ELDs have been the most polarizing subject in the freight markets over the past few years. The large enterprise carriers have wanted them to ensure that every carrier followed the same set of rules. Smaller owner-operators and voice freight brokers felt as if ELDs were government encroachment into their lives. The fear of big-brother monitoring every move is more emotional than reality, but the economic impacts are real.
One of the things that we have been watching intently is whether or not ELDs impact behavior. First with the carriers and then with shippers and brokers. The impact on shippers and brokers will show up in two data-sets: the TRI (tender rejection index) and in rates (spot and contract). We know from our rate sources (DAT, Cass, and public carrier reports) that there has been a dramatic inflation environment in contract rates. Until the last two weeks, the spot market was stabilizing as shippers were benefiting from better capacity planning.
But one of the things that we have been curious about is how carriers are reacting to the mandate. Are we seeing a change in driver behavior? Nearly 60 days into the hard mandate, we can see that is the case. By looking at what we call the “HOS Daily Driving Utilization Index” or HOS11, we look at ELD data and determine how much of driver’s 11 hours are dedicated to actually putting miles on a truck. We gather millions of HOS data points every single day from a couple hundred thousand ELD devices, anonymize them, and publish them on our SONAR dashboard.
Last year, prior to the ELD soft-mandate, we saw that drivers were averaging around 6.52 hours per day of driving time. The ELD soft-mandate went into effect on December 16, but with it being so close to the holidays, it is hard to get an accurate read on the impact until mid-January. We saw we describe as the “Post Holiday Normalization” take place on January 14. You can see that the total driving hours went back to around 6.52 hours per day. This stayed consistent until Valentine’s day, when we started to see drivers start to modify their behavior and increase hours dedicated to driving. We believe this is a reflection of drivers starting to think about the hard mandate on April first and change on what freight they selected and how they managed their hours.
Moving forward into the hard mandate in April, we see that there is a distinct change in driver behavior. Throughout April, drivers started to push further towards 7 hours of daily driving time, at least three days a week. Every Tuesday-Thursday, drivers are exceeding 6.8 hrs of daily driving time and going tapping out at 7 hours per day. We estimate that each hour is worth approximately $112 (based on a 7 hour clock), therefore drivers are recovering approximately $54 of additional earnings per day from proper HOS management. For an industry with 860,000 for-hire trucks, this equates to $231 million dollars per week or $12 billion dollars annually of additional value generated by ELD devices to the industry as a whole.
Ted
What a load of nonsense my pay has gone down 200+ dollars per week minimum from eld’s on top of the 40% loss when the economy tanked in 08 (the Ca horse hay business never recovered) in 2020 .ca min wage will be 15 hr I’m less than that now on my gross income I’m going to flip burgers and leave the lying cops, licence concerns, drug tests and all the rest of it behind after 30+ yrs
R corsey
ELDs add $12 billion to truckers’ pockets!!! Haha????????? what a joke!!!
Matt Wimberly, freight markets reporter, you have to know the industry, drive truck for a year, then write your article.
I am not saying more money is not being generated. The fact is there is a driver shortage. Has been and with ELD it has caused greater shortage and loss of freight being delivered on time or being delivered at all.
Now you have something to talk about….
Supply and demand, yes freight charges are increasing, extra $ does NOT equal extra in the driver’s pocket. No matter the hours he drives.
When you have a housing shortage the price increases and home owner can make more on the home. But if they buy another home the extra is just invested. Most drivers don’t own the trucking company. The trucking company is using the money to reinvest and hire more drivers.
So who’s pockets are getting fat?
You need more data and more education in the trucking industry. I drive the same safe way with or without ELD.
Robert Tilley
The only ones benefiting off the ELD’s is those with drop and hook. We the driver’s that live load and live unload are not. I’ve actually lost 350 miles per week. Tankers, flatbed, golf cart , live stock, car hauler, we have lost mileage with no pay increase. I don’t believe that driver’s are seeing any revenue increase. The money is going straight to the company pocket. NOT THE DRIVER’S.
Miguel
They say that to keep the manufactures. Rich and keep the drivers broke
Iver skovald
What?? Whoever wrote this has absolutely no idea!! As a company driver for a mid sized co.. ( less than 1k trucks ) when we got switched to eld’s.. I lost half my check more right at first as dispatchers re learned how to work.. all I can say is NOBODY believes any of this artical..
Autumn Bourque
Wowww… I wish l could only drive 7 hrs a day… I’m always maxing my elog out!!!!
Bob Rivert
Short term analysis like this means nothing. We need a whole year’s worth of data before we can draw any conclusions.
jason
This article is not correct. The person who wrote this does not have a clue on how the industry really works. Not only for company drivers, but Owner Operator’s and Independents like myself. This article was written based solely on numbers only that are probably generated from companies that were already running ELD’s. I can tell you first hand, from experience that ELD’s have hurt the real trucking companies, you know, the safe ones. I can tell you first hand I have not seen an increase in profit. And I run the exact same way I did before. Even having an exempt truck. And from experience in the real world, going from driving 6.52 hours a day to 7 hours will not generate $54 a day. And if it does then this study only focuses on 1 section of this industry, 1 particular style of trailer, in 1 area of the country, and not the industry as a whole. Factoring in all the exemptions that were handed out prior to hard enforcement, load/unload times/traffic/weather/breakdowns. Bottom line is if I was the owner of Freightwaves, I would fire the author of this article.