ELDs have caused quite a bit of controversy this past year;ย however, experts are saying that the mandate has shined a light on HOS and detention causing a tighter collaboration between carriers and shippers.
Now that the industry has ELDs, people can more closely calculate the effects excessive detention has on productivityโcausing shippers to maintain efficiency at the warehouse level to increase turn-around time.
Sam Hough, Executive Vice President and COO for Covenant Transport Services, said, โWe have been fortunate to develop deep-seated relationships with customers that allow transparency, which promotes empathy and a greater understanding of how to use a professional driverโs hours better.โ
Additionally, the enforcement of the ELD mandate forced poor-quality performers out of the industry in the sense that they were not typically compliant with HOS regulations and were oftentimes responsible for a higher number of incidents.
Research Vice President for Transportation Technology at Gartner, Bart De Muynck, said that ELDs โactually drove capacity out of the industry,โ but the shakeout of carriers was overall beneficial as โthe worst of the worst left the industry.โ
ELDs are also benefiting brokerage arms, as access to real-time data sets can allow for more accurate assumptions on available capacity.
President of SJ Consulting Group, Satish Jindel, said he believes ELDs will also provide fleets with a new set of predictive analytics that will give them the tools to analyze the best opportunities. According to De Muynck, freight brokers will also benefit from real-time analytics provided from ELDs, allowing them to better predict when and where capacity will become available.
