Cheap puns aside, carriers are running out of time to comply with the ELD mandate criteria. Although the mandate was officially put into effect on December 18th, 2017, the industry in its entirety will be effected for those who have not been prepared for this change. As of April 1, 2018, any driver, carrier or equipment that violates the rules specified in the ELD mandate will be put out of service via the OOSC (Out-of-Service-Criteria).What does the mandate and the delayed start mean for the Supply Chain?
Threats
There are two HOS rules that are really going to effect drivers, carriers, and owner-ops. 1.) Eleven hour driving rule in which a driver can only drive for 11 hours in total before having to take a 10 hour break. The 11-hour clock only ticks when the truck is actually being driven. 2.) Fourteen hour on duty shift rule in which a driver may only be on duty for 14 hours before taking a ten hour break. The clock starts ticking as soon as the driver changes his status to On Duty or Driving.
The biggest threat to companies needing logistics services right now is their use of smaller, cheaper outfits of drivers via owner-ops. In light of the ELD Mandate, many owner-ops have not complied with the rule and will not be ready to comply by April 1st. This is in large part due to the expensive aspects of the ELD rule and the inability of some owner-ops to be able to outfit their fleet in time for the change.
Because of the few Owner-ops left and the carriers that companies use, there will be a large decrease in available drivers in the market come April 1. However, these few drivers are now limited to a strict window of time spelled out in the HOS rules. Unloading a trailer is not something that is done very quickly. For companies to make sure that the freight is unloaded efficiently, safely and without damages to the freight, many trailers can take up to three hours to unload. Drivers no longer have three hours to wait for their trailer to be unloaded and then to be back on the road. Carriers and owner-ops will want to utilize their drivers’ times as efficiently as possible so that they can get as many loads done in a day as the ELD mandate allows. So what should those companies do now that they seemingly have less time to get the same amount of safe work done?
Opportunities
This problem in the industry is ripe with solutions for those companies that are prepared.
For instance, Easley just got a call from a big customer of ours expressing this very concern. They have relied on owner-ops to complete their shipping needs and are now faced with some big issues since their owner-ops will not be able to provide service until they have complied with the ELD rule. After pondering over this issue for some time, we have a solution that we think the entire industry can utilize for everyone’s benefit: Dedicated drivers and equipment.
If companies large-and-small began looking to flexible and prepared service providers like Easley, this problem caused by the ELD Mandate would be a non-issue. Companies like us are in a unique position in the market to offer dedicated drivers, equipment, and even yard space/management to fix the problem. Carriers and owner-ops will bring a load to a company for drop-off and can move on for more loads. Dedicated drivers will then help manage the yard by using their own equipment to move trailers, prepare other loads, and service the company as it needs so that the job is still done in a safe and efficient way. These dedicated drivers sole job will be to manage the yard and move freight on a smaller scale, so all of their allotted ELD time will be utilized for the company that uses their services.
This seems to be the best solution in regards to the issues that the mandate start date causes to arise. If you are worrying about the implications of this mandate, click here and we will solve your problems before they become problems. You can also give us a call at 901.362.5152 if you’d like to find solutions that are tailored to your needs.