Broker demands proof of ELD usage

Hey, hey, hey....u speaking of your truck??

Mine is an 18yr old nubile virgin...

 

Both of my trucks are 20 years old. And I know for a FACT, that mega companies with brand new trucks and 40 cents per mile drivers let down my shippers more often than then not because they call me asking to cover the load.

Want a reliable shipment, then call a trucker that owns the truck.

 

Not true.

 

No offense but it isn't their truck.

They are contracting with a carrier to move the product, their concern isn't with the logs, it is limited to what a truck is legal with insurance, active authority and such. Logs, age and all of that crap is off limits to them because we all have to abide by the same set of rules, we all have to log, we all have to get at least an annual inspection and we all have to go through spot inspections, so their worry is unfounded and trivial at best and should not be tolerated.

If they are concern, then they should be paying the top rate and refuse to allow other brokers to cover their loads, but they won't on either account.

This is the same crap of micromanaging that many brokers are doing to drivers and small carriers. The service failure rates are not high but there is no excuse to keep calling the carrier or the driver to find out if they are on time or if the truck is capable of handling the load while under load.

 

Yes, a broker will need to do a certain amount of due diligence to cover their ###, but doing the FMCSA's job is not one of them. It isn't the brokers responsibility to ensure the carrier is fully legal and compliant. There are tools (public and industry available information) that allows the broker to check the carrier's status. Beyond that, if the regulator(s) and associated government jurisdiction(s) say the carrier is legal then that has to be good enough.

To take the example of compliance to an extreme (and patently silly) position; perhaps all drivers need to pass driving knowledge and skills tests prior to loading to ensure they're not going to hit someone or put it into the ditch. At some point you have trust the system.

Aside from trucking I have worked in other industries that are far more strictly regulated and with significantly higher potential fallout from incidents and we rely on the regulators to do their jobs so we can both do ours and be protected in the case of any negligence.

If a broker lost a case as you have described... they need to sue for legal malpractice.

 

I've seen more than a few 20+ year old trucks running around in better shape than most fleet trucks that are 1-3 years old. Trucks don't GET that old being neglected. Sure, there are a few clunkers run by folks who bought cheap, run cheap, and as a result are on a shoestring budget...but they usually don't last too long, because neglected trucks don't last and if you can't afford to maintain a truck, you probably won't be able to replace it.

 

if they ask,i will tell them,I sure do run a eld,now about my 35% rate hike.......that goes with it

 

Hmmmm........ let's see, that 18 yr old truck may be more reliable than new. And chances are the driver of that 18 year old truck is far more reliable.

 

The problem with the highlighted statement is that those trucks are replaced with more cheap junk and it perpetuates the cycle of cheap junk on the road.

This is one of my peeves, we see it around here with contracted owners running LTL between plants and container freight. The other day I had to avoid a mudflap that fell off a container truck, it looked like it was just put on, it was new from one of the trailer places in Dearborn. BUT it came off, most likely the cheap owner didn't want to pay for the right fix.

One thing I had to deal with was GM (and Johnson controls) and their refusal to allow my older trucks onto their property until we struck up an agreement at a higher level. It wasn't the problem of my trucks but those in the past that the junk trucks were breaking down in the docks. One other thing they mentioned (and I've seen) is older trailers with rotted floors having forklifts stuck in them so no older trailer.

 

That is understandable, especially in regard to the trailers. It seems that ones past performance would be a better metric to use, at least to me.