J. J. Keller & Associates Technology Addresses Major Change for Transportation Industry
On December 18, 2017, a major Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) regulatory change went into effect, requiring millions of Commercial Motor Vehicle (CMV) drivers to transition to using electronic logging devices (ELDs) to record their driving time. Previously, drivers used paper logs to track their hours. J. J. Keller & Associates, Inc., the nation’s most respected name in safety and regulatory compliance, was ready to support transportation customers with the ELD mandate – a significant change for their business.
J. Keller customers regularly rely on us to be ahead of workplace requirements. So our in-house web and mobile technology development teams had been working since the mandate information was released 2+ years ago to create a compliance solution for motor carriers. Thousands of customers turned to J. J. Keller to make the move from paper tracking to electronic tracking, using J. J. Keller’s patented ELD product and proprietary cloud-based management system, called Encompass®.
“Making it easier for fleets to comply with government regulations is what J. J. Keller has been doing for 65 years,” said Rustin Keller, executive vice president and COO at J. J. Keller. “Continuing in that tradition, we’ve increased our availability to the influx of fleets that are turning to us for compliance with the ELD mandate. It’s another of the many ways we’ve been helping the industry prepare for this transition, which has included complimentary ELD whitepapers, webcasts, executive seminars, not to mention our fleet-friendly Encompass® ELog system.”
Encompass® captures data from the J. J. Keller ELD that is installed in the engine’s diagnostic port, and also from the driver’s smartphone or tablet using the J. J. Keller Mobile® app. Both Encompass® and the J. J. Keller Mobile® app (implemented natively for both iOS and AndroidTM) were developed by a distributed development team of 90-plus members based from the J. J. Keller Technology Office in Appleton, Wisconsin.
In addition, the 30-plus members of the J. J. Keller Managed Services Development Team built Driver DataSense®, a unique service that aggregates fleet data from both ELDs and paper logs, to ensure regulatory compliance.
When the December 18 ELD mandate hit, our preparation paid off. In December 2017 alone, J. J. Keller exceeded anticipated sales of ELDs and talked with more than 20,000 customers as they sought to transition and comply with the mandate.
In honor of this historic change in the transportation industry and to recognize the efforts of our associates, J. J. Keller celebrated “ELD Spirit Week” for the five days leading up to December 18 effective date of the mandate. Events included ugly sweater day (check out the hand-made ugly vests our eCommerce team created!), holiday hat and sock day, ELD Shout Out Day (sharing success stories) and, of course, food. And, did we say food?