Residents in New Jersey are likely aware that fatigue among truck drivers can be a major problem and a serious risk to everyone on the road. The federal government has been putting new rules in place to curb fatigue in the past few years to improve safety.
One of the new rules is called the Hours of Service rule. This provides limits on the number of hours an operator can work per day and how many of those hours can be spent driving. It also outlines the maximum number of working hours per week and when daily and weekly breaks should be taken. The goal is to prevent a trucker from driving too long at any given time.
In an effort to force compliance with the Hours of Service rule, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has also instituted a mandate to use electronic logging devices. In the past, truckers could simply write down on paper their working time. Now, ELDs are able to be connected to the engines of trucks and monitor when a truck is started, when it is idling and when it is in motion. This gives an objective view of the actions of drivers and how well they are complying with the HoS.
Early electronic devices were known as automatic onboard recording devices but these versions are no longer going to be acceptable and all drivers and fleets must migrate to the newer ELDs by December 16 of this year. Some of the enhancements to the new tools involve the ability to edit logs.