qual com

RUN!! I have never heard of that!! What is the asking price of said unit??

 

Barr-Nunn requires the same thing of its O/O's as well. I was all signed up to go to work for them back in 2003 when I started till I found this out.

I would move on to another company unless you are extremely happy where you are. Most companies will pay for the Qualcomm and the service.

 

If a carrier wants a qualcomm unit in the truck, they should cover cost of unit and free installation at a minimum with no security deposit. My carrier does that... Fremont Contract Carriers. i get charged $10 a week for the use of it. But then, it also includes GPS routing, lowest priced fuel locations along the route, and it also has games to pay on it if I wanted to waste time doing that. The $10 a week cost is easily recovered in money saved on fuel and not buying a GPS route unit.

 

That's why when I researched getting my own truck I made sure I got a company to lease on to that doesn't use qualcom or elogs. I have been saddled with that crap for to long as a company driver to deal with as a lease operator.

 

Never heard of buying it. Most companies lease it to owner operators.

 

It is likely related to maintaining contractor status for the state they are in. Some states have changed their laws to define O/O's differently than other independent contractors. So unless they are in a state that has adopted the model independent trucking law then they may look at providing you with any equipment as moving you a step closer to employee rather than independent contractor. IL has effectively eliminated the O/O.

 

Most companies carry a suitable stock of Qualcoms that is a tax write off for them. If they are charging OO's they are penny pinchers finding a way to make a dollar off a team member.

The way I see it is they can find other avenues to make money. I wouldn't work for someone like that. If they beat you there they will beat you somewhere else.

 

Well, if the budget funding goes thru, then the mandate for EOBR in the highway bill will "saddle" you anyway. Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.

 

Depending on the unit they are asking you to buy, it could range from an MCP 50 for $300 up to the MCP 200 for $2,100. It could be that they know if you decide to just bail on them, they know they won't recoup the cost so they want you to buy it. As for it being a tax write off, spending $2,100 cash reduces taxable income by only $600 so that's not the motivation. I'd suspect they have taken it in the shorts with high turn over and losing units so they want to manage that expense. I agree with Bill's comment too as that crosses the independent contractor line in CA as well.