The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) and livestock groups have delivered a petition to Transportation Secretary Elaine L. Chao requesting a waiver from complying with the upcoming electronic logging device (ELD) rule.
Following passage of a House bill last week that set the framework for autonomous automobiles, trucking gets its chance to state its case today in front of a Senate committee.
The Truckload Carriers Association and CarriersEdge are accepting nominations for the annual Best Fleets to Drive For survey. Nominations for the 10th annual survey will be accepted until Oct. 31, 2017.
The U.S. House of Representatives defeated an amendment late Wednesday that would have restricted funding for the ELD mandate until at least Sept. 30, 2018. The amendment was added to an appropriations bill by Rep. Brian Babin (R-TX).
As the U.S. Congress returned to work following its August recess, two bills that are awaiting action are focused on the electronic logging device rule set for a Dec. 18 implementation date.
C.H. Robinson has acquired Milgram & Company, a Canadian provider of freight forwarding, customs brokerage, and surface transportation. C.H. Robinson paid approximately $50 million in cash for the company.
As efforts to delay implementation of the electronic logging device rule continue to flounder in Congress, opponents have received an olive branch from CVSA. The group says that while it will enforce the ELD mandate on Dec. 18 as planned, out-of-service orders will not be issued until April 1, 2018.
Nearly 30% of carriers are not yet in full compliance with the upcoming electronic logging device mandate and 15% said they will not be fully compliant at the deadline, according to the latest Morgan Stanley ELD survey.
KeepTruckin has partnered with Foley, a leader in FMCSA compliance solutions, to offer KeepTruckin’s electronic logging device to fleets. Any size fleet will have access to the KeepTruckin’s ELD and IFTA solution.
As interest in alternative fuels continues to grow, ACT Research is making it easier for fleets to compare different fuel types.
The truck productivity hit that many have feared from electronic logging devices (ELD) may not be as severe as thought, but the implementation of the devices may hit the industry hard in other ways.
One20 has partnered with C.H. Robinson to offer its F-ELD logging device to C.H. Robinson carriers at a discount. Those carriers also have access to One20’s membership benefits in a partnership that should help everyone involved.
When the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration laid out the parameters of its electronic logging device (ELD) rule, it seemed pretty simple: Trucks newer than model year 2000 were required to have the devices. But the language, as is often the case, left some room for confusion.
While the industry continues to argue of the value of electronic logging devices (ELDs), it turns out that some of the data they generate can be very useful to carriers and their drivers. Keep Truckin has compiled some of the data its ELDs have collected and done a deeper dive, coming up with valuable insights into roadside inspections, of all things.
J.B. Hunt has acquired Specialized Logistics Dedicated for $136 million. The move expands the firm’s access to last-mile distribution services.
The on-again, off-again saga over the electronic logging device rule is back on again after language was inserted into a House appropriations bill this week directing FMCSA to review the rule and make a determination if the rule should be delayed or changed.
The trucking turnover rate at truckload fleets remains near historical lows, but it did tick up a bit in the first quarter of 2017, said the American Trucking Associations.
Claiming the upcoming ELD mandate violated the 4th Amendment, OOIDA had asked the Supreme Court to hear the case. The Court has declined to do so, allowing the rule to go into effect in December.
Many larger carriers already require their drivers to use ELDs, but for smaller carriers that make up the majority of the industry, the implementation of ELDs and their associated cost could be a game-changer. This infographic highlights some of the key facts around ELDs, their impact on operations, and potential solutions to mitigate those impacts.
“If the thesis is that all of these small carriers who’ve been running illegally will be put out of business were they to comply with this mandate, there is no incentive for them to comply.” That is part of the reasoning that Stifel analysts have used to suggest the ELD mandate will not drive up shipping rates.
This Week in Trucking, the CEO of Old Dominion Freight Line suggests boosting federal fuel taxes to pay for infrastructure improvements and Texas is the first state to require ELDs for intrastate commercial drivers. Also, Toyota unveils a hydrogen fuel cell Class 8 tractor.
