Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/687054
June 2016 | Overdrive | 39 Circuit Court of Appeals in March at press time was expected to be followed May 31 by FMCSA's written response.) Another 4 percent of readers put the likelihood of an ELD purchase well beyond this year. Landstar-leased owner-operator Gary Buchs sees the logic clearly. He emphasizes that confidence in any vendor's ability to conform to FMCSA's technical specifica- tions for ELDs – and remain in business – should be a key consideration in assess- ments. Buchs began using e-logs in recent years, running leased to Landstar with an Omnitracs e-log system. "You don't want to do it twice," he says of the transition to running electronic, which could happen "if something goes wrong and the [e-log vendor] goes out of business suddenly," ceasing support for a month-to-month subscription-type product. Most available e-log systems today are structured that way, Continental's VDO RoadLog the exception. "When I look out here at all the com- panies who are thinking they'll do the ELD thing, they make me nervous," he says. If you're in the trucking business for the long term, don't "wait until the very last minute," he says, to do the research and to test out free non-engine-connected electronic log book apps to inform an eventual decision. There's something of a learning curve in running electronic, he adds, but after almost four years of doing so himself, it's only about twice a year that he encounters a situation where "I could just use another 30 minutes" of drive time, he says. "So you just accept it, reschedule or whatever the situation calls for." There is some evidence of more oper- ators in the small-trucking world moving into the electronic realm, at least on a trial basis. BigRoad's log book app is capable of being paired with its DashLink engine connection for a full e-logs solution, but the app, BigRoad President Terry Frey believes, is being used (minus the Dash- Link) with much more frequency since the mandate's announcement. Frey sees a boost in downloads of the app as evidence more drivers are showing interest in trying out computer-assisted logs in advance of the mandate. Freight-matching provider DAT, just months after entering the market for electronic logging devices with its InView product, last month announced it was pulling the product, citing "a race to the bottom" in ELD pricing in the wake of FMCSA's final rule requir- ing ELDs.