Fleets’ EOBR Use Spurs Poaching by Competitors, Executives Say

This story appears in the May 30 print edition of Transport Topics.

BALTIMORE — Fleets that adopt electronic logging devices are encountering challenges from competitors who don’t use them and who poach their drivers and customers, three carrier officials said last week.

Nevertheless, the executives said they continue to support using electronic logs.

Executives from Quality Distribution, McKenzie Tank Lines and Carbon Express described those commercial effects as their fleets install e-logs well in advance of a proposed federal mandate to require them by 2015.

“Someone who isn’t doing e-logs isn’t on the same playing field with those who are,” said Shawn Harris, vice president of operations at Quality, Tampa, Fla. May 24 at the National Tank Truck Carriers meeting here. “We have lost some freight.”

Harris said Quality, which is gradually installing logging devices to all of its 2,400 trucks, has seen its driver corps shift from 60% owner-operators to less than 40%.

“We are being told that [drivers] don’t think they can make enough money if they go by the letter of the law,” Harris said.

Steve Rush, president of Carbon Express, Wharton, N.J., also said competitors who don’t have the e-logs have attracted drivers from Carbon, using the ability to run illicit extra hours as an incentive to attract both freight and drivers.

“We lost about one-third of lease operators who weren’t willing to go with e-logs,” said Jim Shaeffer, CEO of McKenzie, Tallahassee, Fla., who also reported the defection of a major customer.

“If that happens, so be it,” Shaeffer said. “If we find it takes one or two hours more to deliver, we aren’t afraid to go back to the customer [and tell them that]. Most respond favorably.”

The fleet executives spoke during the same week that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s comment period on the logging-device proposal ended (see related story).

Onboard recorders have their share of opponents, including the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association and the National Association of Small Trucking Companies.

Those groups say the devices impose unneeded costs on owner-operators and small fleets, giving larger fleets an advantage while also invading privacy.

Other groups, including American Trucking Associations and the Truckload Carriers Association, support electronic logging devices.

The number of fleets and tractors that already have installed the devices isn’t known.

John Conley, executive director of the National Tank Truck Carriers Conference, said he believed as many as 75% of his group’s 300-plus members have, or are gradually adding, electronic logging devices. Some fleets may be waiting to adopt the devices until they determine what the final rule requires, he said.

Despite the challenges, all three carrier executives strongly supported logging devices.

“Please get my passion,” Rush said. “It is time to treat these men and women [drivers] better. The electronic log is one way to treat them better. If you don’t do that, you are denying help to the most important people in the industry.”

Shaeffer said McKenzie, which has seen a large reduction in accidents while using the devices, is “very passionate about the benefits.”

The company found that using electronic logging added two or three hours of driving time per week because the logs measure driver activity in minutes, not in the 15-minute increments that have to be used on paper logs.

“We have seen changes in driver behavior,” Shaeffer said.  “One of the best ways to avoid accidents is to install this technology.”

Harris also praised the devices, saying “we couldn’t be happier with what we are seeing” in terms of the safety benefits.

There are ways to fight back against real or potential defections, the pro-EOBR executives said.

Rush said he’s trying to keep owner-operators onboard by asking them to give logging devices a try for 30 to 60 days, hoping they will agree that their paychecks haven’t been lowered and that they are better rested.

The softer approach Rush de-scribed is effective in areas such as the South but hasn’t worked well in the Northeast, Harris said.

“The competition is marketing against us there,” Harris said, aggressively seeking to grab drivers and business.

J. Ward Best, vice president of Atlantic Bulk Carrier Corp., Providence Forge, Va., said veteran drivers who initially balked at using the logs changed their minds after seeing the results.

Drivers found the logs cut down on arguments with dispatchers about how much more legal driving time drivers have and helped prevent difficulties with customers who wanted to ask drivers to run more hours, he said.

Rush and Best both said their companies are trying to discuss the advantages of electronic logs with customers.

Rush also said he’s fighting back by telling shippers about a competitor’s Compliance, Safety, Accountability program performance if it shows a pattern of driving violations, such as hours-of-service violations.