The Legal Side of Fleet Management: Here’s What You Need to Know
The GPS enabled fleet tracking system has emerged as a practical solution to fleet management issues. You can now gain valuable insight on where your driver is, where they’ve been, what they’re up to, and how fast they’re traveling, all in real-time.
According to a research study by Frost and Sullivan, GPS fleet equipment tracking systems can raise your fleet’s productivity by 10-15%, vehicle utilization by 15-20% while reducing fuel consumption, idle time, miles driven and overtime by 20-25%, 20-30%, 5-10%, and 10-15% respectively.
Not sure what fleet equipment tracking is? Read the full article at Samsara.com.
But before you start spying on your employees, here are a few questions you should ask:
- Is it legal to track your employees through a GPS?
- What states will your drivers be operating in? What are the legal requirements in each of those states?
- How will you communicate this to your drivers?
- Have you included details of what you will track within your vehicle policy?
To answer the first question, yes, it is. However, there are specific laws you must abide by before directly jumping into it.
Vehicle tracking laws saw a significant change in December 2017 with the introduction of the new legal requirement for drivers and motor carriers in every industry.
Further, in December 2019, The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) brought about another major change by making ELD compliance mandatory. Hence you need to understand how ELD impacts you and your organization.
What is the ELD Mandate?
The ELD mandate requires you to use an electronic logging device(ELD). It is an electronic version of the paper logbook that commercial drivers traditionally use to log their Record of Duty Status (RODS).
The FMCSA defines ELD as:
“A device that synchronizes with a vehicle engine to automatically record driving time, for easier, more accurate hours of service (HOS) recording.”
This rule increases the safety of commercial motor vehicles. It reduces the overall paperwork burden for both motor carriers and drivers.
Fleets that were using paper logbooks rather than AOBRD, a more accurate digital recorder, to keep track of their drivers’ hours of duty(HOD) and duty statuses had to install ELDs in their vehicles by December 18, 2017
The final ELD compliance deadline was December 16, 2019. It applies to those fleets that were already using the AOBRD on the original deadline of December 18, 2017, and didn’t need ELDs urgently. These fleet managers must also replace all of their AOBRDs with modern ELDs as of December 16, 2019.
ELD vs. AOBRDs
Automatic On-Board Recording Device (AOBRD) was a technology used by the driver to record information before ELD. Though these were also automated, they did not perform all the functions of an ELD as specified in the updated technical requirements of the ELD mandate, and hence were required to be replaced by December 16, 2019.
How do the ELDs function?
An ELD connects to the engine control module (ECM). ECM controls the engine in a driver’s vehicle and feeds raw data to the ELD about the vehicle’s motion. The engine runs, miles driven, and engine hours.
This data enables ELD to provide valuable insights to managers about the performance of their fleet.
Who is required to use an ELD?
All Commercial Motor Vehicle carriers that operate across state lines are vto use an ELD. Any driver who maintains eight or more days’ worth of duty status logs, out of 30 days, will be impacted. However, the FMCSA does allow exemptions for drivers who are not required to keeps RODS, including:
- Drivers who use RODS for less than eight days during any 30-day period.
- Drivers of vehicles older than the model year 2000.
- Drive away-tow away drivers, as long as the vehicle driven is part of the shipment.
Consult the FMCSA website to verify if your fleet is affected by the ELD rule.
Penalties for non-compliance
FMCSA can sanction you for non-compliance through penalties of several thousand dollars or vehicle shut down orders.
You can ensure ELD compliance avoid penalties by installing a full ELD- enabled fleet management solution.
Benefits of ELD-enabled fleet management system
ELD-enabled solutions can help your business in the following manner:
- Improving driver accountability
- Staying FMCSA compliant
- Increasing routing and delivery efficiency
- Maintaining vehicle usage
- Saving money by reducing overtime
- Reducing paperwork through automated reporting
- Lowering insurance costs
Other Fleet Management Law Compliance Obligation
An interstate carrier of goods with a US DOT registration number should also comply with the US Department of Transportation (US DOT) legislation CSA 2010.
Under CSA 2010, fleets must provide the following information:
- A list of all the violations that have been detected during inspections.
- State-supplied crash reports.
- The reports for all violations that have been identified by federal or state investigators.
State legislation for Monitoring Employee Vehicles
It is also essential for you to become familiar with laws applicable to privacy expectations and GPS tracking of vehicles in the state where you wish to engage in GPS tracking.
States like California, Connecticut, Delaware, Texas, and Illinois have their laws that specifically apply to GPS tracking. For instance, an Illinois statute enacted in 2014 makes it a criminal misdemeanor to use GPS tracking to monitor a vehicle’s location without the vehicle owner’s consent (See 720 ILCS 5/21-2.5.).
Connecticut is another state that highlighted the privacy issue when it enacted a statute that made it illegal “to monitor employees electronically without providing them with prior notice.”
Tracking an employee using the company-owned property is generally permissible in most states, especially when the employee is aware of GPS monitoring. However, tracking employees using their personally owned property is still a legal gray area.
What is the penalty for Illegal use of a Tracking System?
The punishment differs from state to state. In Texas, the crime is a Class A misdemeanor, which could land you in jail for one year. In California, you could be both jailed and charged with a fine. They can also take away your professional license.
In Conclusion
The rise of technology today has given you unprecedented access to your employee’s whereabouts. However, you must be responsible and considerate while applying technology. Only monitor the employees during work hours, and to the extent, it justifies your business need.
Your employees should not feel suffocated by your continuous spying. Applying advanced technology alone won’t maximize your efficiency or ensure compliance with safety and traffic laws. Keeping your employee’s morale high is also equally important.