EOBR Electronic Logs - Good or Bad

Oh, I "know" all I about it because its happened to us hence the reason for the need to correct you when you said teams were basically immune to havin "solo-driver" time issues on paperless logs.

Well, when I was drivin solo, I don't know what I was doin different other than drivin my ### off since makin ends meet as a solo L/O for England is next to impossible but for the five weeks I drove by myself, I was averaging pretty close to 3000 miles a week runnin 475 to 580 miles a day so explain to me how my paperless logs are costing me miles and money? Plus, about 90 percent of the time, I was achieving that even with shuttin down every evening around 4 when I got down to around 2 hours left on my clock. There were a few times it was way closer than that but I still found a place to park before I ran outta time.

When my wife and I drive together, we usually pull in 4500 miles a week and sometimes more. Last week we had 6100. I'm not gonna say the fewer mileage weeks are by choice but there's times where we don't push as hard. But all in all, these electronic logs have not slowed us down one bit or kept us from makin the same miles as we did on paper logs and they certainly didn't slow me down when I drove by myself.

 

I didn't say immune, I said it happens less frequently and it's easier to deal with than when running solo.

You ran solo for 5 weeks only.... and already came close to run out of hrs before finding a place to shut down. Now can you imagine running solo permanently? There's soooo much it can can happen and unexpected situations, that if you have to log exactly as it is, you will be in violation.

Now, I'm not familiar with your electronic logs, or the way your co. runs. Maybe, if you had more experience running solo with electronic logs, you could explain to me how that is more convenient than paper logs.

 

i've been on elogs at Prime for about 4 mos. now, and i don't see NOW what the fuss was all about. my miles are more or less the same, i still get all the loads the lease ops don't want, and still have plenty of time to run them . it actually forces the computers to only shoot me loads that i can run legal and have the hours to do them in.

that said, i DO know there are a few tech savvy individuals within my company who've already shown me a few ways these logs can be overridden and defeated when needed. their claim is that the DOT cops don't want to bother checking elogs, so their ideas will work fine because the log department doesn't want to check them either, and they've cut staff in that department anyway. I have serious doubt about the validity of those claims, but they are an interesting arguement...

the thing i'm waiting for is the qualcomm to finally let us use the (for now) 'hidden' feature of 'clock in' and 'clock out', which you only see very briefly after a fresh reboot of the system, and yes, i HAVE seen that. i guess thats a setup for local drivers. it may also be used in the future if, god forbid, EOBR companies lose their exemption to the fair labor act and have to pay by the hour instead of by the mile in exchange for the state and federal DOT backing off enforcement and auditing. now that would make for an interesting comprimise, which wouldn't go over well with shippers....

 

I just hate the fact that it's eventually going to be government mandated. Other than that, I'd buy one for my tractor. I'm not scared of it, just leaves a bad taste in my mouth from the big brother aspect. Hard headed, I know. Just the way I am.

I also don't think it's gonna get to the root of the issue. It doesn't know if you're sleeping or loading, just that the truck isn't moving.

That's something I've thought of, too. If it can be computerized, there's a 14 year old kid that can manipulate it to read falsely. Eventually, we'll have CB jargon for all the ways around it, probably.

I'm sure that's true right now. As long as the officer has a choice, he's probably gonna inspect the guy on paper. Eventually, though, as more and more drivers are on elogs and the "hacks" are more widely known, I think they'll be looking closer at even guys running EOBR's. Log dept? Who the heck knows? I would figure that as long as the company thinks that they are covered legally, they'll be fine with whatever happens. I don't even come close to thinking that some of these low life companies all of a sudden "grew a conscience" just because of EOBR's. As much as I think we wouldn't be talking EOBR's if guys would run legal, I think guys would be running legal if some companies didn't expect drivers to "fudge" a little and work for little or nothing. I certainly think there's blame all around for lots of different things concerning this issue.


This is an interesting discussion and everyone has their own opinions on it. I don't agree with a few view points, but I understand why certain people have them.

 

Maybe it will, maybe it wont but you have to respect the aspect of the law that the paperless logs enforce. Just cuz you started your shift at 6 in the morning for example, drove 20 miles from where you shut down to your destination and got held up there for 12 hours, even if you had a healthy nap while waiting, you can only legally drive for 2 more hours before your 14 runs out. Yeah, that would suck, its happened to us, but theres nothing you can do about it. Its the nature of the beast with truckdriving. Best thing to do in that situation is to show up there the night before so that regardless of how long your shipper/reciever takes to load/inload you, when you get to leave, you have a fresh set of hours to drive a full shift. I know, I know, some places wont let you stay there overnight, but some will. But, some will be quick to change their mind if you tell them you are out of hours and that your electronic logs will put you in violation if you leave.

Yeah, theres things about it I dont agree with, but if you choose to run legal, you'll get along just fine with electronic logs.

 

Don't You mean "if can afford to run legal..."!
Most company drivers that get paid by the mile have to run more than 1500 mile/week! The way the e-logs work and the way OTR works today, miles are really going to suffer! But the companies don't care because they still make their profit.
If you think there is a parking problem now, just wait!

 

No, I meant exactly what I said. I don't feel the need to break the laws to make more money. As I stated before, paperless logs aren't costing me money.

1500 miles a week? That's it? ####, I can drive twice that in a week.
How do you base your opinion on fact? Have you driven with EOBR's or are you just doing what most others on here are really good at which is forming an opinion based on the grapevine or what you think somethin is without trying it or thinking you know every aspect of something? I like how most people think the have this uncanny ability to judge a book by its cover.

 

If your company allows it you should always log into the sleeper after bumping the dock. A 2 hour wait sets up a split break and if your held up 8 hrs or more you extend your 14 hr clock. Nothing lost, no problem

 

Haven't got on them myself yet, but (according to the folks who have) if you play it smart and don't needlessly burn line3/line4 time, it not only works well, but there is more available drive time with elogs. Seems like the load planners at my company are more willing to load-up the elogs folks with miles than they are me now. Not that my pocketbook has been getting thin!

 

Exaclty. With us, they can look at your logs to see how many hours you have before they decide to give you the load. They can see how many hours you will gain at midnight and such.