Dedicated Logistics of Crossett began its fleetwide implementation of electronic logging devices with a handful of reluctant volunteers.
After the trial period, it took little work for company executives to persuade the next wave of drivers to swap their hours-of-service paper logs for the new technology.
“Those first few guys did so well and liked them so much they started telling their friends at the company,” Safety Manager Scott Richardson said. “We got to the point we didn’t have to search for volunteers any longer. Guys sleep better at night knowing the guesswork is gone. We sleep better at night knowing these guys are running legally.
“We’d just like to see it locked in stone that everybody has to use them. We want to be competing equally.”
The chief complaint - though opponents won’t state it publicly - is that the devices make fudging hours more difficult. A driver can no longer drive more hours than they have reported. By law, a driver can only be on duty for 70 hours in a week before he must take a 34-hour break.
“The honest truth in the industry is that with paper logs, there’s no way to know if it’s accurate,” Richardson said. “If guys need another 30 minutes to get somewhere, they’ll tear out the page and start another. Looking legal doesn’t mean it’s legal.
“That’s why we’re really hopeful everybody will be on the same playing field soon.”
All 60 Dedicated Logistics drivers had the devices fully implemented by September 2013. They made the switch nearly six months before the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration published a proposed rule Friday that would require interstate truck and bus drivers to equip their vehicles with electronic logging devices. Currently the federal agency is in a comment period for the new rule, and it could be 2016 before companies stop using paper logs to keep track of hours of service.
Arkansas Trucking Association Vice President Shannon Newton said about 30 percent of the organization’s 200 member companies are at least partially compliant with the looming regulation.On-board recording devices have had the support of the Arkansas Trucking Association since 1999, Newton said, and the group was active in pushing for the 2012 legislation mandating the use by all companies.
“We feel like the industry is in a tunnel and we all know at the end of the tunnel everybody is going to have electronic logging devices,” Newton said. “The process of some being on, some not, it’s not good for the industry. You have different people held to different standards of accountability. From our perspective, we like the rule and we like it to happen sooner than later.”
Arkansas companies using the devices are a snapshot of the industry within the state. There are small carriers such as Dedicated Logistics who have outfitted their entire fleets with the devices, while others such as USA Truck, among the nation’s 60 largest carriers,are moving slower.
USA Truck, which reports more than 2,300 trucks, has outfitted about 10 percent of its fleet with the devices and installs them when purchasing new trucks. Chief Executive Officer John Simone said the Van Buren-based company is looking for full implementation by the end of 2014.
The devices aren’t without their critics. They’ve even prompted an online petition to stop the new rule at https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/.
“These devices will only serve to force small trucking companies and independent truck drivers to close because they simply cannot afford the potential required equipment and subscription costs,” the petition states. “Our economy cannot afford another blow and loss of more American jobs.”
Cost has been the chief complaint about the devices.
Hardware for the on-board recorders can run between $800 and $1,800 per unit. Companies with larger fleets are able to buy at discounted bulk rates but still must pay a monthly fee for the software and general maintenance.
Ease of use is another concern, particularly among drivers.
Driver Toni Chandler has been with CalArk of Mabelvale for the past 18 years and prefers using electronic logging devices to paper logs. CalArk is an early adopter among Arkansas-based trucking companies, and Chandler said she’d encourage any driver concerned with the devices to “relax.”
“Give it a chance,” Chandler said. “I wasn’t really sure, but these have turned out to be a positive. It beats having to log everything in 15-minute increments. Whether a stop took 15 minutes or not, you had to log it as 15 minutes. This makes the process a lot easier.”
CalArk began researching logging devices in 2010 and began its implementation with drivers who were most consistently struggling to log their hours and violating hours of service rules. Since installing the devices fleetwide, CalArk has seen its hours-of-service compliance violations drop from 52 percent to 14 percent.
“My drivers see how much better these are from an efficiency and compliance standpoint,” CalArk Safety Director Malea Hare said. “There’s no way they’d go back to paper.”
Business, Pages 19 on 03/31/2014