Fleets Talk ELDs, Specs, Self-Driving Trucks on FTR Equipment Panel
From left, Greg Eddy, president and CEO of Venture Logistics; Don Hinkle, vice president of equipment services at YRC Worldwide; and Maverick Vice President of Maintenance Mike Jeffress. Photo by Evan Lockridge
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From left, Greg Eddy, president and CEO of Venture Logistics; Don Hinkle, vice president of equipment services at YRC Worldwide; and Maverick Vice President of Maintenance Mike Jeffress. Photo by Evan Lockridge
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How fleets think about equipment, electronic logging devices and even the future of autonomous vehicles were in the spotlight Wednesday afternoon at the annual FTR Transportation Conference in Indianapolis, as three trucking fleet people spoke on a panel about the challenges they face in today’s uncertain trucking environment.
In a discussion about ELDs, Maverick Transportation Vice President of Maintenance Mike Jeffress said shortly after his fleet began using electronic logs around 2010, they were greeted with both a good and a bad surprise.
“We’ve never been really able to quantify this, but after we went to ELDs we saw an improvement in fuel efficiency,” he said. “I equated that to the fact the operator had to do better trip planning than what they had done historically.”
While he was glad to see what he described as a “soft improvement” in fuel efficiency – having no real numbers to quantify the savings – their productivity took a hit of around 15%.
“From a maintenance perspective on the ELD I don’t know if we’ve seen any other improvements. If anything, there might be a slight argument that you saw a little bit of reduction in brake wear,” he said.
Don Hinkle, vice president of equipment services at YRC Worldwide, noted his company has been surprised by the price of ELDs, calling them “expensive.” Greg Eddy, president and CEO of Venture Logistics, praised the coming December federal mandate for their use.
“I think as we moved to ELDs several years ago we certainly saw a drop in capacity (about 4%)…but I think the key is the safety,” he said. “We need to get those drivers that are cheating…that’s when …Read the rest of this story
