Pop-up celebration at famed Whiskey Pete’s Truck Stop in Primm, Nev. brought holiday cheer
and gratitude for hard-working truckers
PRIMM, Nev. — In the U.S., truck drivers deliver more than 10.5 billion tons of freight every year, covering 279.1 billion miles, making them a mission-critical component in the movement of goods and services across the nation. Driver turnover is at a staggering 80 percent, which has made hiring and retaining truck drivers a tough prospect for private and for-hire fleets, especially at the holidays when volumes and consumer expectations increase.
To honor their ongoing hard work and surprise truckers crossing the California/Nevada border outside of Las Vegas, Verizon Telematics hosted a pop-up event on December 14 at the Whiskey Pete’s Truck Stop in Primm, Nev., featuring a free holiday meal and a concert from GRAMMY-nominated country duo, Brothers Osborne.
Monday, Dec. 18 marked the day most truckers must make the switch from paper to electronic logs to track their federally mandated Hours of Service (HOS). The Electronic Logging device (ELD) mandate was announced in Dec. 2015, and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) gave fleets two years to comply. The FMCSA stated that it implemented the ELD rule to make it easier and faster to accurately track, manage and share HOS data and to help keep drivers safer on the road. Any commercial motor vehicle carrier or driver subject to the ELD rule must be electronically recording hours of service by Monday’s deadline.
“Being out on the road and away from your family – especially at this time of year– can be really hard, so we wanted to show our appreciation in a fun and unexpected way,” said Jay Jaffin, chief marketing officer at Verizon Telematics. “We also want drivers to know we can offer the easiest path to ELD compliance, allowing them to focus on what’s important: getting home to their families safely.”
Verizon Telematics provided fleet-based companies of any size with a one-stop-shop approach to the ELD mandate. Customers chose from a number of different bundles for hardware and monthly software subscription pricing that included what drivers and fleets need to comply with the new rules, including: telematics hardware and installation, onboarding assistance, ELD and driver vehicle inspection reporting (DVIR) software, two-way messaging, in-cab tablet mount, electronic tablet, Mobile Device Management (MDM) software, compliance reporting and more. Connectivity for the tablet and the telematics hardware also uses the Verizon Wireless 4G LTE network.
More information can be found by visiting the Verizon Telematics ELD software solutions provided by Telogis and Fleetmatics.