On behalf of truck crash survivors and families who lost loved ones in truck crashes, the Truck Safety Coalition supports the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) December 18, 2017 Electronic Logging Device (ELD) implementation deadline.

Updating the methodology by which truck drivers log hours, which dates back to the 1930s, has been long overdue. ELD technology will reduce the ability of bad actors to skirt federal regulations by modernizing the practice of logging hours. This mandate will also protect truck drivers from being coerced to exceed the hours they are allowed to operate because ELDs automatically record driving time, and therefore truck drivers cannot circumvent compliance by simply writing down false hours.

Additionally, the ELD mandate will enhance law enforcement officers’ capacity to enforce HOS restrictions and expedite the process of reviewing a truck driver’s logbook. The shift from paperwork to electronic logging will save not only time, but it will also produce a benefit or more than $1 billion, according to the FMCSA.

After working for more than two decades to produce a final rule that requires large trucks to be equipped with Electronic Logging Devices, the Truck Safety Coalition opposes any further delay. The ELD Final Rule will save an estimated 26 lives and prevent 562 injuries resulting from large truck crashes each year. We cannot fathom why anyone would direct an agency, whose mission is to promote safety, to consider a delay that would result in an estimated 52 fatalities and 1,124 injuries over two years.

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