ELD Mandate Compliance Vexes Some Smaller Fleets
COLUMBUS, Ind. — Small- and medium-size trucking fleets continue to wrestle with the federal electronic logging mandate, with some finding pleasant surprises and others making operational changes as a result of the transition away from paper, executives said at an industry conference.
The final rule from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, published in December, will bring to an end the era of paper record keeping for driver hours of service in December 2017.
The topic of ELDs came up repeatedly at the ACT Research Co. seminar here March 30-31, with ACT President Kenny Vieth saying it would generate a noticeable decrease in fleet capacity, and a panel of fleet executives swapping stories about efficiency improvements and retirements from trucking.
ELDs are wired directly to a truck’s engine, and their usage will make it very difficult — but not impossible — for drivers to cheat on hours. Vieth said this could reduce hauling capacity by for-hire carriers, perhaps by up to 7.9%.
Vieth said he didn’t want to use the word “cheating” with respect to recording driver hours on paper, choosing instead the phrase “excess miles,” referring to distance traveled beyond the HOS time limits. Starting with the assumption that many private fleets and most large for-hire fleets already use ELDs, ACT estimated that small and medium truckload carriers and owner-operators operate 422,500 U.S. tractors without ELDs.
Assuming a 2% level of excess miles, ACT said eliminating that through ELDs would reduce for-hire trucking capacity by 6.3% and overall trucking capacity by 3.3%.
Doing the same analysis but with a 5% assumption for excess miles, ACT said adopting ELDs would reduce for-hire capacity by 7.9% and overall trucking by 4.2%.
“ELDs will really level the playing field” among trucking companies, Vieth said.
Fleet executives agreed that adopting the devices is an arduous process with a steep learning curve that taxes dispatch and other operations personnel even more than drivers. Beyond that there was a wide variety of experiences.
Tommy Hodges, chairman of Titan Transfer Inc., said “10% of our driver force quit” after the Tennessee-based truckload carrier adopted ELDs in 2010. He also said there was a 6.8% productivity drop for six to eight months.
“You have to plan a driver’s week a week in advance,” he said.
Hodges said many of his drivers who left went to non-ELD companies, but he wonders what they’ll do once using the devices becomes universal.
Sherri Garner Brumbaugh, president of Garner Transportation Group in Ohio, said adoption included a “huge learning curve,” but now if her drivers’ ELDs go down, “they’re calling into the office” because they don’t want to deal with paper anymore.
She echoed the need for better schedule planning. “We’re planning 24/7,” Brumbaugh said.
Jim Subler, president of refrigerated hauler Classic Carriers, said ELDs don’t work well with his multiple-stop delivery model. He’s heard from small fleets that say they will go out of business because of the devices, but he’s trying to avoid that fate for Classic.
“We had to fire some customers and reinvent ourselves” because of ELDs, he said. Shippers who keep drivers waiting for long periods are difficult to handle when ELDs are active, the executives said.
“Some shippers are in denial about ELDs,” Hodges said, adding that Amazon.com is one such company.
“They’re trailer hogs,” Hodges said, adding that learning to fire uncooperative shippers was one of the most valuable lessons learned late in his trucking career.
Jeff Shefchik, president of Paper Transport in Wisconsin, said he thinks some companies will close and some drivers will retire, but many indignant exits from trucking will prove to be temporary.
“Drivers will drive. They might be angry at home for a week, but then their wives will tell them to get their butts back to work because they need to bring home a paycheck,” Shefchik said.
Brumbaugh looked at the devices opportunistically.
“Some carriers won’t embrace ELDs or don’t have the money to purchase them, but I see that as an opportunity for growth,” she said of acquisition targets.
ELDs also were a major topic of conversation at the Mid-America Trucking Show on March 31-April 2 in Louisville, Kentucky.
During a well-attended seminar, FMCSA representatives provided an overview of the rule and addressed truckers’ questions about it. Several attendees sought clarification on the exemptions to the ELD rule, while other questions pertained to editing driver logs and the procedure for filing driver harassment complaints.
LaTonya Mimms, a transportation specialist at FMCSA, said the agency has formed a team to develop guidance to define personal conveyance, which can be recorded as off-duty time.
Technology Editor Seth Clevenger contributed to this story.
