What you brokers expecting with the elog mandate?

I get your perspective just fine. That's why my disclosing what can go wrong is so important. You deserve to have all the information you need to make a rational decision.

The thing you're dancing around is rate. Obviously if I name some ludicrously high rate you'll be ok with my wasting some of your time, because you're getting paid for that. I pay a fair rate for the risk the truck is taking in the first place. This means I'm paying a lot more than 2 bucks a mile usually. Heck I'm paying better than 2 bucks a mile on loads of construction material that never have loading/unloading issues.

 

% of revenue has nothing to do with it. You don't get to claim people for lost revenue. Nobody does. It's at the very heart of insurance law. And that's because it gets impossibly messy to do it any other way.

Unless you get it included on the contract as a separate line with specific fines and penalties for various outcomes you can't just whack them that way. And you'll never get a broker to sign a document that involves him paying you more for damages than he can recover from the customer.

 

For big business, your reasoning is sound. For the small business, single truck O/O, it gets sticky.

 

I'm just a driver. But here is my 2 cents. If a smallcarrier was able to have a mechanic or two full time on hand, than you would not need new trucks. The only thing that wears out on trucks in drivetrain and powertrain. Know when parts are near the end of service life and stop throwing money away on new trucks that nobody wants after warranty is gone. Than said carrier does not need elog for pre 2000 year trucks. But this is only my opinion. So take it with a grain of salt.

 

That’s not how the law works. Any law designed to do anything will eventually get twisted into a pretzel by some lawyer so it can be fired indiscriminately. You do not want the courts deciding who is a small business and who is a big business.

Think of the scammers who would thrive on the setup you’re proposing? The same guys who pull in front of your truck and slam the brakes for an insurance payout would magically get cdls.

 

Very interesting views and side-bars. I believe I am summarizing correctly by saying the question was posed to brokers what their preditions would be in regards to operating policy/procedure with the elog mandate. The answer most commonly given was, "no changes." Seems reasonable. Either you have the hours, or you don't. Always been like that.

I believe the side-bars are relevent to the true purpose of the original question. I get a feeling no one expects the booking to be any different, but are curious to what extent the brokers will champion the cause of the carriers in regards to reforms at the shipper/ receiver level. In other words, to the brokers, the question is what the brokers will do to help hold the shippers' feet to the fire to honor appt times and prevent those 7 hour delays.

 

Same thing I've always done- collect detention as discussed, and drive my shippers/receivers to get folks loaded in a timely fashion. Hit folks in the checkbook and you'll start to see some changes.

 

Ask some fleet owners about that. I'm not one but I know what they'll say about it and I know there are some who read this forum. If it was cost effective upkeeping a bunch of older trucks fleets would already be doing it. It isn't. The cheapest way to run a fleet is to cycle into and out of brand new tractors every 3 years or so.

 

Sure if you don't have your own mechanics, or can't use a screw driver. Your model or ideal is my reason for my deep Resentment of most carriers. New truck with apu and some features will cost $3500-$4500 a month. And what good does it do only a warranty, and Tax deductible truck payment. So at $3500 a month x 12 months = $42000. Even rebuilding most old trucks to be legal does not cost that. And be able to use paper logs.