Each week we recap the hot topics in freight and compile them into one place so you can easily stay up to date on the industry. Check back each Monday and start your week off in the know. TRANSFLO & GO!
That’s All Folks!
FMCSA’s two-year transition from paper logs to ELDs ended today.
Unless a motor carrier operates under a short-haul rule exemption, all truckers without an ELD onboard, or those who have not converted their AORBDs to an ELD, now face an out-of-service violation starting today, Dec. 17, 2019.
Collin Mooney, executive director of the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, says he believes truckers will be ready.
“We’re taking a pulse largely from the ELD manufacturers,” Mooney told Transport Topics. “Earlier in the year, they were a little concerned that we were going to have this flood of last-minute conversions. However, the vendors, in working with their clients, believe everybody has either migrated already or will be migrated in time.”
According to the North American Standard Out-of-Service Criteria, property-carrying drivers who do not have an ELD by the deadline will be considered without a record of duty status in their possession. Those violators will be declared out of service for 10 hours.
– Related: Shippers may find capacity tighter on a carrier-by-carrier, lane-by-lane basis when the final phase of the ELD mandate takes, reports the Journal of Commerce (subscription required).
Smooth as Butter: Self-Driving Truck Makes Cross-Country Delivery
Plus.ai of Cupertino, California, announced that it has completed the first commercial cross-country trip by an autonomous truck: a 2,800-mile haul from Tulare, California, to Quakertown, Pennsylvania, for Land O’Lakes.
The truck, hauling 40,000 pounds of butter, took three days to complete the journey, stopping only for fuel and federally mandated breaks. While there was a safety driver on board at all times, the truck ran autonomously through all kinds of weather and road conditions during the week before Thanksgiving.
The company said there were zero “disengagements,” where the truck lost control.
“This cross-country freight run with Land O’Lakes shows the safety, efficiency, and maturity of our autonomous trucks,” said Shawn Kerrigan, COO and co-founder of Plus.ai.
Land O’Lakes is no stranger to new transportation technology: it currently partners with Uber Freight to streamline logistics management.