Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/293070
Voices 4 | Overdrive | April 2014 P rior to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administra- tion's unveiling of a proposed electronic logging device mandate for virtually all interstate truckers in mid- March, readers aired ideas on the best way to handle logs. S.E. McCurdy, one-half of a Land- star Ranger-leased owner-operator team, proposed an alternative system that she has experience with. It uses electronic time-stamped records placed at driver stopovers, delivery points and other locations along interstate routes. "This is not welfare, nor socialism, nor Big Brother interfering," she says. "It is the system that was in use by one of the largest privately held corporations in Wisconsin, Gateway Foods. We know this because we worked for them before we became owner-operators." The idea struck a chord with readers. They particularly liked Mc- Curdy's justification for an alterna- tive to truck-tied electronic logging devices currently on the market. The devices are "forcing drivers to bear the financial burden of and account- Reader: ELDs 'in the wrong places' Rob Singhisen: Retire. I'm fed up with government regulations anyway. Trucking is not a crime – I'm tired of all the harassment. Lawrence Lamson: I don't know what people complain about [so much with] e-logs. I was skeptical, but once I went with a company that runs it and learned the tricks to it, there's not one load that came across that screen I had to reject because of lack of hours. You get accounted by the minute, not by 15-minute increments. I still get 3,000-3,300 miles weekly out of a 65- mph truck. Rene Barboza: I don't run them as a local driver, and if they ever man- date them for local drivers, I'll quit! It's already the reason why I refuse to run OTR. Carriers are taking the money right out of drivers' hands with this garbage! E-logs equal more time sitting. More time sitting means less time running, which equals a lot less revenue for the truck and the driver. Chris Dodds: Never in my truck. I drive it, I own it, I paid for it. Todd Ramey: I'm on e-logs (small company driver) and don't have a problem with them, and I still get 3,000 miles a week. What I do have a problem with is mandating them for all trucks. Let the companies put them in if they want. But there are, for the most part, good law-abiding own- er-operators out here. Don't punish them by forcing them to put them in. Punish the bad apples who continually have multiple log violations. Ron Spencer: My wife and I run team ... but the truck sits every night for at least eight hours. I'm not worried about e-logs one bit until it can report who was actually behind the wheel at any certain time. Shawn McConniel: I'll put them in when they pay for it. " Compensating drivers for their actual work hours will eliminate the perceived need to drive past the fatigue threshold and create safer and healthier working conditions for all truck drivers, keeping the four- wheelers safer, too. " —S.E. McCurdy (with Warren McCurdy), on her proposed timekeeping alternative to truck-tied ELDs What will you do when an electronic log mandate comes? OverdriveOnline.com poll AVOID: 68% | EMBRACE: 24% I'll run intrastate if it keeps me from e-logs 17% I'll retire or find other work 51% I'll lease with a carrier experienced in dispatching under e-logs 2% OTHER 8% I'll invest in an e-logs system 11% I'm already using e-logs 11% Facebook fans: My plans after the recorder mandate Voices_0414.indd 4 4/1/14 3:19 PM