Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/923471
24 commercial carrier journal | january 2018 ELDs on double duty California carriers use them to satisfy wage, labor laws O n Nov. 30, Paul Hamilton held a meeting at CalFreight to discuss how data from electronic logging devices could be used to ensure wage and labor compliance. ELDs capture detailed driver-certified records of the work- day. The primary purpose of the data record is for complying with federal hours-of-service regulations, but the technology meets a secondary and perhaps just as important need for Cali- fornia fleets to comply with state wage and labor laws. California-based trucking companies can use the data to ver- ify that drivers are compensated for all time they spend on duty. Nondriving activities such as inspecting equipment, fueling or waiting on dispatch have to be considered in driver pay. State laws also require that companies relieve employees from work-related duties for meal breaks (30 minutes every five hours) and rest breaks (10 minutes every four hours) or compensate them if they do not use the breaks. In California, fleets have to verify that drivers are compensated for all their time spent on duty and are paid $10.50 per hour, the current minimum wage in the state. As director of trans- portation for Ripon, Calif.-based CalFreight, Hamilton has overseen the conversion from paper to electronic logs. The process began in March, and today 90 percent of its drivers are set up. CalFreight's business divisions include food-grade tanker, port drayage and rail intermodal. The food-grade tanker divi- sion mostly transports milk products in linehauls from dairies to plants inside and outside of California. Before last March, CalFreight was using Fleet Complete's asset management and vehicle tracking telematics platform. When Fleet Complete purchased electronic logging pro- vider BigRoad last March to expand its platform to include compliance, CalFreight followed suit. The integrated Fleet Complete BigRoad platform is offered through AT&T. CalFreight deployed the BigRoad ELD app on Fleet Complete tablets and uses the BigRoad compliance dash- board as part of its web-based system. By monitoring the real-time dashboard, fleet managers see the time remaining on drivers' hours-of-service clocks. "We can tell (drivers) what they can and can't do, as opposed to them telling us," Hamilton said. "This also helps us become more efficient in scheduling and planning." The tanker division has the most pressing need to use ELD data to comply with state wage and labor laws, he said. CalFreight recently changed its driver compensation from a per-mile rate to a "hybrid" plan that pays a flat hourly rate of $12 with a per-mile bonus. The combined pay equals $20 per hour on average. With this new pay structure, the company has to track every minute and mile that drivers work to spell out the pay calcula- tion on their paychecks. "This is a great time for ELDs to come into play," Hamilton said. "It would be a nightmare keeping track of all the infor- mation on handwritten paper logs." MAKING THE LATEST TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENTS WORK FOR YOUR FLEET BY AARON HUFF technology AARON HUFF is Senior Editor of Commercial Carrier Journal. E-mail ahuff@ccjmagazine.com or call 385-225-9472. INTERESTED IN TRUCKING TECHNOLOGY? Scan the barcode or go to www.goo.gl/Ph9JK to subscribe to the CCJ Technology Weekly e-mail newsletter. NOT JUST HOURS: ELDs capture detailed driver-certi- fied records of the workday. WESTERN RULES: California-based fleets use ELD data to verify drivers are paid. NONDRIVING WORK: Equipment inspections and fueling must be documented. CalFreight deployed the BigRoad ELD app on Fleet Complete tablets and uses the BigRoad compliance dashboard as part of its web-based system.