Industry Insights from Vertrax

With a new year, comes new regulations. It’s important to stay up-to-date in order to be in compliance and allow your organization to achieve your goals for the year.

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) recently released an 80-page document titled “Preparing for the Future of Transportation: Automated Vehicles 3.0,” or “AV 3.0” for short. It expands the DOT’s voluntary guidance on the development of what they consider “automated vehicles.” This document builds on last September’s AV 2.0, with the intention of introducing a “comprehensive, multimodal approach toward safely integrating automation.”

The Electronic Logging Device mandate went into effect in December of 2017 and full enforcement began in April of 2018. It has been a bumpy road in terms of implementation and enforcement thus far. The mandate requires “ELD use by commercial drivers who are required to prepare hours-of-service (HOS) records of duty status (RODS),” states the FMCSA. Drivers that utilized automatic onboard recording devices (AOBRD) before the December ELD deadline are grandfathered in and can continue using these devices until December 16, 2019.

The ELD mandate that took effect at the beginning of the year has been a hot button issue. The mandate’s purpose is to make the roads safer for everyone travelling them, so with it came a greater focus on the Hours of Service (HOS) requirements for drivers.

The trucking industry is currently in a technology transition that includes autonomous vehicles. First, we saw the smartphone apps that helped truckers locate truck stops and trucker parking. Then came the FAST Act in 2015 that required all commercial truck drivers to use electronic logging systems by December 18, 2017. There is also truck tracking technology and in-cab dash cam systems that are used to reduce crime and improve safety.