By the end of August, independent owner-operator Alipio Montano will be on his fourth electronic logging device provider in a little over two years.
Montano, who runs two-truck CDR Transportation Services out of Houston, Texas, opted for the One20 F-ELD before earnest enforcement of the U.S. DOT’s ELD mandate began in April 2018. Marketed as a device for owner-operators, the F-ELD was an outshoot of the now-defunct TruckThat app. But just months after the mandate took effect, One20 abruptly announced it was discontinuing service, giving Montano just 30 days to find a new provider.
He switched to the popular KeepTruckin for roughly a year. Then at the beginning of this year he invested nearly $2,000 to outfit both of his trucks with Continental’s VDO Roadlog system — long billed as an owner-operator-focused system and the only product with a built-in log printer.
Montano has been on VDO since February, but VDO announced in April that it too is discontinuing service in August, leaving Montano once again searching for a new ELD provider.
“It not only costs a lot of time, it costs a lot of money,” he said, to switch providers. “It’s a big hassle. And then if I switch to another provider, is it going to be the same story again – ‘We’re closing’?” he said.
He cited issues with log data retrieval and questions in compliance audits, should they arise, as key concerns in changing providers. Not to mention the lost investment. “I bought everything up front — the subscription, the wires, the harness, the fleet card,” since he employs a driver.
Many other operators have faced similar problems of cost, inconvenience and uncertainty as they’re forced to quickly switch ELD providers. That fate also appears to await other owner-operators and small fleets, too.
