When the electronic logging device mandate went into effect last December and the grace period ended April 1, many were concerned about whether there would be enough truck drivers still on the road; in other words, there was a concern about capacity.
According to a new DAT Solutions survey, the opposite has taken place. Capacity has increased 11% on the spot market since April 1.
However, according to DAT, owner-operators are still being negatively affected by the regulation because they have to buy and run their own ELD solution. DAT recently surveyed its carrier customers about ELDs and detention, the majority of which were owner-operators, and found the ELDs were negatively affecting profitability.
Most survey respondents were running ELDs, but more than 70% reported that they were earning less money and driving less miles than they were prior to implementation.
Their survey also indicated shippers are not considering HOS regulations during loading and offloading. More than 77% report wait times of more than two hours on one out of every five loads. Parking has also become an issue. 87% of them are having a harder time finding parking post-ELD mandate.
DAT also reports only 2.8% of those surveyed said they were likely to leave the trucking industry, despite fears over the last year that nearly all owner-operators would leave the trucking industry.
