Blue Ink Tech Blog
Trucking Industry Insights
A carrier's CSA score it on of the most important metrics a carrier can manage. It can mean the difference between finding good loads and not.
You deserve the best from an ELD... And changing ELD providers can be seamless by following these easy steps.
The International Fuel Tax Agreement, also known as IFTA, has been around for a few decades. What is it and why is it so important for truck drivers?
Being a truck driver is hard enough and your ELD provider should understand this. Let's take a look at some of the reasons drivers are ready to switch.
The priority of the trucking industry is safety. In this post we discuss the what the DVIR is and what happens if it isn't taken seriously.
Truck drivers are always looking for the most efficient ways to make the most of their time and frequently recapping hours is one important way to do it.
The sleeper berth split rule is the perfect way to split up your required 10 hour reset and get the most miles inside your 14 hour work day.
Having the documents you need when you need them is critical to operating a business smoothly. Here's a list of what you need and how to easily store it.
It's important to know what actually constitutes adverse driving conditions and how you can make sure you are not violating Hours of Service rules.
DataQs are ways for carriers, drivers, the public, the FMCSA and state partners to track and ensure accurate information is current and correct.
Being exempt from the ELD mandate doesn't mean you can't use one to streamline your trucking operations.
Getting drivers to adopt new technology for your business can be an uphill battle. Using these techniques will put them in the fast lane.
Shippers who tell drivers to go off site to get scale tickets to get loads fixed can be considered coercion and can cost shippers fines of up to...
Fixing your load before you leave a site might cause a run-in with a shipper, but being compliant means less stress and more control of your business.
Your options are limited after an overweight citation from the DOT. Here are steps you can take to prevent it from happening again.
Running a smooth operation means making sure trucks are maximizing output and minimizing costs. Preventative truck maintenance is key.
Fleet managers don't just know how many people they are managing, but they know them personally.
Understanding the cost around a properly loaded truck can mean the difference between paying out-of-pocket or making a profit at the end of year.
A great fleet manager can use autonomous hardware and software solutions to optimize how a company and its drivers perform.
There are a number of considerations for reducing the high rates of turnover in the trucking industry.
Truckers are potentially the most important people on the planet with the essentials they haul. These not-so-secret reminders can help save on fuel costs.
Tires are a complicated piece of engineering. But one thing all of these tires have in common is also the simplest thing to get right. Tires, all tires, work best when properly inflated.
Last year DOT officers wrote over 175,000 violations for tire issues. Of those violations 113,000 came from just ten states.
Tires are a complicated piece of engineering. But one thing all of these tires have in common is also the simplest thing to get right. Tires, all tires, work best when properly inflated.
One of the most common complaints about ELDs is that they don’t account for time wasted by the shipper. When a shipper makes a driver sit for hours, the 14-hour clock just keeps rolling. When a shipper overloads a truck, it leaves the driver with an impossible decision. Do they drive back to the shipper...
In a perfect world, every truck would be filled to capacity on every run. Shippers would always have a door open when drivers arrived, and trucks would be loaded quickly and evenly every time. You’d never have to worry about things like axle-weights, and the only bears in the woods would be looking for picnic baskets.
There has been a lot of talk about revising Hours of Service (HOS) regulations, especially since the ELD mandate took effect and highlighted a lot of shortcomings in the current rules. The FMCSA is considering what changes to make, and has scheduled a public listening session to hear the concerns of interested parties.
Blue Ink Technology, provider of the no-monthly-fee BIT ELD system, announced its new BIT TPMS, a tire-pressure monitoring system that is capable of reporting inflation status within the Blue Ink Tech App. When users buy TPMS sensor packs, they will be able to get in-app tire pressure readings, the company says, adding that BIT TPMS is easy to install, with no hardwiring or downtime.
There has been a lot of talk about revising Hours of Service (HOS) regulations, especially since the ELD mandate took effect and highlighted a lot of shortcomings in the current rules. The FMCSA is considering what changes to make, and has scheduled a public listening session to hear the concerns of interested parties.
The Adverse Conditions exception to Hours of Service regulations is pretty vague. On the one hand, that's good because drivers need some flexibility in claiming it. On the other hand, it leaves a lot of room for interpretation by law enforcement.
Although many states are headed toward ELD requirements for intrastate drivers, it's not fast enough for the Trucking Alliance.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has denied an electronic logging exemption request made by the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association.
Many people thought the Ag exception could only be used when transporting goods, but it now clearly covers both legs of a round trip within the 150 air-mile radius, “regardless of whether the CMV is loaded or empty”.
Last week the FMCSA released new guidance to clarify and expand the use of a CMV for Personal Conveyance. Here's an overview of what's changed
The people behind Blue Ink Technology’s no-monthly-fee BIT ELD have custom-designed a version of its hardware-purchase-only device — paired with freeware operable on iOS and Android smartphones and tablets — for light- and medium-duty trucks with OBDII-type in-cab portals to the vehicles’ electronic control modules.
An amendment brought to a 2018 appropriations package to stall the electronic logging device mandate’s enforcement date for at least 10 months was defeated in a vote on the House floor late Wednesday night.
Blue Ink Technology has announced that it is offering an electronic logging device solution with a smart device app, online portal, and device that plugs into a truck’s diagnostic port.
Blue Ink Technology’s new BIT ELD is one of the very few devices on the market to adopt an unconventional pricing model: no ongoing monthly fees. You buy the device itself for $295, pay for it once, and that’s it. No contract or monthly costs. This is very appealing for independent drivers and small fleets hoping to avoid the ongoing service plans required by most electronic log vendors.
As the ELD mandate looms over drivers, several companies and pieces of technology have offered solutions to make the obligatory shift easier for drivers. Some solutions, however, are targeting the segment of drivers that may be reticent to embrace technology with 6 months until the compliance as they would rather wait until December. Blue Ink Technology is offering a FMCSA-registered app that allows drivers to become ELD compliant without the numerous auxiliary features that other ELD devices and services may offer.
A couple of items I know about 9 out of 10 of you probably don’t want to hear about, but nonetheless, provided nothing changes between now and December, the ELD final rule goes in force, in which case you’re going to need something.