This edition of Overdrive Radio in some ways picks up where Overdrive News Editor Matt Cole left off in his reporting from mid-late October around truck-involved crash statistics in the four years prior to, and the four years after, implementation of the FMCSA's electronic logging device mandate, which began in earnest right at the end of 2017. As many podcast listeners and Overdrive readers among you have likely seen, Cole’s reporting illustrated clearly the generally higher rates of crashes post-mandate, even considering the 2020 year when statistics were way down with the big decline in motorist highway traffic amid the fear and uncertainty of the early COVID pandemic.
So there’s a definite correlation between major regulatory change in the ELD mandate and those negative safety impacts, but can we really determine there’s a causal link there? Hard to say, given so many factors go into the cause of any crash, not least among those factors the “unprofessional” driving behavior of our four-wheeled friends.
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The question of cause and effect around the ELD mandate, though, is certainly a conversation starter for Overdrive’s owner-operator audience. Attendant to Cole’s reporting, we surveyed owner-operators, and the overwhelming majority feel the mandate has at least contributed to safety-negative effects.
