Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/619872
Voices 2 | Overdrive | January 2016 When the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administra- tion unveiled the mandate for electronic logging devices for most interstate truckers the morning of Dec. 10, some indepen- dents celebrated. "I love it!" exclaimed Wiscon- sin-based Howard Salmon, owner-operator of a 1999 Kenworth W900, when he heard that his operations wouldn't be affected. Exempting operators of pre-2000 model-year trucks resulted partly from the agency's recognition that not all such trucks, even those with electronically controlled engines, have standardized in-cab ports to the electronic control module. "I woke up this morning, and it was like Christmas in my Classic XL," noted Chris Thomas in a post to Overdrive's Facebook page. Pre-2000 trucks, ac- cording to sales data firm RigDig Business Intelli- gence, make up 9 percent of operating trucks. "Those folks who do not have to deal with Cali- fornia and that emissions game are in the winning seat," noted Cliff Downing, commenting at Overdri- veOnline.com. "This is really going to drive up the market for pre-2000 trucks. I can see the restoration parts suppliers dancing in the street." A reader posting as "John Jacob Jingleheimerschmidt" cracked wise: "For Sale: my 1996 FLD – $1,000,000. That's right, $1,000,000 – not a typo!" Other commentary has reflected strong opposition to the mandate, with as much as 85 percent of readers in other polling noting they'd do what they could to avoid running with an electronic log of any kind. Half said they'd rather retire or look for an- other line of work if they couldn't avoid it with the short-haul exception under the hours of service rule or a pre-2000 truck. Among the many com- menters, Alaska-based Kev- in Kennedy named Dec. 18, 2017, the implementation date of the ELD mandate as published, as " 'Soli- darity Day,' the day when out of pure economics, we the people stand together, park the trucks." Kennedy added that he "became a trucker for the freedom, self-reliance and common sense the career both re- quired and provided." Salmon indicated he stands with those who ob- If you're not running a 1999 or older truck, noted Land- star-leased Gary Buchs, purchasing an older truck simply to avoid an ELD could be foolish. It's hard to make a sound decision when "emotions are high," said Buchs. Buchs, who runs in a 2000 Freightliner Century already outfitted with an electronic log, urges anyone contemplat- ing such a decision to consider the "overall operating cost of that older equipment. ... I think about what my main- tenance shop owner told me: 'When trucks went to the electronic engine, I used to do an in-frame once a week. I do about six a year now.' That's how much of a difference there is in how the engines operate." At the same time, early electronic engines such as the Cat 3406E, Detroit's Series 60 and Cummins' N14 from that mid- to late 1990s period have been held up by readers as some of the best ever. But time wears on any machinery, and upkeep gets more expensive. "One of the biggest reasons people fail – they get hit with a devastating bill for maintenance," Buchs warns. Breathe a little before you act A gift amidst the ELD grief By one estimate, one in 11 trucks on the road will be exempt from the elec- tronic logging device mandate because they pre-date the 2000 model year. A third of readers in December indicated their truck was a 1999 or older model not running e-logs. Unless those operators are leased to a carrier that would require e-logs, they would be free to continue using paper. A wild card in that freedom: Some readers worried that a relative paucity of operators recording hours on paper could put such logs under even closer scrutiny, ripe for inspectors' nitpicking over form and manner violations. Distribution of Overdrive readers' trucks by model year, e-log use 1999 and older Not using e-logs Using e-logs today 2000 or newer Not using e-logs Using e-logs today 34% 3% 57% 6% OverdriveOnline.com poll