EROAD says its electronic logging device is ready

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – EROAD announced at the Technology & Maintenance Council spring meetings it will be the first tethered in-cab electronic logging device (ELD) supplier to appear on the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) registry of compliant devices.

EROAD has verified its device meets the technical standards set by FMCSA and has submitted its product for inclusion on the registry.

“We believe it will be confirmed very shortly,” Norm Ellis, president of North America for EROAD.

FMCSA relies on suppliers to self-certify their devices.

Ellis predicted there will be many challenges for supplier who are looking to update their existing automatic on-board recording devices (AOBRDs).

“We were fortunate to build from the ground up,” Ellis said.

EROAD says its tethered ELD complies with all US technical requirements.

By the end of the year, all commercial drivers operating in the US that must record hours-of-service will have to do so using an ELD. Existing AOBRDs will be grandfathered for a period of two years. This means more than a million drivers will need to shift to electronic hours-of-service recording within the next 11 months.

EROAD has also submitted its device to PIT Group for third-party verification that it complies with the FMCSA technical standard.

“We believe having someone like that, that understands the art of compliance and what that means, to individually verify us is very important,” Ellis said. “We look forward to their final report.”

Ellis said updating existing AOBRDs to comply with the new standard won’t be simple for providers who are taking that approach.

“To retrofit an application as complex as this on an older legacy platform is going to be fraught with challenges and hardships for both the user and the vendor,” he warned.

Reliability, said Ellis, is key.

“That reliability is critical. If it doesn’t work every day – even if it doesn’t work four hours every other week – it’s going to be very frustrating to say the least and probably very costly in the long run,” he said.

 

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James Menzies is editorial director of Today's Trucking and TruckNews.com. He has been covering the Canadian trucking industry for more than 24 years and holds a CDL. Reach him at james@newcom.ca or follow him on Twitter at @JamesMenzies.


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