Real ELD Mandate Enforcement Kicks in April 1
Although the electronic logging device mandate went into effect in December, the full-enforcement of the rule – and all of its penalties – is fast approaching on April 1.
6 Ways to Rein in Your Digital Activity
Ultra-successful people “create” more time by using their 1,440 minutes a day effectively. They are purposeful about how they organize their days and weeks, what they take on versus what they delegate, and how they use technology.
One strategy ultra-successful people use to remain efficient is to spend a few minutes at the end of each day planning the next day. At the end of the week, plan the most important things you need to accomplish in the coming week, and then prioritize tasks so you can tackle the most important ones first.
To keep from falling victim to paralysis by analysis, know what the most important tasks are, and do them first.
Another successful strategy is to focus on one thing at a time. It is a myth that you can be more efficient by multitasking. Finish one task, and then move to the next one. Do the most important job first.
“If you chase two rabbits,
you will catch neither one.”
—Russian Proverb
The biggest time-wasters in our environment today are digital media, which includes e-mail and social media sites. Let’s look at how we can “create” more time by managing digital media better.
Manage Your E-Mail
E-mail is necessary, but must be controlled. According to The Washington Post, at the end of 2016, white-collar workers spent an average of 4.1 hours checking their work e-mail each day. That’s 20.5 hours each week and more than 1,000 hours each year, and it doesn’t include personal e-mail or social media.
Many time-management experts recommend setting aside two times each day to answer your e-mails—once in the morning and once in the afternoon. Do this instead of answering them as they come in. You can set up your out-of-office notification so that people who have e-mailed you will receive a response near those times. You can indicate what they should do if the matter is urgent.
Another way to increase your efficiency with e-mail is to write it in a way that increases your likelihood of receiving a response. The productivity app company Boomerang conducted a study of 350,000 e-mail threads to find out what type of e-mail closing tends to generate the most responses. Can you guess what the most effective e-mail sign-off is?
“Thanks in advance.”
Here are the results showing the rates of response various e-mail closings receive:
E-Mail Closing Response Rate
- “Thanks in advance” 65.7 %
- “Thanks” 63.0 %
- “Thank you” 57.9 %
- “Cheers” 54.4 %
- “Kind regards” 53.9 %
- “Regards” 53.5 %
- “Best regards” 52.9 %
- “Best 51.2 %
Here are additional tips for handling e-mail more efficiently.
Turn off all notifications, whether visual or audible, for your e-mail.
These distract us from what we are doing and make us check e-mail more often than we need to. According to Carleton University researchers, people now spend one-third of their time at the office and half of the time they work at home reading and answering e-mails. Thirty-percent of that time, the e-mails are neither urgent nor important.
If we can make our use of e-mail more efficient, we can save hundreds of hours a year to be more productive. That is exactly what successful people do. Set specific times of the day to check e-mail—maybe every three to four hours. Some successful people have an out-of-office message that essentially says, “I check e-mail only in the morning and evening. If you have an urgent need, please phone my office; otherwise, I will get back to you soon.”
Keep in mind that e-mail was not intended as an urgent means of communication, and it should not be used as such.
Follow the three Ds for e-mail, too: do, ditch, or delegate.
Either respond to an e-mail immediately, delete it, or forward it to the appropriate person or move it to the appropriate folder. Many of us fall victim to looking at an e-mail and leaving it in the inbox to do something with later. The e-mails continue to fill up the inbox and can get lost.
If you need to keep e-mails, set up separate folders with specific names to put them into, such as “Friends Follow” or “Anderson Project.” You can set up rules on most e-mail systems to automatically put e-mails in the proper folder.
Prioritize.
We often associate every message we receive with equal importance—at least initially—which leads to a prolific waste of time. Again, e-mail is not meant as an urgent means of communication. Follow the three Ds.
Think before you send.
The more email you send, the more you will get back. Do not CC, BCC, or imply that a response is needed unless mandatory. The more people you send to, the more consuming (and often useless) the emails you will receive back. Consider the “golden rule” of emailing: short one-line answers work best, not only for you, but also for those who don’t have time to read message.
Make your main point in the subject line.
Use the subject line to indicate the action that is needed, and use acronyms to shorten the subject line. For example, you could type, “SO the Anderson project? NOM.” In this case, “SO” stands for “Status Of,” and “NOM” stands for “No Other Message.” Here are additional acronyms that save space and time:
FYI: “For Your Interest” (or “For Your Information”). This tells your recipient that the content of your message is not urgent and doesn’t require a response.
RB xx/xx/xx: “Respond By” and specify the date.
NRN: “No response needed.”
Teach your team that you will be using acronyms, and ask them to reciprocate.
Unsubscribe from incoming e-mails you don’t want. There are programs to help you do this. For example, Email is an app that will work on both iPhone and Android devices. Keep in mind, that you will need to unsubscribe from some lists manually. But the obvious junk and spam e-mails, such as those containing adult content and prescription drugs, will go to your spam folder.
Other e-mails will come from places where you bought something in the past. By law, online vendors are required to include an “Unsubscribe” link somewhere in the e-mail, usually at the bottom. It will be tiny. Tap it, and you can remove yourself from the mailing list. You might be surprised to find that some brands have you on multiple e-mail lists, blasts for deals, updates, and more.
Use the “two-minute rule.” For the legitimate e-mails that are in your in box, use the “two-minute rule,” a concept from David Allen, the author of Getting Things Done. If an e-mail will take less than two minutes to read and reply to, then take care of it right away—even if it’s not a high priority.
The idea behind this is that if it takes less than two minutes to take action, it will take longer to read it and store it away to act on later than it would to take care of the task now. For e-mails that will take longer than two minutes to read or respond to, schedule time on your calendar to do so, or move the e-mail to the appropriate folder. Remember the three Ds: do, ditch or delegate.
Limit Your Social Media Browsing
The average person spends nearly two hours (approximately 116 minutes) on social media every day, which translates to a total of five years and four months over a lifetime. Teens now spend up to nine hours a day on social media platforms.
It might take some self-control, but if you want to emulate the habits of the ultra-successful, limit your use of social media. Pick specific times of the day—ideally in the evening—to visit your sites, and set a timer for how much time you want to spend on Facebook, LinkedIn, Snapchat, etc. You will be amazed at how easily you can get sucked in and spend hours on these sites. If you set a timer, it will keep you on track.
During daytime hours, focus on your most important tasks. Turn off your social media notifications so you are not distracted when people post another cat video or photo of their lunch.
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By efficiently managing your e-mail and being responsible with your social media use, you can free up two to three hours per day. That adds up to more than 15 hours per work week. When you do this, you can be even more responsive to important e-mails and digital content.
Your Turn: Use Your 1440 More Wisely
- How much time do you think you spend reading and responding to e-mails each day? How much time do you think you should spend? Gain control over your e-mail by setting aside two time frames per day for answering e-mails instead of answering them as they come in. See how this goes. Adjust as needed. What will you do with the extra time you “create” by managing e-mail better?
- Which social media sites do you spend the most time on? How many hours per day do you spend on them? Do you consider it time well spent? If not, set a time limit for how many minutes you can visit a site at a time, or per day. Use a timer to stay within that guideline.
- How do you typically use social media (e.g. checking friends’ photos, reading Twitter highlights from the last day, etc.). ? To make the best use of your time, limit your social media browsing to a set number of activities/platforms. Write down these activities, and use the list as a guideline. If the activity you engage in does not support those activities, rein it in.
This chapter of “1440” by Randy Carver was published with permission by the author. To buy the entire book, visit Amazon.com.
Canadian ELD Mandate
As the ELD Mandate came into effect in the United States on December 18th, 2017, the Canadian government published its proposal to make the use of electronic logging devices (ELDs) mandatory. ELDs help carriers and drivers comply with Commercial Vehicle Driver Hours of Service Regulations thereby lessening the negative impacts of non-compliance. According to Transport Canada, in addition to improving road safety, regulations will save carriers time and money associated with the administrative burden of paper logs.
Impacts on operations
Using ELDs offer many advantages. However, implementing such technology will require a transition period. “Beyond choosing a compliant solution, carriers will have to revise their operational processes. Whether for administrative personnel, dispatchers, or compliance officers, day-to-day work methods will be revised to adapt to this new reality,” stated engineer Benoit Vincent, who worked as a consultant on the development of the Canadian standard.
Training will be crucial during the transition to ensure that everyone uses the technology to its full potential, and to optimize productivity and performance. Guidance and support during the deployment of a solution will be key considerations when choosing an ELD provider. Day-to-day technical support for solution users will also be part of the equation.
Differences between Canada and the United States
In developing its regulations, Transport Canada took American regulations into account. To minimize repercussions for Canadian cross-border operators, ELD requirements were for the most part aligned with those of the United States. Such alignment will ease operations and avoid posing a hindrance to trade. Carriers will be able to use a single solution in both countries and remain compliant.
Nonetheless, there are some distinctions between Canadian and American regulations. According to Vincent, the main differences are as follows:
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In accordance with hours of service regulations, ELDs must enable carriers operating in Canada to keep information logged for the current day and the preceding 14 days, while the American requirement calls for 7 days.
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Based on the technical specifications of Canadian regulations, ELDs must enable calculations for driving timetable scheduling both north and south of the 60th parallel north.
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To meet Canadian hours of service regulation requirements, ELDs must also allow for cycle management, changes in jurisdiction, and off-duty time deferral.
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During roadside inspections, ELDs must make it possible for drivers to provide reports in PDF format, either by email, fax, or with a USB drive. Data files will not be validated, like is the case in the United States by the FMCSA.
Next steps
Industry members have 60 days starting on the proposal’s publication date in the Canada Gazette, on December 16th, 2017, to submit comments in writing directly to Andrew Spoerri, Senior Research Analyst for Transport Canada.
Suggestions and concerns will then be studied and regulations amended if necessary. New regulations on the mandatory use of ELDs will come into effect one or two years after the date of publication in Part II of the Canada Gazette. The enforcement date will depend on the duration of the transition period of either one or two years.
DOT To Face More Data Fights After Safety- Record Ruling
By Linda Chiem
Law360, New York (January 17, 2018, 7:40 PM EST) — The D.C. Circuit’s finding that the
U.S. Department of Transportation can be sued for mishandling safety citation records that potentially hurt truck drivers’ job prospects may expose the agency to fresh litigation and force it to better manage its information systems, experts say.
Now that two drivers in the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association Inc.’s suit can pursue claims that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration failed to maintain accurate driver safety and accident data that is released to prospective employers, the agency will face heightened pressure to shore up how it manages the databases that commercial motor carriers rely on to vet drivers, according to industry observers.
Even though the D.C. Circuit’s Jan. 12 ruling dealt mostly with the FMCSA’s so-called Motor Carrier Management Information System database of trucker citations for state-law safety violations, experts say trucking companies will view it as a fresh tool to challenge the FMCSA’s controversial management of other databases.
“The facts underlying the decision illustrate, once again, that FMCSA has some distance to go in order to get its house in order,” said Marc S. Blubaugh, partner and co-chair of Benesch Friedlander Coplan & Aronoff LLP’s transportation and logistics group. “From a broad perspective, FMCSA does not inspire deep confidence in its information systems, whether MCMIS or otherwise.”
A notable recent example, according to Blubaugh, is the early December hack of the FMCSA’s National Registry of Certified Medical Examiners, which has been mostly down for the past month.
Commercial truck drivers rely on the online registry because they are required to get physical examinations every two years from a certified medical examiner. FMCSA said earlier this month that no driver or carrier information was compromised during the hack.
“FMCSA plainly needs to improve its cybersecurity program,” Blubaugh said. “A driver who concludes that his or her personal information was compromised as a result of this hack of the medical examiner registry will undoubtedly be heartened by last week’s OOIDA decision, which applies Spokeo in a less rigorous way than many other courts.”
The D.C. Circuit panel referenced the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2014 Spokeo ruling throughout its analysis determining whether the drivers alleged enough actual harm to have standing to sue.
The two drivers whose claims were revived — Klint Mowrer and Fred Weaver Jr. — had their citations for safety violations included in the federal MCMIS database even though they had successfully challenged them in state court.
Their records, which weren’t updated to reflect the outcome of their court challenges, were shared through the DOT’s Pre-Employment Screening Program, which provides trucking employers with reports containing drivers’ crash data from the previous five years and inspection data from the previous three years.
Prasad Sharma, a partner with Scopelitis Garvin Light Hanson & Feary PC, told Law360 that the D.C. Circuit got it right in that the Supreme Court’s Spokeo ruling established a more nuanced bar for standing. Here, the two drivers whose inaccurate information was actually disseminated had standing.
But the mere retention of inaccurate information in a database without any imminent disclosure is not the type of concrete injury that confers standing, Sharma said.
“In this case, OOIDA was making the argument that the FMCSA has the duty to ensure the accuracy of the data in MCMIS, and the court agreed that Congress did impose that duty. But it did not give a private right of action,” Sharma said.
States primarily collect and report to the FMCSA the data that’s ultimately contained in the MCMIS, and are required to ensure that this data is “accurate, complete and timely motor carrier safety data,” but the DOT is ultimately responsible for “ensuring, to the maximum extent practical, all the data is complete, timely and accurate,” the drivers have maintained in court filings.
The information in MCMIS feeds into other agency databases, including the Safety Measurement System, or SMS, the agency’s rating system for scoring commercial motor carriers based on their on-road safety performance. Attorneys say it’s a controversial and statistically dubious scoring process that can end up penalizing motor carriers with low safety scores for accidents or road safety violations that might not even be their fault.
The D.C. Circuit decision offers a beacon of light not only for drivers, but trucking companies, which have long criticized the DOT and FMCSA for providing only limited avenues to appeal or challenge safety records that can be outdated or inaccurate, according to Mark J. Andrews of Strasburger & Price LLP.
“The interesting thing the court seems to be saying, under certain circumstances, is there’s a private right of action for damages or injunctive relief if there’s dissemination of inaccurate information with regard to the safety performance of either a carrier or a driver,” Andrews told Law360. “The court goes into some detail on what it would take in terms of standing for such an action to prevail.”
Andrews said SMS data for carriers is disseminated much more widely and frequently than the data disseminated through the Pre-Employment Screening Program at the heart of this dispute. He explained that there’s an entire cottage industry of consultants that mine SMS data to pair up shippers with brokers deciding which motor carrier to use to haul goods.
“There could be a much bigger issue here, and I would expect that people will try to use this decision to extend the same standards to SMS,” Andrews said.
At the very least, the ruling shines a bright spotlight on the FMCSA’s wheelhouse of databases feeding into its programs for safety compliance and enforcement and will force the agency to bolster its procedures for better managing or protecting drivers’ and motor carriers’ data.
“While I don’t profess to be an IT wizard, it nevertheless seems to me that reliably running some of these systems should be a cakewalk but is apparently a Herculean task for FMCSA,” Blubaugh said. “I am hopeful that the Department of Transportation will focus on shoring up existing information systems and practices before embarking on new adventures.”
–Editing by Philip Shea and Kelly Duncan.
All Content © 2003-2018, Portfolio Media, Inc.
We’ve Been Doing this for a Long Time….
Over the years friends have called me, informing me that this “Forensic Files” episode is in frequent rerun – check out the entire episode here. “Headquarters”, season 10 episode 6; We help one of our clients track down a killer.
See what the software and hardware looked like back in the 1990s. Everything is smaller, cheaper, and better now – but the principals remain the same.