Timing is everything. Especially when it’s time to move ahead. That’s why tank carrier Langer Transport tossed aside paper driver logs for good this January, opting to switch over to an automated hours-of-service application from Omnitracs LLC.

“This was a major change for our company,” says Bill Pobedinsky, director of safety and personnel. “We were 100% paper logs. We looked at it for years and made the decision that the timing was right. Our customers are excited about it, the drivers are excited — they are welcoming it.”

Langer, based in Jersey City, N.J., is family-owned and has been in business for 80 years. Its tank-truck fleet serves customers in the chemical, oil, food-grade and pharmaceutical industries throughout the U.S. and Canada.

A key reason the company thought the time was right to go paperless: “We know the mandate is eventually coming,” Pobedinsky points out.

“We’re just in the beginning phases,” he explains, noting that the rollout has been smooth so far.

The company opted for Omnitracs’ MPC50 in-cab devices. In addition to the hours-of-service piece, it will implement such other applications as a critical-event reporting application that alerts fleet managers to critical events including hard braking and speeding.

And in a move that will eliminate even more paper, the company has deployed an electronic vehicle inspection report application, which helps drivers easily perform their daily pre-trip inspections. Langer is also deploying in-cab navigation.

The Omnitracs applications integrate with Langer’s TMW enterprise system and gives company’s dispatchers full visibility of how long drivers have been driving and how many available hours they have. “That is critical to us,” says Pobedinsky.

As for adopting other applications, he says the company was looking at the features that are important to them and what kind of features they may add in the future. “It’s a matter of what makes sense, what’s critical for use and we’ll go from there.”

A key part of the new system is in-cab navigation. Pobedinsky noted they were using a system they had built piece by piece. And while the company has been servicing many of the same customers for years and drivers know how to get in and out of those locations, Pobedinsky says “the navigation is terrific, it’s something we’ll be using.”

Since the company hauls some restricted materials, they have to be careful where they send their trucks and the navigation system has a hazardous material setting.