In December 2017, the FMCSA granted a 90-day ELD waiver to ag haulers, which pushed the ELD mandate compliance deadline for livestock/ag haulers to mid-March.

However, that deadline is ending soon, and livestock haulers will need electronic logging devices to stay compliant.

Note: Ag haulers running under the waiver until the deadline must have a copy of the FMCSA’s notice with them for roadside inspections.

Apart from the FMCSA compliance, the Motive ELD also have numerous benefits that could simplify operations for livestock/ag haulers and make them more productive. In this blog post, we highlight a few of them:

1. Reduce paperwork and administrative burden

The Motive ELD eliminates paperwork, reduces administrative burden, and saves many hours that could instead be spent productively.

The IFTA fuel tax reporting feature in the Motive ELD automatically calculates the distance traveled and the fuel purchased by jurisdiction for every vehicle, allowing you to calculate IFTA fuel tax reports in just a few clicks.

Manually calculating IFTA reports is tedious, time-consuming, and error-prone. The FMCSA estimates that by reducing paperwork, ELDs would save, on average, $705 per driver every year.

The Motive ELD increases efficiency, removes inconsistencies, and reduces audit risk.

2. Minimize fuel wastage

With the Motive ELD, livestock/ag haulers can save thousands of dollars every year by minimizing idling and fuel wastage.

It is estimated that for a truck that consumes $70,000 worth of fuel, approximately $5,600 is wasted on idling. The Motive ELD has an idle-time tracking feature that lets you identify drivers who idle for too long or too frequently. By ranking drivers by utilization rate and comparing against the fleet average, you can quickly identify the drivers who need immediate coaching.

3. Fewer violations

Based on the Motive data, we analyzed that 13.61% of all inspections livestock haulers face are Level-1 inspections.

With the Motive ELD, you are better equipped to pass these inspections with no violations. Fewer violations mean higher profit, less hassle, quicker roadside inspections, and better CSA scores.

4. Simplify vehicle inspections

A large number of violations are vehicle-related; this fact was also evident during the CVSA’s international roadcheck 2017 event.

The Motive ELD directly connects to the vehicle’s diagnostic port and actively looks for fault codes. Fleet managers get real-time notifications when fault codes are detected so that they can stay ahead of maintenance problems. You can also identify recurring vehicle maintenance issues with historical fault-code reports.

With the vehicle inspection feature, you can also customize Motive’s electronic DVIRs to meet your specific requirements.

Livestock haulers can have varying needs and vehicle inspection requirements. The vehicle inspection feature in the Motive ELD enables you to create completely customizable inspection forms that fit your needs: choose certain fields to be mandatory, add custom fields, specify the parts drivers need to inspect, and much more.

5. Promote better driving practices and improve safety

The Motive ELD enables you to take your fleet safety to the next level by monitoring drivers for critical events, such as hard braking, hard cornering, and hard acceleration. It allows you to track your best and worst performing drivers, identify safety risk events and spot the drivers that need immediate coaching.

Moreover, with the Motive driver management and alerts feature, fleet managers can be more proactive. They can set up automated email alerts for crucial events, such as:

  • Vehicle fault codes
  • Hours-of-service violations
  • DVIR defects
  • Hard braking events
  • Hard acceleration

6. Better hours-of-service planning

Livestock haulers face unique challenges. Longer stops, while loaded, create the necessity of offloading animals which introduces the possibility of transmitting diseases between different types of species. Moreover, haulers also need to make sure that the animals are well-fed and well-rested.

For all these reasons and more, hours-of-service planning becomes all the more important for livestock haulers.

The Motive has an intuitive hours-of-service clock that allows fleet managers and drivers to efficiently plan and see exactly how much time they have left in their shift and cycle. The Motive App shows four clocks that automatically calculate:

  • The time left until you need to take a 30-minute break
  • The time left until your driving limit is reached
  • The time left until your shift ends
  • The time left in your 60 or 70-hour cycle

Moreover, the Motive ELD also notifies of upcoming HOS violations, so livestock haulers are always in compliance with federal regulations.

7. Use the Driver App with confidence

Motive is the highest-rated electronic logbook app. The Motive ELD is complemented by the Motive Driver App, which is the highest-rated e-log app on Google Play and Apple iTunes stores with over 20,000 positive reviews.

Over 500,000 drivers love the Motive App because of its rich features, and easy-to-use interface.

8. Get 24×7 technical support

At Motive, we understand the unique challenges that livestock haulers face. That is why we provide 24×7 technical support to answer your queries and guide you through at any time of the day.

If you ever have any questions, connect with a sales rep or give us a call at 855-434-3465.

Try Motive

The ELD compliance deadline for livestock and ag haulers is just a few weeks away. Don’t wait until the last moment. Order the Motive ELD now.

The Motive ELD is FMCSA-registered, affordable, and easy-to-use. Call 844-325-9230 if you have any questions about the Motive ELD/fleet management solution.