Elog......maybe not

It is a shame the U.S. doesn't adopt just two of the regulations from Canada:

1. Daily rest
2. Sleeper berth (split sleeper)

Daily rest: we still have to have 10 hours per day, but only eight of it needs to be consecutive. The remaining two can be in any combination of increments of no less than 30 minutes each. So, a driver can take one, two-hour rest, or four 30-minute ones, or any combination thereof. Anything less than 30 minutes does no go towards the two-hour period. Of course they can still do 10 hours consecutive if they choose.

The irony of this is that it would eliminate the need for the FMCSA 30-minute rest. What do drivers do? Drive for a while. Stop for 30 minutes for a coffee and a stretch. Drive for a while. Stop for an hour for lunch and a stretch, read a book or a quick nap. Drive for a while. Stop for 30 minutes for a coffee and a stretch. Or, qualifying time spent at shippers/receivers can count towards your daily rest. All civilised-like. Even if they keep the 11-hour driving limit and 70/8 it would be fine.

Sleeper berth: any two periods equalling 10 hours so long as the least of which is not less than two hours; 2-8, 3-7, 4.5-5.5, etc. Again, way more driver friendly and practical, IMHO.

If you agree, perhaps it might be worthwhile to lobby lawmakers and various driver-friendly groups to take a look north of the border. I do know that when I ran cross-border I didn't need nearly as sharp a pencil in Canada as the U.S.

 

Well you will only need pointy little fingers in the US soon haha!

 

There are great points throughout this thread by experienced drivers, we all understand log books and how to hand massage them. E-logs are pretty new to most of us and we have yet to figure out all the ins and outs, speaking for myself of course.

The O/P, while being tech savvy and full of enthusiasm, has NO experience driving, docking or recording any of it in a manner that keeps one safe, legal and on schedule.

It's not bad to ask questions, but it's kinda like asking how to land the space shuttle just because you've seen the moon and the stars.

 

If you're local you've got your 16 hour exception you can use once a week. I'm pretty sure they have it programmed into the elogs but it been a couple years since I've used them.

 

I agree. Less invasive rules but harder to get a CDL would be my preferred approach to making the roads safer. All the rules in the world won't make idiots smarter or safer. They'll still be idiots. Make it harder for idiots to get behind the wheel and then you'd see some real almost overnight improvements in safety. Nobody is perfect and even good drivers get involved in wrecks, but not that often.

 

You forget though, nobody wants to drive OTR. Kill yourself to make $1000 bucks a week, working for weeks at a time, dealing with s**thead customers? It's amazing anybody wants that job, trucking companies know this and are grateful anyone wants the job. Requirements won't be strengthened by the industry, ever.

 

These crap trucking companies hire anyone with a pulse. They have no clue about anything certainly not HOS. But they work cheap. So any fella worth his salt buys his own truck and the megas answer to that is he must buy an elog machine. Megas have to buy them for their idiot drivers anyway so it's no added cost to them. It's anti competition in a so called capitalist nation. It was bribed and paid for by the big trucking lobbyists. Plain and simple truth of the matter.

 

That's business as usual. The golden rule - those with the gold make up the rules. Crony-capitalism but that's an oxymoron because it's not capitalism. It's favoritism. Corruption. Rotten to the core.

I read this article the other day about deposed dictators and the fringe benefits of their wives. The undoing of one dictator in the 1970's, the straw that broke the camel's back so to speak, was when he decreed every kid had to have a school uniform. And the only place that manufactured uniforms in the whole country was owned by his wife.

We call that sort of non-sense banana republic style government but if we're honest with ourselves it's really the exact same thing how things are done everywhere and not just limited to tin pot dictators.

And so the handful of companies offering up EOBR compliance are going to get RICH off the monthly subscriptions for the service of 2,000,000 trucks. Welfare, job security for them. Then of course to comply yet another worthless ####ing fee/tax that has to be paid to truck down the road.

You know, just like a government job where all a guy has to do is put on a hard hat and lean on a shovel all day then get a retirement and everything.

 

But here in the 'civilized" world we just let it happen

 

I sure don't. Nope. Waiting for a pay phone, not being able to look up satellite view of a location to confirm where stuff is like now, not being able to do a quick search online to find the best fuel pricing and discounts available like now, etc

Nope, the "good 'ol days" weren't all that good in many respects. In many ways I don't miss them a bit.