away from them today with a crane,” said Hilton. According to Hilton the company’s
“WE’RE SELLING THAT WE’RE GOING TO BE
ABOVEBOARD TO THE CUSTOMERS THAT
WE’RE WORKING WITH ON A DAY-TO-DAY BASIS.”
—MICHAEL FRANCKS,
GENERAL MANAGER, ZERO MOUNTAIN LOGISTICS
With paper logs, the law enforcer must use the logbook while possibly also con- sidering fuel receipts, bills of laden and other information, plus the driver inter- view, to ensure compliance. With ELDs, law enforcers simply scroll through the previous seven days.
DRIVER RESPONSE A profession that involves driv-
ing thousands of miles a week, alone, naturally attracts rugged individual- ists, and drivers traditionally have initially rejected electronic logbooks that record their whereabouts in such detail. When CalArk moved to elec- tronic logs five years ago, the carrier expected negative feedback from its drivers and tried to prepare them by touting ELDs’ advantages. Drivers were told the carrier didn’t know when a federal mandate was coming, but that ELDs were the wave of the future, and the company wanted to get in on the ground floor. The company already had GPS and telematics systems installed in the trucks, which meant that the information could be discovered in a Department of Transportation audit or a lawsuit. As a result of those reali- ties and the carrier’s efforts, drivers accepted the move. Only one or two threatened to quit, and these days, “You probably couldn’t pry the automated log
38
use of the technology hasn’t made it more difficult to recruit drivers, who apparently are accepting ELDs’ inevita- bility. “Just about everybody knows that
every motor carrier that’s out there is going to have to have an ELD here very shortly,” he said. At USA Truck, many drivers, espe-
cially older ones, were leery about mak- ing the change. It took about three to six months to push through the resis- tance, but they soon appreciated the fact that they no longer must calculate how many hours they’ve spent on the road. Now, no one is complaining. “I think it’s just human nature for
people to be reluctant to change, but I think once the drivers saw how easy it is to use electronic logs, that’s when we got the buy-in,” said Bicknell, the com- pany’s director of applications develop- ment
Zero Mountain Logistics had to
turn away older potential drivers who were not willing to make the change. But Francks said it’s been gratifying to see its current drivers embrace it. “We’ve had a couple of drivers say,
‘I actually get to take a break. I actually get to sleep on this.’ We’ve had some of those renegade guys that have come to us and actually bridged the gap and would probably be proponents of the ELD at this point,” he said. Dedicated Logistics, a small car-
rier, used a different strategy to gain driver acceptance. In January 2013, it started with one veteran driver who had experience with the technology working for a larger company. He became the company’s evangelist, and word soon spread. By July of that year, 70 percent of the drivers were using electronic logs, and in 2014 it became a company pol- icy. Executives had thought they would have to drag their drivers kicking and screaming. Instead, Riels said, “We lost one guy, and he left because he retired and went back to the family farm.” The technology should help carri-
ers make the case to shippers to treat their drivers better. Carriers will have no choice but to follow the law, so shippers will have to work within that new framework if they want their loads delivered. Francks said big receivers have told drivers to leave their yard, even if the driver is out of hours, so then the driver would just fudge his log and move across the street. Now that’s a violation. So what about when a driver is
out of hours and close to home? With paper logs, he can push it, but not with ELDs. USA Truck handles that aspect proactively by training drivers to plan their routes and not to push their hours to the very end. Meanwhile, drivers are allowed 35 miles within a 24-hour period for personal conveyance if they aren’t laden. Dedicated Logistics’ Riels said the technology “makes us think outside the box. We put somebody in a car, and we go get that driver and that truck so that he’s not sitting an hour from home waiting on his 10-hour break.” All of the fudging of the past has
made it possible for drivers to get more miles and for carriers to get more loads, and that won’t change until the mandate takes full effect. Francks said one of Zero Mountain Logistics’ driv- ers while working for a previous carrier had to wait at one shipper’s location for about 18 hours and then had to deliver a load six hours to Dallas, meaning he was awake for 24 hours. Zero Mountain Logistics wouldn’t be able to deliver that load. Riels said that 55 percent of Dedicated Logistics’ drivers are travel- ing 2,800-3,000 miles a week, which is less than what they were getting with paper logs. He’s looking forward to the mandate taking effect to level the play- ing field. Until then, he believes he’s made
the best choice for his company. He asks why he would jeopardize his company just to run a few hundred more miles. “For the long term of this business
and the safety of this business, I can’t even say it’s the best way to go,” he said. “It’s the only way to go.” ATR
Issue 6 2016 | ARKANSAS TRUCKING REPORT
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