A Winning Combination

Compelling Reasons to Consider a TMS Solution in Tandem with an ELD.  

The Department of Transportation has mandated that all trucking companies implement an ELD solution by December — but companies shouldn’t neglect their broader operations in their rush to comply.

In December 2015, the United States Department of Transportation amended the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations to mandate the use of electronic logging devices (ELDs) in commercial trucks. With only a handful of exceptions, all drivers currently responsible for maintaining records of duty status (RODS) data such as hours-of-service will be required to track this data with an ELD by December 18, 2017.

Largely because the adoption deadline has already been pushed back several times (coupled with the fact that drivers overwhelmingly oppose the mandate), many trucking companies still haven’t implemented a fully-compliant ELD solution.

With the deadline rapidly approaching, these companies are now scrambling to integrate ELDs into their everyday operations.

Taking a Broader Perspective

While compliance with the DOT’s mandate is every trucking company’s first priority when selecting an ELD, it shouldn’t be a company’s only priority.

In fact, trucking companies should take this opportunity to find a solution that seamlessly integrates with — and maximizes the efficiency of — current operations. This mandate will revolutionize the trucking industry’s approach to technology, but it won’t succeed unless companies take care to ensure that their ELD of choice is compatible with essential business infrastructure.

Since most ELD solutions can function without the support of another device or program, a trucking company might be tempted to select the least expensive option available. But this approach doesn’t take into account the company’s long-term operational needs.

A small trucking company, for example, may not necessarily need extensive management software. But as it grows, it may require a software update — usually in the form of a good transportation management system (TMS) — to scale effectively. Unfortunately, not all TMS and ELD solutions are compatible, and if a company locks itself into a recurring or long-term ELD contract when it has just six or eight trucks, it may face unexpected (and avoidable) challenges as it expands its fleet.

The Value of TMS

Instead of gravitating toward a shortsighted, “band-aid” ELD solution that complies with the looming DOT mandate, trucking companies should take a broader, more holistic approach to modernizing their operations.

With a fully-integrated TMS/ELD infrastructure in place, a dispatcher can easily access granular driver information from a single platform. If the dispatcher is assigning a new load, for instance, he needs to be able to quickly assess which active drivers have enough service hours to complete the run. The worst mistake a dispatcher can make is assigning a high-priority load to a driver who’s legally required to take an eight-hour break two hours into the trip. Unless hours-of-service (HOS) data is automatically transmitted to a company’s dispatch software, ill-advised decisions like these remain all too common.

An effective TMS also helps trucking companies streamline their financial bookkeeping, which can otherwise create a troublesome bottleneck in their operations. By integrating with accounting software like QuickBooks®, a TMS allows companies to handle their freight and customer billing and process driver settlements all in one place.

Successful TMS/ELD Integration is Possible — and Powerful

The impending mandate has compelled many trucking companies to shop for an ELD solution, but doing so without considering a TMS solution is like shopping for hubcaps before you’ve bought a car. The Department of Transportation may not require trucking companies to adopt a TMS, but for those companies hoping to smoothly transition into the ELD era, a cutting-edge TMS is vital.