Page 46 - ATR 1 2012 web 2

THE laST worD

Bootlegging Business

By James Bozeman

Guest Writer

I wasn’t too Now this is a 900-mile haul aNd we had
keen on the idea of offered to pick up oN moNday aNd deliVer oN
installing electronic wedNesday. i asked him to explaiN what the
on-board record-
ers (EOBRs) in my other carrier was offeriNg. he said ‘the other
trucks when the carrier would deliVer tuesday.’ i told him
Arkansas Trucking ‘well, i caN’t do that aNd Neither caN they
Association uNder the hours-of-serVice rules.’
announced it would formally support a
mandate. In fact, I hated the idea.
But sitting at the lake one day, I
was mulling over the reasons why I Not long after we had a customer how to make money legally. I mean,
opposed an EOBR mandate. I have been in North Carolina who had a load they might as well be bootlegging whis-
in trucks since I was 16, and I wanted coming back to Arkansas. He called key. It’s the same damn thing.
to continue to operate the only way I me and said, ‘James, it’s not your rate But, for it to work, it must be for
knew how. And then it hit me. that’s keeping you out of this business, everyone. And shippers will have to get
The only reason I came up with to it’s your time from pickup to delivery.’ acclimated to EOBRs and what they
oppose EOBRs was so I could cheat. Now this is a 900-mile haul and we mean. If we have a late truck then we
There’s no other way to dress it up. had offered to pick up on Monday and have a late truck. Stuff happens. A driv-
Instead of GPS tracking showing your deliver on Wednesday. I asked him er oversleeps or his wife was in a bad
truck was down for four or five hours to explain what the other carrier was mood and he couldn’t leave…whatever.
repairing a flat, I wanted to tell the offering. He said ‘the other carrier Those pickups and deliveries will
driver to write down one hour in his log would deliver Tuesday.’ I told him ‘well, have to be in compliance with the
book and get him back on the road. I I can’t do that and neither can they hours-of-service rules. Or at least, that’s
wanted the ability to bend the rule. under the hours-of-service rules.’ how it should work. EOBRs level the
I figured I can’t go backward to We didn’t get the business and that playing field so everyone will have to
those days. That’s not my nature, to go really sounded like a liability problem comply.
backward on anything. And EOBRs are for the shipper to me.
coming. So at the beginning of 2011, I Those in our industry can make James Bozeman is president of J.m.
announced to our drivers we were going whatever excuses they want for not Bozeman Enterprises, a truckload freight
company in malvern, Arkansas. You may
to log to the GPS and began a whole using EOBRs. The bottom line is they reach him directly at
operational change. Many of them left. haven’t wrapped their minds around james.bozeman@jmbozeman.com.

opinions expressed on this page may not reflect official policies or opinions of the Arkansas Trucking Association
or the American Trucking Associations.

46 arkansas truCking rePort | issue 1 2012