Final Version of E-Log Regulation to be Released This Month
This week the White House signed off on a final version of the proposed regulation to require e-logs to be used across the trucking industry in order to more efficiently track driver hours for both employers and, more importantly, to ensure DOT hours of service compliance.
The DOT has announced that the final language of the regulation and its effective dates will be published by the end of this month.
E-logs have been a contentious issue in the trucking industry for the past several years - So much so, in fact, that the proposed regulations have been pushed off and delayed several times.
There’s some consensus that e-logs are a good thing, a lot of the issue is a feeling that implementation costs etc. affect smaller fleets and owner operators much more severely than say larger, or national fleets. That’s very true. There’s also concern about yet another mandate.
A pretty good summary on what the for and against arguments are that I read was recently published on a CCJ Point-Counterpoint Recap and you can read the whole thing here:( Point-Counterpoint: Truckers Square off in Debate) (As an aside, CCJ is an excellent news source on all things trucking)
For our part, we have been using e-logs for quite some time and would never go back. It definitely simplifies tracking compliance for the DOT, and even more importantly it saves our drivers from the time and aggravation paper logs can be the source of. However, we’re a pretty large fleet, so it made sense for us and our drivers, that may not be the case for everyone.
It will be interesting to see what the final ruling looks like and how long fleets will have to implement, and if there will be any exceptions for smaller operators.
What are your thoughts on the e-log mandate?