Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/293070
PULSE April 2014 | Overdrive | 5 By Max Heine Editorial director mheine@randallreilly.com D uring last month's annual meeting of the Truckload Carriers Association, about 100 companies exhibited their wares – mostly of the soft, not hard, kind. They hawked software that tracks equipment, analyzes data and does other impressive feats, all in the name of helping fleets make more money. That's why, even if we lived in an alternate universe where hours of service did not exist, fleets eventually would monitor drivers' loca- tions and hours. Not just because it's doable, but because it's data that could improve efficiencies. So when it comes to the proposed elec- tronic logging device mandate, we're long past the point of inevitability. Had it not been for the holdup of the driver harassment issue four years ago, we'd be seeing imple- mentation much sooner than what now looks like late 2016. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Admin- istration has made a reasonable attempt to mitigate potential harassment by adding eight provisions to deter it. There's always some way to skirt protections, but it's doubtful the holes are big enough for the rule to get delayed again for that reason. About half of the respondents to recent Overdrive surveys indicate they'll retire or find another job before they drive under an ELD system. Most likely that's overstated. As fleet after fleet has gone to electronic logging, the most common refrain from drivers – many of them former opponents – is that it's been a surprisingly welcome change. That's be- cause it really can protect drivers from coercion to violate hours. Executives at TCA said it's the smaller fleets, unwilling to abide by legal hours or unable to afford the new systems, that are most resistant. "If you're running legal, there's no legitimate objection," said Tom Kretsinger Jr., president of American Central Transport and immediate past chairman of TCA. "It's just a cost." The opportunity for unscru- pulous fleets to run illegally always has been more than a safety problem. Pushing drivers to run over hours has been one way for those fleets to steal business by underbidding their rule-abiding competitors. Once the new rule blunts this edge, that could, ideally, make for slightly better rates once fleets don't face competitors willing to run for artificially low rates. I spoke with an owner-op- erator at the Mid-America Trucking Show who was amazed, having recently leased to Landstar, that his net income is strong enough to relieve the pressure he'd felt to run almost constantly at a former fleet. By the way, he's now using e-logging, required of all new Landstar owner-operators. It can take some getting used to for older drivers, but it's no roadblock to earning good money. And with CSA hovering so closely, a tool that keeps you clean on hours can be quite helpful. Adjusting to e-logs " If you're running legal, there's no legiti- mate objection. " — ACT President Tom Kretsinger Jr., regarding acceptance of electronic logging devices. ability to the unreasonable and constantly changing and contradictory standards placed upon them by non- driving rulemakers," she says. Electronic logging devices "are being put in the wrong places. The devices should be placed at all the shippers and receivers in the country rather than in the trucks." While such an idea may sound unreasonable to those in other parts of the industry, there is at least some appetite for increasing safety-regula- tory authority there. At the February meeting of the Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee, made up of di- verse representatives advising the FMCSA on safety policy, boosting such authority and enforcing an as-yet-unspecified restriction on driver detention were top priorities. They were among items the committee recommended FMCSA take to Congress to approve in the next highway bill. The detention issue was front and center throughout the meeting's first discus- sion day. MCSAC member Danny Schnautz of Tex- as-based Clark Freight Lines hammered away on the need for shippers and receivers to come under federal safe- ty-regulatory purview, put- ting forward ideas to impose a requirement that drivers and carriers alike be paid for time detained. Said MCSAC chair Ste- phen Owings, "That whole concept should be expanded to require that the whole chain of responsibility is on the hook financially and in every other way for doing anything to en- courage dangerous behavior." Voices_0414.indd 5 4/1/14 4:04 PM