MYTHS’

MYTHS’

4. EOBRs are cost-prohibitive.
Kraft: “In many cases, [systems in place today] were implemented for other things than hours of service. Low-cost systems are available today. Earlier, the technology wasn’t quite there. In today’s world, … an electronic log system with other features can be under $500 or on a monthly basis for $35 dollars with no up-front costs.”

Lowry: “We look at the return aspect on it. We were spending upward of $50,000 on log scanning and storage per year. $90,000 in log books. $10,000 in other expenses. The greatest benefit is the ability to utilize hours in back-office integration — evaluating loads as far as hours of service goes to find the best-suited driver. It’s difficult to quanity that.”

Dinino: ”We do in fact see a return, as Allen’s operation. Before the purchase was made there was a cost study in place — [return-on-investment] would be much greater than the outlay for the equipment, and then with dispatch having total transparency… Again, along those lines, we’ve taken advantage of some enhancements — electronic inspection reports fire off an e-mail to our shop immediately [noting problems]. That’s helped our maintenance cost go down preemptively.”