It was 16th February 2016 when the ELD rule came into effect. Since then, every fleet manager or owner-operator has employed ELDs for their fleet. There is also a myth around the ELDs that they are good only for compliance. However, in reality, they are far more beneficial! Let’s take a deeper look into how ELDs can help fleet managers.

ELD: A Brief Overview

An ELD records the working hours of the drivers. It is connected to the vehicle’s engine and therefore documents other useful data. It provides fleet managers and drivers a real-time view of their job hours. And hence it helps them to remain in compliance with the HoS rule.

Moreover, there are other significant statistics that an ELD retrieves from the vehicle:

• Date
• Time
• Location
• Vehicle information
• Mileage
• Distance traveled
• User authorization
• Engine start and stop
• Engine diagnostics

These statistics are enough to speculate how crucial ELD is for your fleet. Now, let’s talk about how ELDs can help you to streamline your fleet management. Meanwhile, you can also go through the complete list of available eld devices.

Benefits Of An ELD For Fleet Managers

Currently, everyone uses ELD to remain in compliance with the HoS rule. But as someone wise once said, “Sky is the limit.” Similarly, the role of ELD is not limited to a compliance tool.

ELDs can streamline operation, documentation and boost the efficiency of your fleet.

Here are some of the other benefits of ELDs for a fleet manager:

Compliance

The evident benefit of ELD is compliance. An ELD solution helps you to remain in compliance with the HoS rules. With the ELD, you can monitor the working hours of the drivers. And assign them tasks accordingly. As per FMCSA, these are the registered ELD devices

Reduce Paperwork

Before the ELD mandate, fleet managers manually recorded hours of service of different drivers. It was a time-consuming and tedious process. But with ELD, you can automatically track and record vehicle movement and women in compliance with HoS rules.

Save Money

For the transport industry, time is money. The more time drivers give to work, the more profit they earn. But because of documentation and administrative work, the time and effort go in vain. But with the ELD, they can minimize it and contribute their time to make money.

Reduce Bad Driving Behavior

One of the most important benefits of an ELD is reducing bad driving behavior. Even the most experienced driver in your fleet can show reckless driving behavior. How?

Suppose you have assigned the work to them and due to some circumstances they are late. What will they do? They will step on the accelerator to finish their tasks as soon as possible, disregarding the safety protocols. They will be lucky to come out unscathed from rough driving, but luck can only do so much.

If the drivers start to resort to rash driving, again and again,  you and your fleet will be in a difficult position. But you can avoid such a situation with the help of ELD. Also, You can easily monitor hard braking and acceleration

An ELD can identify any such behavior and send you a warning. Hence you will have enough time to talk to the driver and help them overcome it.

Fuel Wastage

There are times when a driver is not working and the vehicle is simply idling. It causes fuel wastage, and your operational cost goes up. With the help of ELD, you can keep a check on idling and reduce unnecessary fuel consumption. And thereby save dollars for your fleet.

Vehicle Diagnostics

Vehicles are the most crucial part of any fleet. As long as they are in running condition, you will earn profits. Sometimes some petty issues grow into a huge mess when left unaddressed.

An ELD connects to the vehicle’s diagnostic port and detects any fault codes. Whenever it takes any minor, it will send a real-time alert. And hence you will be able to address the problem in time.

Moreover, you can also detect any recurring fault codes with historical fault code reports and solve them up.

Location Tracking and Route Optimisation

Modern-day ELD also helps you monitor the real-time location of the vehicles on the road. Location tracking gives visibility to the fleet managers. And also increases transparency between you and the drivers and you and your customers.

For example, suppose you are into the food delivery business. When any customer orders a meal, they would like to stay updated about its location. You can share the location updates with them, and hence you can improve your customer satisfaction.

Moreover, when you know the route beforehand, you can plan out the best routes for the drivers. And hence, time and money for your fleet.

Increased Safety

The most important benefit of the ELD is increased safety. Before ELD, drivers used to work overtime. It caused fatigues and turned them into grim reapers. They were not only a threat for themselves but others on the road.

According to the FMCSA report, an ELD can save up to 26 lives and around 562 injuries per year. And therefore, you can not only reduce unnecessary lawsuits and liabilities but save the lives of drivers.

Reduce Liabilities

Even if you take all kinds of measures, accidents can happen. Right? And you will have to face lawsuits and compensation. But what if it wasn’t your driver’s fault? In such a case, ELD can help you to provide evidence.

You can use the data recorded by the ELD to show that the driver wasn’t involved in reckless driving. And hence prove your innocence. In this way, you can win a lawsuit and reduce or skip a penalty overall

Automated IFTA Reports

Auditing IFTA reports manually is a time-consuming process. But with an ELD, it is no more. With an ELD, you can generate automated IFTA reports without any errors in no time.

Lower Insurance Premiums

When your fleet employs ELDs, the insurance companies offer you lower insurance premiums. Why? As ELDs improve safety and they feel safe to provide you insurance.

Increased Revenue

With the help of the ELD solution, you can manage and assign loads to different drivers. You can take a look at the left working hours of each driver and assign them tasks accordingly. And hence, you will be able to use your resources optimally and serve more customers. And thus, your fleet efficiency will increase, and you will be able to generate more revenue.

Final Words

To sum it up, we can say that an ELD solution can help you to maximize your fleet’s efficiency and reduce your workload. No doubt, it assists you to remain in compliance with the rules though its benefits are not limited to it. With integrated modern technology, they can streamline different works of a fleet and reduce your stress.

But before you purchase any ELD, you should look out if the company provides you with the above features or not. Different brands offer different attributes, and you should look into them carefully before coming up with any decision. You can also read more about ELD devices on eldreviews.us

I hope that through this article, we were able to establish the need and benefits of an ELD. Do share your views in the comment section below. And let us know your favorite advantage of the ELD.

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