Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/284466
W hen it comes to technology and equipment advancements, many truck fleets historically are slow to adopt. And commercial vehicle drivers often are extremely resistant to change, creating significant barriers to acceptance. But once these technologies finally are implemented, they often provide significant return on invest- ment and ultimately win over driver support. You need to look no further than automated manual trans- missions as an example of this. Many fleets we've spoken to in recent years looking to improve fuel economy have spec'd AMTs for new equipment purchases, but experienced drivers naturally were hesitant to accept them. These fleets say that after a few thousand miles behind the wheel with an AMT, drivers often change their opinions and say they never would go back to a manual transmission. The same pattern holds true for electronic onboard recorders and electronic logging devices. Many fleets that were early adopters of EOBRs and ELDs said their drivers viewed them as just one more way to put big brother in the cab and inter- fere with the way they do their jobs. ELDs have been debated intensely by trucking industry groups even before the first EOBR proposed rule in 2007. The battle lines were drawn clearly between fleets and driver ranks, but even some smaller fleets claimed that a push for ELDs – initially supported by the American Trucking Associa- tions and eventually the Truckload Carriers Association – is just a way for larger carriers to gain a competitive edge and push the smaller players out of the industry. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration took the issue out of the hands of both fleets and drivers with the pub- lication of a Supplemental Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that ultimately will set the ball in motion for mandated use of ELDs as early as 2016. (See page 9 for the full story.) The ELD mandate saga has been well-chronicled over the past several years by Commercial Carrier Journal and every other industry publication and news outlet. In a nutshell, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association success- fully sued FMCSA over the 2010 proposed rule, claiming it opened the door for fleet managers to harass drivers; the rule later was thrown out by the court system. In 2012, language in the MAP-21 legislation called for the agency to go back to the drawing board and submit an ELD mandate by Oct. 1, 2013. Nearly six months after that deadline, FMCSA's new proposed rule finally has arrived and aims to address the issue of driver harassment, but the debate between carriers and drivers continues. Trucking industry economists warn that fleets that haven't begun the process of implementing ELDs in their trucking operations already are behind the curve. "When it's man- dated, fleets [implementing ELDs for the first time] may not be able to crawl before they walk," said Donald Broughton, managing director of Avondale Partners, in the January 2014 issue of CCJ. Translation: Don't put off the ELD implementation process any longer. At the 2014 TCA annual conven- tion last month in Grapevine, Texas – where ELDs were a hot topic – it generally was accepted that early adopters of ELDs weathered the learning curve and after initial grow- ing pains now actually are experienc- ing a net increase in productivity of 1.5 to 2 percent. That means more asset utilization for fleets and poten- tially more miles and pay for drivers (and no more hassle of paper log compliance). If those results hold true after the ELD mandate takes effect, then everybody wins. It's hard to argue with that. Look for in-cab cameras – a technology that we are hearing a lot more chatter from fleets about implement- ing – to be the next battlefront on fleet-adopted tech- nology vs. driver resistance. Initial driver pushback over those devices likely will be even greater than it was for ELDs, but as is so often the case, it may well work out better for both carriers and drivers. 6 COMMERCIAL CARRIER JOURNAL | APRIL 2014 UPFRONT Sentiment between carriers, drivers remains an issue as new proposed rule is announced BY JEFF CRISSEY Love 'em or hate 'em, electronic logs are soon to be a reality JEFF CRISSEY is Editor of Commercial Carrier Journal. E-mail jcrissey@ccjmagazine.com. Trucking industry economists warn that fleets that haven't begun the process of implementing ELDs in their trucking operations already are behind the curve.