Even fleets accustomed to running electronic logging devices should be prepared for a rude awakening Sunday when highway enforcement begins cracking down on ELD compliance, said Vigillo President Steve Bryan.
The forecast is based on examination of three months’ worth of ELD citations issued in a soft-enforcement, temporary violation category, said Bryan, speaking to a panel at the annual meeting of the Truckload Carriers Association near Orlando, Florida.
“This is not limited to the small owner-operators,” he said. “Everybody’s getting these violations written,” including large fleets that feel they’ve established highly compliant ELD operations.
The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance described its 395.22(a) code section as a “parking space” that has been used for ELD violations following the Dec. 18 start of the mandate, which have no effect on CSA scores, Bryan said. Starting April 1, those same violations will be written up under 395.8 and carry full CSA weight – 5 points out of ten, with an added 2 points if the driver is put out of service as a result.
From Dec. 18 through February, almost 27,000 395.22(a) violations were written, Bryan said. He cited a Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration speaker at the TCA conference who put that number at 32,000, which included much of March.
If this pattern continues after March 31, as violations get written under the 395.8 code sections, “That’s the fire hose I believe the data is showing is going to be turned on,” Bryan said.
