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Rico Muhammad knew the challenges associated with the e-log environment before he ever made the transition. Using the BigRoad smartphone logging app, he simulated an e-log operation before converting in 2015 to engine-connected e-logs with Rand McNally’s TND760 fleet edition ($550-$700, about $20/month).
He runs two trucks, himself operating a 2002 Kenworth T2000 out of Atlanta. In recent times, after regular freight from a direct customer dried up, he turned back to using brokers via load boards to fill his trailers, occasionally supplemented with direct freight. Muhammad echoes Chuck Shaffer’s concerns about the impact dock delays have on the bottom line.
He’d like to see more flexibility in the hours regulations around the 14-hour daily on-duty maximum, “if you could stop the 14-hour other than taking an 8-and-2 split.” As with many owner-operators, he looks back with favor on the days of 10 on, eight off.
In reefer, getting loaded and unloaded is still a major problem, he says, as is “trying to get people to agree to detention terms.” Not that a little additional revenue itself is so valuable, but rather detention pay “should be used as a tool to avoid being detained. It doesn’t do me any good to be sitting there.”
“They pretty much just say, ‘Let me see the summary page,’ ” showing his status relative to the 14-hour on-duty maximum, the 11 hours of maximum daily drive time and his cumulative hours limit of 70 hours in eight days.
When he had the BigRoad logging app on his phone, not connected to the engine’s electronic control module, inspectors “scrutinized those logs a little heavier,” he says.
