Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/74547
OWNER-OPERATORS' TOP CHALLENGES many fleets who've adopted EOBRs, among them Schneider National and Prime Inc., in many cases come to appreciate them for benefits including paperwork reduction and opera- tional streamlining. At Prime, "We have polled our folks numerous times, and More and more drivers have their off-duty time accounted for through electronic logs. com) and the long-running Trucker's Advantage card (TruckersAdvantage.com). Cost-plus fuel buying is available to National Association of Small Trucking Companies (NASTC.com) members as well as owner-operators leased to fleets with such programs. Schneider's Bethea and Landstar Vice President and Chief Safety and Operations Officer Joe Beacom both report such programs being available to owner-operators. In Landstar's program, which also includes retail-minus discount pricing, "in 2011, discounts off street price totaled nearly $16 million, all of which was passed through to the Landstar owner-operator," Beacom says. 2. Hours of service and electronic onboard recorders The trucking industry faces more restrictive hours of ser- vice restart rules starting in 2013, as well as the prospect of litigation further delaying that date or even changing the revised hours rule. That uncertainty is complicated by the voluntary adoption of electronic onboard recorders by many carriers and the congressional mandate for EOBRs in the recently passed highway reauthorization bill. (See details on Page 16.) Former flatbedding owner-operator Don Lanier, based in Alton, Ill., and today leased with a Freightliner straight truck to expediter J.D. Clark Logistics, says he's never had to run with an EOBR himself, but has "heard good and bad" from other operators. "Some say guys don't want them so they can cheat, but with today's CSA and roadside inspections and weigh stations getting tougher, that's a fool's game. I don't personally want to be tethered to one. It's intrusive, and 'big brother' has enough on his hands just keeping the Congress working, let alone me." While such sentiments tend to dominate conversations among operators who don't utilize EOBRs today, there is real division about their use. Operators leased to one of the 36 | Overdrive | August 2012 there is no desire to return to paper logs," says company Safety Director Don Lacy. "Electronic logs have ramped up the efficiency in our operations department and eliminated the uncertainties that used to actually contribute to wasted time. Operations, sales and owner-operators are now all on the same page with complete transparency." Tom Blake has found similar benefits on a much smaller scale after installing PeopleNet units in his fleet's five trucks, plus one owner-operator's truck running under his authority. That includes the Peterbilt he drives. He paid $1,400 apiece for the units, and now pays a monthly service fee. He figures the expense is "a wash for the man-hours I had to put into figuring out trip sheets and fuel taxes and auditing all the logs." That means more time he can spend hustling container freight, he says. While he'd never had a driver put out of service for a log book violation, Blake came to EOBRs in 2011 worried about what form and manner violations were doing to his fleet's score in the Fatigued Driving category of CSA. His numbers were verging on alert status, which would trigger an intervention. Blake presented his stark choice to his drivers: "I said, 'I've got two options. Either I install recorders or I'm going to have to shut my doors." Blake views his decision to install EOBRs as a necessary adaptation, echoing Bethea's thoughts on tech- nological change. "The environment is encroaching on the guys who've got- ten by with a little bit of luck," Bethea says. Use of "electronic logs is coming in with most every major carrier, or they're experimenting with it. We're going to have to figure out how to optimize our time better so we can bring in revenue." Owner-operators need to "keep ahead with the technology" in all aspects. But former household-goods owner-operator and current fuel hauler Allen Smith, like many owner-operators, believes there is a widely held misconception in regulatory and legisla- tive circles that sees EOBRs as a cure-all for safety problems. Instead, there are larger root causes, such as detention. The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association was right, he says, to challenge the previous recorder rule – the court threw out that limited mandate a year ago on grounds that FMCSA did not give due diligence to the issue of whether recorders could be used to harass drivers. FMCSA's Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee took up the harassment issue last February, followed by listening sessions with drivers on EOBRs and harassment at the Mid- America Trucking Show in March and a Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance event in April.