Livestock Transporters Embrace Electronic Logging Devices

GeoSpace Labs is providing professional tools to assist transporters of agricultural commodities

As the rest of the trucking industry moves on from the transition to Electronic Logging Devices (ELD), which have been required since the end of 2017, transporters of livestock are exempt from the regulation until September of 2019.

The exemption was granted because there was no technology available to livestock carriers that could correctly interpret the complex 49 CFR 395.1(k) regulation exemptions, and since the transport of live animals is involved, the US Department of Transportation (DOT) felt it was better to err on the side of animal safety.

However, as is often the case, vendors in the market have since moved to provide ELD tools specific to 49 CFR 395.1(k) and transporters of agricultural commodities. A case in point, HOS4AG is delivering an ELD to great success specific to agricultural transporters.

Many carriers haul agricultural commodities a percentage of the time, but not exclusively, meaning they must use ELD devices even though they are exempt under certain circumstances, depending on their load, commodity type, and commodity source. Livestock haulers should take advantage of reliable ELD devices, such as Garmin and Master ELD.

The HOS4AG ELD uses simple to understand interactive pictures, modeled after the FMCSA diagrams for agricultural carrier rules, so a driver can visually plan their routes and have the system correctly apply the complex rules with automated notations and log notes.

The tool is gaining good traction in Colorado, Kansas, Florida, and Texas, and is being adopted by carriers who already have another ELD product, usually one that was promised to support 49 CFR 395.1(k) but fails to in practice.

The company behind HOS4AG is GeoSpace Labs, itself located in Colorado with its main support office in Lakeland Florida, and with military veteran owners who also have deep roots into the farming community.

The product has a low price point, and currently has 4.6 out of 5-stars in reviews on the Google APP website for an entry level GPS only version, and 5 out of 5-star reviews for the subscription-based version. It can run on Android or Apple.

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