Being a fan of the BYOD option since the beginning of this whole “ELD Revolution”, I saw many options come up as I decided which one to use prior to the mandate enforcement date. After doing my homework and checking out the options, I decided like many others out there to go with an option that eliminated the monthly service fee that many companies out there were requiring. As mind-boggling as the “something for nothing” strategy was to me, I decided to try out the One20 F-ELD based on weighing several factors against several other providers. With the announcement this past week of service cancellations going into full affect on these units on June 18, 2018, it seems as though my only reservation about this being “too good to be true” came to fruition! So if you’re like me and are now left with the hardware that seems destined to become your new paperweight, you may be asking yourself as I did, “What do I do now?”
First of all, don’t pity yourself in your decision! After all, with minimal investment in equipment and no service fees since the mandate enforcement date, the units have already paid for themselves in terms of being compared to units with monthly fees. So at least you got your money’s-worth out of it already if you’ve had it that long. I was sad to see it go, as it was an easy to use option after they finally got the initial bugs worked out! Second, get on your One20 F-ELD Dashboard and get to gettin’! You only have until June 18,th to download your previous six months logs that are required to be on-file by the FMCSA. If you were on the One20 mailing list for your F-ELD, instructions were sent out on how to do just that and save them in a PDF format for storage and/or printing. If you weren’t on the list or didn’t get it, you can find help in doing so at https://help.one20.com/Using_ONE20_ELD/How_to_Use_the_Dashboard/Reports/Driver_Logs_Report.
Once you’ve done the dirty work in covering your rear with the past six-month’s logs, you will now have to venture into the realm of ELD shopping once again. Still being a fan of the BYOD option, I have decided to go with one that offers more robust options from the fleet management perspective, but requires a small monthly fee. Seeing now that “free-for-life” might just be too good to be true, this seemed like the next logical step in my BYOD adventure in ELD compliance. Although requiring a two-year contract, I opted in this time for the TRUXTRAX Truxbox ELD, which is currently offering the first year of a two-year contract free from service fees. After the initial free year, service fees can be purchased on a month-to-month plan of $15 monthly, or annually for $150. The reviews from existing users are good and it offers included features such as IFTA mileage tracking, GPS fleet tracking (with geo-fencing capability), as well as in-app messaging to fleet units. As far I have heard, only one company is offering the use of your existing F-ELD hardware, which is Info-Power out of Plano, TX for $15 per month. Info on that is available at eld.abw.com.
With the many ELD providers that sought out the new mandate as a modern day gold rush, I can only speculate as to what will come in the future to many of them. With constant improvements and updates needing to be worked on with any unit or app, as well as having live tech support for end users, it is hard to make a business case for providers not charging any fees to sustain those aspects of their day-to-day operations. Although it offers a lucrative option for those wanting to comply with minimal investment, it has the downside of being a small gamble as to whether that provider will be there 6 months, a year, or several years down the road. In my opinion, we may see a “weeding-out” of the many of the options out there, as more and more providers come to terms with the real cost of keeping their ELD units and apps relevant and up-to-date. As some units gain traction in the form of adding users, some that did not appeal and gain a large amount of followers may see their cost of doing business outweigh their subscriber sales, in turn leading to seeing more of what happened with the F-ELD happen across the board. So here’s to trying another BYOD provider in hopes of finding that “diamond in the rough” of ELD providers and all my best wishes go out to those that are left searching for another option in the fallout as well!