March 2017 Volume 37, Issue 2
TRUCK NEWS Eastern Canada’s Trucking Newspaper Since 1981
Delivering daily news at trucknews.com
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Page 26
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Who you gonna call?
What fleets want
Buyer’s market
Youthful enthusiasm
Heavy tow operators say a requirement to comply with H-o-S may leave trucking companies with fewer options.
If you’re in the business of selling parts to fleets, understand they want a technical advisor, not a sales rep.
Used truck buyers’ tastes are evolving, with spec’s such as automated transmissions increasingly in demand.
An 18-year-old truck driver from Quebec discusses his passion for the industry and how it attracted him.
Hacked
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Small and mid-sized carriers are easy targets for hackers
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By Harry Rudolfs B-Line Enterprises is a small, family-owned trucking company located in Raleigh, N.C. The company uses load brokers and vice-president Diane Burkle thought nothing of sending out standard contracts and invoices via e-mail. That is, until the payments stopped coming. “Most of them pay in 30 days but we usually wait 45 days before inquiring about the payment,” says Burkle. “That’s how I found out. Then I discovered their e-mails were blocked so I started calling them.” Hackers had obtained Burkle’s e-mail password. “Using my company e-mail, they submitted an ACH form to the brokers so they would get a direct deposit into an account they set up. They got into the back side of our e-mail so any replies would not come to my e-mail. They did this with 18 customers and got away with about $5,000 before I realized what was happening,” she tells Truck News. The situation became more confounding when Burkle requested payment for the work B-Line had done. Continued on page 24
PM40063170
Careers: 6, 28-45 Ad Index: 57
By the end of this year, Canadian carriers operating in the US must require drivers to electronically log their hours-ofservice. Choosing the right device for your fleet is critical.
Buyer beware The clock is ticking for Canadian carriers operating in the US to install electronic logging devices. The system you choose may be the most important decision you make this year. By James Menzies TORONTO, ONTARIO anadian carriers that operate in the US will have until Dec. 18, 2017 to install electronic logging devices (ELDs) for the monitoring of driver hours-of-service. To help carriers find a compliant system, the US Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has created a website listing registered and “self-certified” devices. But it may come as a surprise to fleets that all that’s required to get on that list is to submit documentation claiming to have met all the requirements laid out in a 450-odd page technical standard. There’s no further proof required. As of Feb. 8, there were 27 devices listed on the FMCSA’s website. Noticeably absent were the major players, the most recognizable ELD suppliers. “Our message is going to be buyer beware,” warns Eric Witty, vice-president, product, with PeopleNet. “I think, in general, there will be confusion in the marketplace related to the vendors.” Tom Cuthbertson, vice-president of regulatory affairs with Omnitracs, agrees.
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“It’s a registration process, it’s not a certification process with FMCSA at this time,” he points out. “FMCSA is not vetting anything.” This is an important consideration for fleets that are shopping around for a compliant ELD platform. A vendor’s appearance on the FMCSA website means only that the company has taken steps to ensure its system complies with the technical standard. If that system is discovered in the future to fall short – whether by FMCSA, enforcement officers or by the end user – the supplier will have a limited time to bring its system into compliance or, if it fails to do so, the fleet will have to replace all its devices and the product will be removed from the website. Recognizing the risk fleets are exposed to, Canada’s PIT Group has launched a third-party verification service. It’s voluntary for suppliers, who can choose to have PIT engineers verify their compliance and then earn the right to display a PIT-verified logo. “The reason why we went into offering that service is, fleets were alarmed,” PIT Group director Yves Provencher tells Truck News. “We even had lawyers calling us, saying ‘What can we do to protect our carriers?’ Continued on page 12