Page 29 - ATR 6 2013 digital

“as They work
Through The myThs
aNd The Truck sTop
Talk, They sTarT
To embrace The
idea of eobrs. They
realize They caN
be producTiVe aNd
efficieNT aNd make
moNey doiNg iT.

iT’s slow, buT we’re
geTTiNg There.”
—gary salisbury,
presideNT, fikes Truck liNe

All agreed, however, that for all the aren’t able to be in the game. And that make decisions around a table,” he said.
advantages of electronic logging devices, puts us in a position where we aren’t “We don’t have committees that meet
salisbury
there still is one downside to fitting able to award our drivers in the right twice a year. We see the problem and we
your fleet with them – not everybody is way.” tackle it.”
doing it, and those that aren’t have the For Salisbury, whose fleet is much Salisbury continued. “The custom-
financial edge until the mandate is fully smaller than those of his colleagues, the ers are an issue in this,” he said. “They
implemented across the industry. decision back in the spring to mandate say they care, they say that they’re wor-
Kidd said there will be another electronic logging devices for his owner- ried about safety, but what we’ve seen
“massive pushback” from certain sec- operators had immediate consequences. is if you can’t do it, if you can’t get that
tors of the industry after the federal “Basically about 38 percent of our load there in the morning, they have 10
government rolled out the final rule. owner-operators left,” said Salisbury, other carriers behind you that will.
Although the Alliance has led the way drawing concerned reactions from the “And it’s been a real struggle,”
in their adoption, there is still some others. “And as an owner-operator com- Salisbury said, “much like a balancing
uncertainty, especially among smaller pany, that left us with a lot less capacity act between staying true to your beliefs
carriers, about making that long-term to give our shippers than we commit- about safety and looking at the bottom
investment, he said. ted to the year before and that’s been a line. I mean, virtually, it’s gotten down
“We have executives who say, ‘I’m challenge.” to, ‘How are you going to stay in busi-
running legal and I’m committed to And just as he’d heard discussed at ness if you do things the right way?’”
running legal, but I want to see my various times, those drivers went “right The conversation turned to the
return on investment,’” said Kidd. down the street to a carrier that’s not urgency to see the congressional ELD
Craig Harper agreed. “It’s hard running ELDs.” mandate fully implemented through-
for a carrier that runs legally to com- The conversation turned much out the industry. Kidd commented that
pete. That carrier is looking at its cost more personal as Salisbury talked about many company owners, understanding
and seeing what it can generate with the challenges he’s facing as a small that ELDs will soon be a reality, are
that device and realizing it takes them carrier in converting his fleet to ELDs. banking on there being no delays that
two days to do the work someone else, Williams later remarked that the would slow the mandate from becoming
without the device, can do in one day close nature among the executives is reality.
because they run illegally.” characteristic of the way they have “Some have said, ‘okay, I’m halfway
Knight agreed. “When all of our worked together in the Alliance. “We through the tunnel now and there’s no
drivers are having to compete against actually care about what we are try- way to back out,’” said Kidd.
people who aren’t doing it the right ing to achieve for our companies and
way, that puts us in a position where we there is a camaraderie here. Plus we can 

arkaNsas TruckiNg reporT | issue 6 2013 29