On December 18, a federal mandate requiring the installation of electronic logging devices (ELDs) on all commercial trucks went into effect. Still, other proposed regulations designed to improve highway safety have been rolled back or are on hold.
According to a recent story on NPR, the Obama-era mandate was one of several proposed regulations that were designed to make the roads safer by preventing drivers from operating their vehicles while fatigued. The ELD mandate, specifically, requires all trucks to have ELDs, which would replace the easily altered paper logbooks that many drivers still use to track the hours they spend on the road and the hours that they spend at rest.
Some truck drivers complain that the new devices are prohibitively expensive (the devices cost about $500) and that they do not take into account the actual conditions and delays that drivers experience while on the road.