Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/675322
May 2016 | Overdrive | 27 its cost/benefit analysis," according to its March court filing. OOIDA, among others, also points out that because most drivers are paid by the mile or by percentage of revenue, saved time has little relation to compen- sation: "There is no appreciable savings from not requiring the trucker to fill out the paper log." That's from a briefing document accompanying a September 2013 meeting between White House Office of Management and Budget staff and OOIDA representatives. Furthermore, the briefing document says, "With 50 percent of the industry being one-truck operations, the vast majority of carriers do not have clerical staff." Therefore, estimates of back- office benefit wouldn't apply in the same way to independents' operations as those of larger carriers. FMCSA counters that its account- ing is 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." Landstar-leased Gary Buchs, based in Bloomington, Ill., estimates that he might save at most 15 minutes per work- ing day by using Omnitracs' MCP50 in his truck. "Over the course of a year, it does add up," he says, but given his percentage-based compensation, "I don't see that being a direct benefit." Other operators have estimated as much as an hour per week saved, roughly in line with Buchs' estimate, or as little as no time at all saved, particu- larly as electronic devices malfunction. A recent commenter at OverdriveOn- line.com stressed this point, speculat- ing that "e-logs won't even make your paperwork easier. Just try pulling into a weigh station when your computer suddenly decides to get the hiccups and won't access the data you need to prove you're legal." A redundant paper copy might do the trick in foolproofing such situations, but that blows any time savings you might get. "Otherwise," the commenter con- tinued, "you're going to be sitting there for an entire 10 hours at least while the officer lets you catch up on your previ- ous seven days on your paper log book." FMCSA referred all requests for com- ment on aspects of the ELD rule related to OOIDA's suit to the Department of Justice, whose Public Affairs office did not respond to inquiries. Norita Taylor of OOIDA notes a May 31 deadline for the U.S. Department of Transporta- tion's response to OOIDA's arguments in the 7th Circuit. www.ApexCapitalCorp.com/overdrive 855-354-2739 • Factoring rates as low as 1/2%! • FREE fuel card with discounts nationwide • FREE Mobile Factoring™ app with new image capture technology • FREE online account management website • FREE unlimited access to our load board, NextLOAD.com Untitled-30 1 3/15/16 10:08 AM