XRS : ELDs for Owner Operators – A New Way to Do Business

ELDs are often part of fleet management systems, but we're increasingly seeing those more robust systems referred to as ELDs across the trucking industry. They track Hours or Service, as well as a number of other safety, compliance, and efficiency metrics for large carriers-but they're "too much muscle" for an owner/operator, right?

Well, no.

If you're thinking, "Hey I'm just a guy (or gal) with a truck; this is overkill," consider this: by adopting more sophisticated systems and processes and easily documenting your actions, you'll get the proof you need to earn those honey contracts and ensure you're paid what you deserve.

ELDs can track a lot of data that you can use to your benefit; documentation like:

• Hours worked, allowing you to bill by the hour (or pay other drivers in your operation how you want to pay them)
• Hours detained, giving you the information you need to bill for time sitting idle based on a customer's action (or inaction)
• Miles driven, allowing you to easily prove your actual mileage compared to planned
• Fuel consumed, allowing you to add a fuel surcharge based on your driving behavior and real-world conditions
• Activity performed (especially useful if you're lumping your own cargo)
• Proof of delivery with signature capture on your smartphone or tablet, helping you deliver better customer service
• Pictures of delivered product, allowing you to quickly deal with any problems that may arise

Mobile ELDs also paint you in a more progressive light when you interact with your customers.

Smartphones and tablets have radically changed expectations of customer experiences. So, simply by replacing your clipboard with a tablet (that's also your ELD), it lends you a more professional image; it communicates that you're dedicated to professionalism in your fleet, and willing to adopt technology to improve the customer experience and your own bottom line.

Shippers and receivers are increasingly demanding more real-time data about their freight-where is it and when it will arrive.

Before ELDs, that meant dispatchers had to call drivers for their location, potentially distracting those drivers on the road. Now, dispatchers can pull up your location on a map and give an accurate location to the customer without any interaction on your part.

ELD asset tracking also means you can counter claims from shippers and receivers that you were delayed, when you were, in fact, waiting at the location and it was the warehouse personnel that wasn't ready to load cargo.

With the rich mobile application marketplace available today, all of which can be accessed by your smartphone or tablet that's also doubling as your ELD, you have an entire new toolset available to you to work the way you want to work.

For owner operators, it's a game changer.