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THETRUCKER.COM<br />

Nation February 15-28, 2018 • 3<br />

Old Dominion wants time to get its<br />

AOBRDs in line with ELD mandate<br />

Lyndon Finney<br />

editor@thetrucker.com<br />

WASHINGTON — The Federal Motor<br />

Carrier Safety Administration may well be<br />

caught between a rock and a hard spot.<br />

Old Dominion Freight Line Inc. has requested<br />

an exemption from the electronic logging device<br />

requirement in order to give the carrier time<br />

to install ELD devices running on automatic onboard<br />

recording device (AOBRD) software in<br />

commercial motor vehicles added to the company’s<br />

fleet for up to one year from the December<br />

18, 2017, ELD mandate compliance date.<br />

If granted, this modified ELD phase-in period<br />

will allow Old Dominion’s AOBRD/ELD<br />

provider, PeopleNet, to complete the development<br />

of the software necessary to integrate ELD<br />

data with the company’s fleet management and<br />

safety systems to fully meet the ELD mandate.<br />

“Our top priority at PeopleNet is and always<br />

will be to ensure that enabling safer, more<br />

efficient fleets should be as simple as possible.<br />

We stand behind our customers, and the limited<br />

three-month waiver allows a more flexible,<br />

seamless transition from AOBRD to ELD software.<br />

We are confident that any current challenges<br />

will be short-lived as we continue to<br />

look ahead past the ELD mandate and build out<br />

the PeopleNet platform to meet our customers’<br />

larger long-term needs.”<br />

FMCSA considers the request to be on behalf<br />

of all motor carriers in similar situations<br />

concerning the integration of PeopleNet’s ELD<br />

software into fleet management systems.<br />

The agency will accept comments on Old<br />

Dominion’s request through March 2.<br />

The carrier said it began equipping its vehicles<br />

with PeopleNet AOBRDs in 2010, and by<br />

2011 the entire fleet was equipped with devices<br />

which meet the necessary requirements.<br />

Data from the AOBRDs feed directly into<br />

the company’s fleet management and safety<br />

systems, enabling its dispatchers to know precisely<br />

where each of its drivers is at any given<br />

time and how many hours he/she has available<br />

under the federal Hours of Service rule.<br />

This functionality is not required by the AO-<br />

BRD rules under 49 CFR 395.15 or the ELD requirements<br />

under Subpart B of 49 CFR art 395.<br />

The application says that currently, the<br />

PeopleNet AOBRD software allows carriers to<br />

configure certain specifications.<br />

If the settings were not adjustable, the People-<br />

Net AOBRD would be similar, but not identical,<br />

to the FMCSA’s ELD technical specifications.<br />

Old Dominion said it has configured its settings<br />

in the PeopleNet AOBRDs it uses.<br />

However, certain AOBRD software changes<br />

must be made by PeopleNet, including:<br />

• Disabling the “skip feature”<br />

• Limiting the auto-duty status change<br />

threshold to 5 miles, and<br />

• Limiting geo-fencing of yard time to 0.5<br />

miles.<br />

Sources told The Trucker there are as many as<br />

250,000 similar units in use in the industry today.<br />

The eyes of the industry will be on the<br />

FMCSA as it considers this request because it<br />

is also considering a request from the Owner-<br />

Operator Independent Drivers Association<br />

(OOIDA) for a five-year exemption for smaller<br />

carriers with “exemplary safety records.”<br />

OOIDA wants at least a five-year exemption<br />

for motor carriers classified as small businesses<br />

by the Small Business Administration<br />

(SBA) and which have a proven safety history<br />

with no attributable at-fault crashes and no unsatisfactory<br />

carrier safety rating. The SBA defines<br />

a small business as one having less than<br />

$27.5 million annual revenue.<br />

Last week OOIDA said that U.S. Reps. Brian<br />

Babin, R-Texas, and Steve King, R-Iowa — along<br />

with 23 other members of Congress — have sent<br />

a letter to FMCSA asking the agency to support<br />

OOIDA’s pending application for an exemption<br />

from the ELD mandate. 8<br />

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7/27/17 10:10 AM

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