Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/655308
NEWS & NOTES 10 // OWNER OPERATOR // APRIL 2016 control for such differences in its cost-benefit, though FMCSA counters the charges related specifically to time savings as noting that it's standard operating procedure for rules such as this: "FMCSA assumes that a driver's time is valuable whether or not that driver receives an hourly wage for their time. In the rule, we value the time when the driver should be on duty at an hourly wage rate for his or her time, excluding benefits. This is common practice in Federal cost benefit analyses."My question today is directed particularly at those who've transitioned to e-logs with their leasing car- rier. What's the reality on actual time saved week to week, year to year, with e-logs? Is the annual time you save from not having to fill out a paper log, and not having to physi- cally file that log, worth $623 a year? That's how much, per driver, FMCSA has estimated in time saved, most of it ($558) in time saved spent on actually filling out the paper log. A commenter on OverdriveOnline.comhere recently speculated on all the paperwork-sav- ings estimates with this: "E-logs won't even make your paperwork easier. Just try pulling into a weigh station when your computer sud- denly decides to get the hiccups and won't ac- cess the data you need to prove you're legal. You'd better have a redundant paper copy on hand if you want to keep moving your load, otherwise you're going to be sitting there for an entire 10 hours at least while the officer lets you catch up on your previous seven days on your paper logbook." If you're running e-logs today, are you sav- ing a great deal of time over the paper system? Without estimated driver time savings, FMCSA's cost-benefit analysis fails to show its $1.17 billion net benefit but rather ends with close to a $700 million net cost. OO