The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has proposed a requirement for the use of electronic logbooks by all truck drivers with property loads over 21,000 pounds.
This is known as FMCSA rule 395.15 which requires truck driver logbooks to be electronic and thereby harder to tamper or falsify. The expected implementation requirement for ALL Truckers and carriers is in January of 2017, but it is important that trucking companies get ready now.
The overriding purpose of this ruling is to reduce fatigued driving, which is blamed for a great number of trucking related injuries and fatalities. The FMCSA sites 12% of the total crashes in 2012 for large trucks and buses being a direct result of fatigue. Read more here.
The benefit of electronic logbooks (ELogs) is that they are near impossible to fake. By integrating the logbook into the truck’s JBUS 1939, ignition and odometer readings will be tied to the driver’s logbook. This data is then sent to a server and made available for the carrier’s support staff. Likewise an inspecting officer will be able to read the logbook (or log book) data directly from the same screen the driver uses to automatically log hours.
The latest information can be found here and is dated 5-14-2015.
What to do now?
Many trucking companies will be in a scramble to get outfitted with ELD or Electronic Logbooks at the last minute. Implementation will take time and there is a risk of scarcity of the required AOBRD hardware. It is not too early to research, purchase, and implement your hours of service electronic logbook solution. Affordable truck driver logbook systems are already available and can be purchased and implemented before the rush.
