The people behind Blue Ink Technology’s no-monthly-fee BIT ELD have custom-designed a version of its hardware-purchase-only device — paired with freeware operable on iOS and Android smartphones and tablets — for light- and medium-duty trucks with OBDII-type in-cab portals to the vehicles’ electronic control modules.
The BIT ELD’s OBDII version, with screenshots from back-office portal and smartphone views of the backing software.“We spent a long time developing this hardware to meet the specifications of the ELD mandate,” says Mike Riegel of Blue Ink Technology. “The tricky thing with smaller trucks is that the data that is needed by the FMCSA [electronic logging device] mandate is not in a standard address like the heavy-duty vehicles. The toughest item to get was the odometer. We had to test our hardware on many makes and models of trucks to make sure we could get the odometer reading for all of them.”
The new product, at a slight higher price point ($395) than BIT’s standard ELD for heavy-duty vehicles ($295), “works seamlessly with our existing BIT ELD app,” Riegel adds, “so carriers with both medium and heavy duty vehicles can keep HOS records in any vehicle in their fleet using the app.”
The device comes with BIT’s standard 30-day money back guarantee, “so new users will have no risk to try the system out and see if it works for them,” Riegel says.
Additional features include a USB 2.0 port that will allow the app to write to a DOT officer’s thumb drive at roadside in the event that they are out of range of a cell tower and can’t connect to the internet to transfer logs. The unit will also support “over the air” firmware updates, through the the app, “without the driver or carrier having to plug it into their computer,” Riegel adds.
