When the “ELD rule” comes into effect on December 18th, what are your options?

If you are a trucking company registered in the United States or if you are a Canadian trucking company that transports to the United States, you must know by now about Section 32301(b) of the Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Enhancement Act, enacted as part of MAP-21. This mandates the Electronic Logging Device (ELD) rule and it calls for the Secretary of Transportation to adopt regulations requiring ELD use in commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) involved in interstate commerce, when operated by drivers who are required to keep records of duty status (RODS). If you are not fully up to speed with this ELD rule, you can check it out here at FMCSA’s ELD page to learn more.

After efforts to eliminate or delay this ELD rule, the implementation timeline for ELDs still stands. Starting on December 18th, 2017 the best ways to get your miles-per-state will be the following:

• ELD – Automatically records a driver’s driving time and other hours-of-service (HOS) data. This allows easier, more accurate HOS record-keeping. An ELD monitors a vehicle’s engine to capture data on whether the engine is running, whether the vehicle is moving, miles driven, and duration of engine operation (engine hours).
• AOBRD –  An AOBRD must be integrally synchronized with the specific operations of the CMV on which it is installed. AOBRDs must also record engine use, speed, miles driven, and date and time of day. AOBRDs may be used until December 16, 2019, if the devices were put into use before December 18, 2017.

eTruxFuel works with both ELDs and AOBRDs, to generate your IFTA reports. This electronic recording of miles-per-state will solve the issue of verifying actual miles for IFTA auditors.

However, if your company falls within the exemptions, you can still use these other recommended methods to record your miles-per-state and eTruxFuel can help you as it also works with them.

1. Manual Odometer Readings – By writing down or entering into a fuel tax program the start, state line(s), and end odometer readings of your delivery (example – start: New York City, state line: New York/Connecticut, end: Hartford). These are considered your actual miles traveled.
2. Manual Total distance per state – If you do not have your odometer readings, you can enter your distance or mileage you traveled in each state.
3. Estimation – You can estimate your miles-per-state using eTruxFuel.