Trust – but verify

Electronic logs are fast replacing paper as the standard for compliance. But do they improve safety?

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the second of a three-part series on combating driver fatigue. Other stories in this series address technologies for managing driver fatigue and driver-load scheduling.

Customer service was the initial reason Central Refrigerated started using electronic logs. With onboard computers and other technologies, the Salt Lake City-based company could notify customers automatically of load arrivals and departures – but a key component was missing.

Some drivers falsified their paper logbooks to match the electronically captured arrival and departure events. Due to delays in retrieving and scanning paper logs, Central Refrigerated wasn’t able to detect these and other problems until perhaps 20 to 30 days later.

Billing a customer for detention charges with errors in driver logs puts a fleet’s credibility at risk, says Allen Lowry, director of safety. “To solidify that process, we wanted to make it easier for drivers to keep track of what time they arrived and departed,” Lowry says.

Almost immediately after deciding to implement electronic logs, Central Refrigerated was audited by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. The company was not found deficient in any safety category, but it came “pretty close” in the 70-hour workweek rule, Lowry says.