EOBR Electronic Logs - Good or Bad

If i deadhead home from the Detroit drop yard to Stevensville, which is pretty common for me. If i then am told to go to chicago to pickup a load....that whole deadhead needs to go on a log..

 

Oooops. Oh well.

 

Bobtailing home is fine. Its from home to the location for an empty that's a problem - you've gone from personal conveyance to using the tractor for a "business purpose." Hooking on to the empty doesn't have anything to do with using the tractor for your personal convenience. Logging that on line 1 (instead of line 3) is a violation. Sucks, but that's what it is... check it out in the explanations to the HOS rules at the FMCSA website.

 

First off , I run legal all the time, its just not worth the risk.
As I stated before if EOBR's are mandatory some DM, Fleet exec, dispatcher, ect. will have a way to clear a drivers hours so he/she can deliver or pick-up that hot load. If EOBR's were really about safety than the company couldn't and wouldn't have access to the records. Maybe some type of independent "clearing" house that all the drivers EOBR records are sent too(at each update), out of reach from the carriers. The carrier would then get weekly summeries. The records would be broken down by carrier (USDOT) number, truck number and driver employee number. I think this would be a simple solution to a number of problems. The carrier would pay a nominal fee to these clearing houses based on number of trucks, frequency of use , ect. Let competition determine the cost. Make it illegal for the carriers, executives, family members, ect to own or manage these clearing houses.

 

If anyone thinks that EOBR's will mean you run legal, ha! the last company I just left is electronic logs. If you even try to do a 34 because you ran out of hrs or load needs you to be moving, they are editing your logs and your told keep moving. They told us flat out, there is nothing now we cant change on a computer and cover it up now that its all being done on a computer. Your nothing more then a steering wheel holder now and someone else is drawing your comic book instead of you. Only way, Only way this will ever work right, is govt needs to lock the system and keep anyone from doing any editing of any kind other then the driver, but only lines 1,2, and 4. all our roads just became more dangerous. Now throw the whole crossboarder trucks from mexico in the mix, and the death rate just sky rocketed, but thats a diffrent story.

 

By the way, I do run 100% legal. I refuse to run any other way. Im not going to prison for anyone or anyones load. If its that dam hot, put it on a plane, otherwise, it gets there when I get there, legally. Im not killing your family, you or anyone else just to make a buck or so the company can make a profit off me.

 

I'm sure they can edit anything maintained on their local MIS system, but if it's QualComm based, then everything is backed-up on their mainframe. If the government is only interested in GPS data these days, then a cross-reference of the companies' log data and GPS tags vs what's available in San Diego is gonna be hard to cover-up.

 

That company wont be in business for very much longer.

 

Just one simple question: How can a company change a electronic log? If you do a little research you will find out that in order to have a elec. log that is DOT certified, it can't be changed by ANYONE. Some times the facts get in the way of a good story.

 

Well, I spose our EOBR's arent DOT certified because we the driver can change line 1, 2 and 4 entries but line 3 cant if it the entry was triggered by you driving. Well, it probly can be changed by the company, but as I said before, you have to have very good reason.