The National Tank Truck Carriers (NTTC) association is the latest industry trade group to support mandates for electronic logging devices (ELDs) to document hours of service (HOS) compliance.
Steve Rush, NTTC’s chairman and CEO of New Jersey-based Carbon Express, said the group – comprised of 200 for-hire bulk transport carriers and 300 associate members – voted to support the ELD mandate during its summer membership meeting last July, but withheld making any public announcement pending related developments in the HOS rule-making.
“Personally, as a former professional driver myself, I’ve been a strong proponent of in-cab technology for years,” Rush said in a statement.
“Our membership recognizes that ELDs will allow all carriers to equally police themselves, which can only lead to safer, better operations across the board,” he said. “ELD technology will also greatly contribute to improved working conditions for our professional drivers which will be a large factor as capacity tightens and driver recruiting grows more challenging.”
NTTC’s public support of ELD joins that of other industry groups, including the Truckload Carriers Assn. (TCA), which voted to support mandated ELDs during its annual convention in San Diego last month.
“We believe that this new policy is reflective of today’s operating environment and out board of directors thought it was important that our members lead on this issue,” said TCA Pres. Chris Burruss.
Despite support by many industry trade groups, they have also voiced several common concerns they would like to see addressed before ELD technology is mandated. Those concerns include:
- Statutory protections for motor carriers pertaining to the control, ownership, and admissibility/discoverability of data generated and derived from ELDs, and to assure the privacy rights of drivers, except for HOS compliance;
- Recognition of the “operational diversity” of the trucking industry, allowing for the continued existence of exceptions to the record of duty status, along with additional exemptions that balance compliance with evolving industry diversity;
- Relieving of the burden of retaining supporting documents for verification of driving time if compliant ELDs are used;
- The simultaneous installation of ELDs for all motor carriers covered by any mandate, and
- The use of tax incentives to foster adoption and installation of ELD systems.
