4 Reasons Your Business Needs ELD Compliance

Fleet-based businesses are constantly seeking ways to level up their efficiency, safety, and profits. Often, it can seem like these goals are at odds with each other. It can also seem like the rules your business needs to follow to stay compliant make reaching those goals more complicated than necessary. 

Achieving electronic logging device (ELD) compliance can be difficult, but being compliant comes with some serious business perks. For example, implementing ELD compliance in your fleet-based business can not only help you avoid fines, but it can also help you reduce accidents and make operational efficiency skyrocket.

Today, let’s talk about ELD compliance. What is it, specifically? Why does your business need to be ELD compliant? And is there any recent mandate making it a legal requirement for you to have ELDs in your commercial vehicles? 

ELD Compliance 101: What is ELD compliance, and why is it important?

Recently, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) passed a mandate requiring the use of ELDs in most commercial vehicles.

As their name suggests, ELDs are small onboard devices that automatically record the hours a driver is in active service—their hours of service (HOS)—a strictly regulated metric. In the past, drivers used traditional paper logbooks to record this data. This system wasn't ideal for many reasons, including the inaccuracy of self-reported data and the innate fragility of paper logbooks. 

Today, these electronic logbooks make it easy to know exactly how long drivers have been working and to pull that data for use within your business. By holding drivers accountable to their HOS, ELDs can help reduce driver fatigue, keep businesses compliant, and ensure the quality of driver activity records. 

Why does your business need to remain ELD compliant?

More alert drivers and better records sound great, but let’s go a little further. What are some specific reasons that your business needs ELD compliance? 

Here are four: 

1. Remaining compliant with the FMCSA is good for your business. 

This helps you avoid hefty fines and legally keep operating your fleet. The alternative would quite literally be a nonstarter for your company. 

2. An ELD-compliant business is a safe business. 

ELDs help you ensure your drivers aren’t in service longer than they should be, which helps reduce dangers associated with distraction and fatigue. In addition, ELDs have features that promote safety by themselves, such as automatic recording capabilities, violation alerts, and the ability to connect fleet managers to real-time fleet data. 

3. ELDs can help businesses streamline their operations.

By providing you with immediately accessible data in helpful report formats, ELDs can help you reduce the amount of time you have to spend on paperwork. You can also conduct quicker inspections and payroll with the accurate information provided by ELDs. 

4. ELD compliance can give businesses a competitive advantage. 

Being FMCSA compliant and leveraging the efficiency and safety ELD compliance gives you can boost your reputation and give you the time needed to take on more jobs. 

Now that we’ve discussed how good for your business being ELD compliant can be, let’s get into logistics. How will implementing these systems look for your employees and your company? 

How can being ELD compliant impact your team and business? 

After your team gets used to this tech, you should experience nothing but benefits. For example: 

• You’ll avoid the consequences of noncompliance, which include fines, penalties, and out-of-service orders. 
• You’ll enjoy more visibility into every corner of your business—you’ll have no surprises and more data! 
• Your team will benefit from more accountability, which can help foster an environment of trust.
• Everyone will enjoy more peace of mind and productivity.
• Your business will be well-poised to grow and have more profits! 

And better yet, the team at ClearPathGPS is here to help you onboard successfully so you can enjoy these benefits as smoothly as possible. 

How can high-quality ELDs help you stay compliant?

Great ELDs have several features that make staying compliant with FMCSA regulations a piece of cake. For example: 

• Automatic record-keeping: You don’t have to do a thing after setup. Your devices will immediately start recording hours. 
• Seamless record viewing and report pulling: Need an HOS report? Push a button and get one nearly instantly. 
• Practical alerts and notifications: Is one of your drivers nearing their HOS limitations? Get alerted when you need to act—instead of reacting after the fact—with updated dispatching strategies and more.
• Easy-to-use user interface: The last thing you need is a jargony dashboard rife with confusing instructions and excess buttons. That’s why we’ve made sure that our fleet management solutions are all as intuitive and streamlined as possible. 

We’ve saved one more benefit of ELD compliance for last because it’s one of our favorites: Implementing and using these devices can give you greater visibility into driver behavior and potential violations. This gives you multiple routes to a more smoothly operating business! 

ClearPathGPS is here to help you implement ELD compliance.

Interested in seeing how investing in ELD compliance can help you and your business? The experts at ClearPathGPS are ready to support you as you realize your compliance, efficiency, and profitability goals. Schedule a demo with us today, and, in the meantime, check out our helpful free download: Choosing ClearPathGPS as Your Fleet Management Solution Provider.