Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/933951
Voices 4 | Overdrive | February 2018 "I have so many things to say about the hours of service," says independent Brita Nowak. Until recently, she had a regular run from Florida to New York City/ New Jersey supplying groceries, with other freight on the return. This fall, following serious surgery, Nowak shifted to closer- to-home reefer loads near Orlando, with a somewhat regular run between Winter Haven and Ocala. Then the electronic log- ging device mandate came down. Readers since then have shared intentions on social media to protest the mandate, including shutting down for the foreseeable fu- ture, extending holiday time off or hanging up the keys entirely. While's there's been no discernibly organized call to shut down on a par- ticular day, no doubt some owner-operators have. "It seems pretty safe to say that the ELD mandate has been a significant factor in truckload capacity not keeping pace with de- mand," DAT analyst Matt Sullivan said after looking at truck-posting activity on DAT's boards since Dec. 18. He'd also heard plenty of anecdotes "about truckers staying home, some out of a combination of protest, not having their ELD equipment ready, taking longer-than-usual holiday breaks and just waiting to see how things shake out." Nowak is among them. She got a call from her reg- ular broker on a Monday during the holidays, setting her up for three of her Winter Haven-Ocala loads Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Then other opportunities arose. A Tuesday run to Jacksonville from Winter Haven with two drops could add revenue for the short week, but Nowak knew the load/unload times often were prolonged. "They initially offered me $400" for the 200-mile run, she says, but she laughed and negotiated it up to $600. However, as a member of the RoadPro Drivers Council, Nowak had begun testing the Garmin ELD and knew about potential productivity limitations. Closely calculating the hours of service for the Jacksonville run, she had to say no, given she'd proba- bly be unable to get to her Wednesday gig if delayed. Then on Friday, she was of- fered a load from Ocala to Sarasota, but she knew the unload location could hold her up easily without time to return to her parking spot in Sanford. "In one week," she says, that's $1,000 in lost revenue opportunity, "just like that." With a new reefer-trailer payment and the other expenses that come with a trucking business, she decid- ed that with no changes in sight for the ELD mandate and the 14-hour rule, there no longer was enough flex- ibility to plan effectively for safety and profitability. She was done. Nowak's shut down for now and believes that "if many more would do it," change would come and come quickly. She delivered this message to friends outside trucking via her Facebook page in early January: "I closed my company in protest, and if enough independent owner-opera- tors follow, freight will not be moved as easily, rates will go way up, your food will get expensive. … It takes a crisis to get change. Here's ELD shutdowns: Protests and practicality OverdriveOnline.com poll OWNER-OPERATORS' E-LOGS IMPLEMENTATION STATUS Running an e-log 35% Still on paper, whether ELD-exempt or not 36% Shut the business/shut down in protest 16% Other 6% Will have e-log in place before April 1 7% Polling conducted the second week of January revealed a widely mixed response to ELD mandate compli- ance. Commenting with the poll, Duane Zartman wrote, "I have gone to e-logs, but it's temporary, because I have decided to get out of trucking after 22 years accident-free with an excellent DOT rating. I've lost about $1,000 of revenue each week, and I cannot survive with that continuing." Independent owner-operator Brita Nowak, whom regular readers will remember as the champ in Overdrive's Most Beautiful recog- nition program in 2016, took action when she realized the lack of flex- ibility under e-logs cut too deeply into her profits. Kyle Kearns