E-LOGS

I personally agree that Doctor's issuing DOT physicals should be registered and monitored for actually completing a full DOT physical. All to easy to go to your Doc in a Box pay the $50 bucks for his signature and have a two year medical card while having conditions prohibited by FMCSA regulation.

And the choice is the same as getting an annual inspection, keeping drug test records, employment history, maintaining equipment, cargo and liability insurance, bi-annual physicals......... All these should be included in you cost of doing business. EOBR's should raise that if your a good business man.

They are not forcing you an individual to purchase this equipment. They are informing you to open (or maintain ) your business on a public roadway certain equipment and regulations are required.

 

Lemme get this straight. LaHood's EOBR spy boxes are constitutional because you think I'm running illegal. I don't get the connection. Your accusation isn't proof any more than LaHood's accusation against us is proof. Wait... now I get it. You're LaHood visiting this site incognito. I can tell by the way you think: accusation = proof.

You're spending too much time in politics and not enough time thinking about what you're saying, or perhaps caring about the unlawful behavior of our government leaders.

 

In theory but beware of unintended consequences.

 

Actually, the clinics do a pretty thorough job. You assume that when the a driver must go to a government assigned doctor that they are going to be more thorough than one that you can find on your own. Judging by how well the government has done with other programs and requirements, I would rather take my chances with my own choice and would feel much more comfortable with others on the road that went to either their own doctor or one that does DOT physicals that DON'T work for the government. If I only wanted a doctor to sign a medical card, I could do that myself and forge a signature. I don't.

According you you, I am not a good businessman unless I go along with paying thousands of dollars for an EOBR that will do nothing more than a log book at a fraction of the cost? Well, I probably should tell you that I have NEVER gotten a log violation. Never been put out of service for equipment and have an excellent safety record and spotless MVR. Oh, and I have been in business for over 40 years. How could I have possibly survived all the ups and downs of this business by being such a poor businessman? And I have enough costs of doing business with all the other taxes and nonsense the government forces on me and anyone else who decides to own a trucking company. I don't need another useless expense. And it isn't just carriers who will be forced to buy and install these EOBR's. Anyone who owns class 8 equipment will also be required to pay for these EOBR's and the subsequent monthly fees. Even if you are an owner operator you will be required to have one installed.

 

The FMCSA touts the HOS rules as the only way that they can objectively evaluate "fatigue" in professional drivers. Observe the HOS rules... keep fatigued drivers off of the road. That's the safety angle. This was placed in federal records in the recent 10th US Circuit Court descision concerning the Minnesota DOT and their enforcement of HOS.

EOBRs and elogs are one way of enforcing HOS without all of the falsefication of paper logs that goes on. We all know what we do, and so do the people enforcing the laws. If it were a perfect world, and all truckers were professional enough to never falsify a log, we wouldn't be arguing this.

Or... we can have Officer Urinquarts idea of HOS enforcement... got a TV? Got porn? Too much trash? You're out of service driver... for being fatigued.

 

Never questioned your business skills. Simply pointed out that the cost issue is negated by simply adding those cost's into your business model. Since by your own admission everyone will be required to have them every one will have that expense.

Your record is also irrelevant. You do not get a pass from inspections simply because of any record.

This is implementing technology readily available to ensure compliance with existing laws.

Yeah paper logs are cheaper. So is not having steer axle brakes. Both are things of the past.

EOBR's will be harder to fake, the cost is not really that much and can be passed on to your customers when everyone is required to implement them, and will have the possibility of removing non-compliant carriers from ouir roadways.

 

Any Doctor can choose to be registered and licensed to issue DOT physicals. The government does not hire them. They are not a government employee, they are regulated to ensure standardized criteria and methods in determining fitness of a CDL holder.

You can choose any person that has made the choice to register, which by the way does not have to be a Doctor. The program is simply ensuring rubber stamp physicals such as companies offer at orientation are no longer valid unless certain documents and criteria are met.

Looked at some of the people that get that rubber stamp lately?

 

Taz, we don't really know the actual cost of these EOBR's. And the costs will vary according to how many you purchase. The cost to JB Hunt will be significantly lower than for a single owner operator. At this point we don't even know what the standards will be. It could be that current owners who have qualcomm can have the information with a couple of key stroke or an inexpensive software upgrade, whereas an owner operator will be forced to spend several thousand dollars to comply. This type of legislation will benefit the large carriers and put the owner operator or smaller carriers at a decided disadvantage. Major carriers could also benefit by investing in these companies that sell or manufacture these EOBR's. Major carriers are also in a position of monthly fees which would likely be a fraction of those of owner operators or smaller carriers.

If you don't think your safety record is irrelevant when it comes to inspections, you need to rethink your position. A carrier with a poor safety record is much more likely to be checked than someone with a clear or good safety record.

As far as doctors are concerned, I doubt you will find many doctors who will simply sign a federal DOT physical form without first doing a complete physical. The risks are much too great. Some of the company doctors are going to be very thorough in order to protect the company.

I will go back to what I have said many times. No amount of legislation or laws will make us 100% safe. There is absolutely NO way to force everyone into compliance. Every time the government wants to throw another law on us it is always about safety. There will still be accidents. There will still be equipment failures. People will still get hurt or killed. Once the EOBR's are in every truck people will still have accidents. Drivers will still be fatigued, drivers will still have accidents, people will still get hurt or killed.

 

I have ran paper as well as elogs and prefer the elogs by far. The way I see it is that the only drivers that will have problems with elogs are those who choose to run illegal. The elogs actually save time by making it so you log what you do, not have to take 15 minutes everytime you fuel or 15 minutes here or there. If fueling only takes you 6 minutes then fueling takes 6 minutes not 15.