As you’re probably aware, the coronavirus pandemic has prompted the federal government to temporarily suspend a trucking safety law that has been in place since 1938. The FMCSA has announced that those drivers who are moving goods “in support of emergency relief efforts related to the COVID-19 outbreaks” will not have to follow the hours-of-service laws, which regulate the number hours a driver may work without rest breaks. (The HOS waiver doesn’t apply to fuel transports.)

This is a temporary measure and the first time the rule has been suspended on a nationwide level since it was established. It’s common for states and local governments to waive hours-of-service rules during natural disasters, when consumers stock up on household goods and hospitals need medical supplies.

With this temporary change in Hours of Service, it’s more important than ever to stay on top of your drivers’ hours. Be sure you have an ELD that’s self-certified and registered with the FMCSA. Through our partnership with Geotab, SmartDrive delivers compliance capabilities including Hours of Service, IFTA mileage collection and Vehicle Inspection Reports. Fleets can take advantage of the SmartDrive single box architecture and unified data stream, so you can eliminate redundancy across data, devices and connectivity, and experience the true power of convergence.

With changes in schedules, routes and loads, it’s also important to track fleets accurately. Powerful telematics capabilities now available include tracking, geofencing, historical trip data, and custom rules and alerting. With easily stored trip history information, you can recreate any of your driver’s trips at any time and for any date specified. This includes in-depth views for various events, such as time spent at the office, on the road and at customer locations. What’s more, you can see a summarized view of all your drivers’ trip information, including fleet performance metrics such as least driven asset, most driven asset, as well as highest idle asset. With less people at locations to accept deliveries, it’s important to know when a delivery was made, while ensuring it was made to the right location.

Just because work rules have been suspended, safety has not. Take every precaution necessary to ensure your drivers remain safe during this unprecedented time so that they can remain on the road now … and when we transition back to normal.

To learn more about the power of the SmartDrive video safety program and compliance, sign up for a quick demo. Bring the power of convergence to your fleet.

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