ELD adoption by owner-operators upticks as mandate deadline nears

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(Chart courtesy of CarrierLists, based on survey responses conducted by CarrierLists.)(Chart courtesy of CarrierLists, based on survey responses conducted by CarrierLists.)

The number of small carriers, including owner-operators running fewer than five trucks, who report being in compliance with the U.S. DOT’s electronic logging device mandate spiked in recent weeks, according to polling figures from CarrierLists. The numbers published by CarrierLists this week show a sharp rise in adoption of ELDs from a similar survey conducted a month prior, somewhat expected with the mandate’s compliance date less than two weeks out.

In a report issued December 4, CarrierLists says 72 percent of the 959 fleets surveyed report they’ve adopted ELDs. Of the 19 carriers surveyed operating between one and five trucks 79 percent report being in compliance with the mandate’s coming December 18 deadline. While that’s a small sample size of the tens of thousands of carriers operating between one and five trucks, it’s still a sharp uptick from the 40 percent adoption rate reported in early November.

Of carriers operating between five and 100 trucks, 75 percent reported use of ELDs. That’s also up from the 40 percent reported for carriers running between 1 and 100 trucks from November’s report.

The bulk of the survey’s respondents operate between six and 35 trucks, with their adoption rates ranging from 63 percent (for carriers operating between 11 and 15 trucks) to 75 percent (those operating between 26 and 30 units). See the chart above for the adoption rates among the carriers surveyed.