E-LOGS

If you spend any time at all sitting with no detention pay (Butler Transport), you will lose your ### with E-logs...

 

No doubt about it you have to be more efficient with how you use your hours... right down to making sure you change status from the drive line, rather than waiting for the computer to do it.

OTOH, there's a learning curve for the load planners - assuming your carrier is using the ELOGs/EOBR data for dispatch purposes. My sittin' around after going empty time is quite a bit less now - and I'd say I'm making more money.

 

I think will be making less money now with this elog.... I never had problem with my dispatchers, load planner always gave me enough time to pick up and never pushed me. I like to run hard, dlver early and keep on rolling. Never had problem tracking my hrs, calculating them, and don't need a freacking maching telling me how much time I have left.

Started using this elog last Wed, and Friday got 2 violations!!! went 1 min over my 11 and 2 mins over my 14 and all because of time wasted dealing with the freaking elog maching!!! This would never had happened were I using paper logs. Yes!!!

I don't find it user friendly, don't see any advantage, doesn't save me any driving time but on the contrary, I have to show time for pretrip and all the time that I save doing fuel and hook/unhook, I lose driving from gates to docks...
I think it's much easier to do my logs on paper, I can see everything on one page instead of clicking here for this, click there for that....
With this machine I have to take 3 or 4 steps to accomplish the same I used to accomplish taking only one step with pen and paper and old QC.

Last Friday I was pushing myself as usual... when I arrived at WM DC, machine put me on line 4 and I waited 5 mins before going to where I had to go to drop trlr cause I thought that's what I had to do to save drive time. Then, while I was doing my backing, machine showed I was on line 3 again. So, I stopped again, put myself on line 1 and waited 5 more mins to resume my backing.... then, had to take some extra few mins unhooking... Left WM in a hurry, truck stop was only 4 mins away from WM but machine said I had only 2 mins left.... *&#%!!! By the time I was entering truck stop to park, the darn machine tells me I had violated HOS!!! OK! So f#*& it!!

So, now if DOT sees my elog, it will give me violation...

This new QC does not allow us to read or write any message, we can't even see if we are on line 3 or not while driving on parking lot....

I see will have to change the way I do my work and how I run to work with this darn thing... so far, I have lost driving time, got 2 violations and headache....

 

I've been running as legal as I can. I do NOT need to falsify my logs.

This industry is full of people that like to do whatever they want and this is why the EOBR's are now in a hot debate.

1. You want to be free and work any hours you want.
Go do something else in a industry that is not regulated. You got spoiled way to much.

2. You need to drive 800mi per day to make a living ?
Maybe it's time for you to quit this 20ct per mile job and go drive for a real company that pays 40+ per mi.

3. You will get hit for going over your hrs.
Yes pretty hard if you lied about it. Not as hard, if you don't lie.

4. You will get stopped 2hrs away from the house.
So you are blaming this on the ELOG and not on the "outlaw" truck driver that caused the accident that kept you from not moving for 2 hrs ( time it usually takes for the investigation).
Of course, I imagined you planned your trip right and not planning to "pass by" the DC beltway on a rainy friday afternoon in less than 2hr.

5. EOBR will cost a lot of money ?
Do a google search, a standard equipment is $1500 on time and $100-$150 per month, with other less attractive solutions as low as $50 per month.

Don't have this amount of money to invest or spend ? Then please don't be on the road with your unmaintained truck next to my family's car.


6. with EOBR you loose more Rights and Privacy ?
I've ran 6 month with EOBR and the only thing that happen to me is I get a better , more consistent paycheck as my company optimize my time based on hrs available.

7. Cannot take a nap in the middle of the 14hrs ?

What for ? If you took a 10hr break last night , you woudn't need one ? Or maybe we can start blaming the "slot machines" at truck stops, or your favorite TV episode season finally , a 2 hrs special.

Me , I usually work my butt off once the clock starts ticking. And the first thing I do when I stop is to eat, shower and go to bed for 8hrs.


8. Company will have to hire more drivers !
YES and NO.
The company that will learn to optimize driving time will go away from hiring new drivers, the company that have no clue how to manage driver time will go under as they won't be able to pay more driver at a correct wage..

I hear to many times that outlaws are who make freight moving. The scary part is that THEY DO BELIEVE IT.

9. EOBR's vs paper.

So you unload early in the morning with only a few hrs left driving.
50 truck are in the same area. Only a couple of drivers have the real hours to go p/u the next load but since the other don't run legal ( paperlog) , they can still guarantee the delivery time while you cant.
Shipper has then no problem to find a truck at the price he likes.

People that do want to run legal are then forced out of the market by the illegal runners. Thus price stays down.

Love the sticker on o/o's truck "say no to cheap freight" but they cheat the law to allow to p/u any freight and make the delivery.



So let me conclude this thread.

EOBR's are a great way to prove that you were following the HOS rules.
placing EOBR in your truck(s) shows that you are conscious of the HOS rules and want to run a honest business.

Mandating the EOBR is for people to protect their investment in trucking. Otherwise the outlaws will keep bringing the rates down.

Another good point of making EOBR a mandate would allow the law enforcement agency to really enforce HOS rules without the additional cost of hiring new officers. ( which we would pay thru more taxes )

The EOBR will only get rid of people trying to run 1200mi in a 24hr period. not the people that are trying to make a living.

 

I have done fairly as well or better since I have been on e-logs since December. No complaints.

I do take exception to blanket log statements being made. If you have been driving for more than a few months, you realize that there is no "one size fits all" logging solution. While those that haul general freight can easily fit into e-logs, there is a lot more to trucking than general freight. I will be extremely interested to see the effects of a mandated e-log regulation on livestock haulers. Boy, PETA is going to have a ball with that one. At least, maybe we'll get to see some actress strip for animal rights over it. While to the general freight people, livestock haulers may appear to be outlaws and such because of the perception they tweak paper logs and run fast to prove they're macho, they are in fact very concience of the fact that cattle, hogs, etc will die back there if not delivered ASAP. Cattle will trample each other, hogs get overheated and will die (remember, hogs have no sweat glands). Livestock can become overly stressed if kept in trailer too long, and weaker animals can die from this stress. But then, it is difficult to explain this to buearocrats that are intent on being idiots. Unfortunately, many drivers have a similar myopic view of things. And they want to portray to the public their sense of safety and benevolence.

While I can understand and deal with EOBR's for the general freight side of the equation, and actually kind of like using the EOBR in my truck, I cannot get behind any mandate for EOBR's across the board. And it displays a very narrow minded view by those in trucking that would seek to advocate for an industry wide mandate (yes I mean the Alliance for Driver Safety and Security... a senate lobying front group for Schneider, JB Hunt, Maverick, US Express, and Knight). I readily concede the benefits to carriers that choose to go with EOBR, but it is really un-American for groups of carriers to petition the government for an across the board EOBR mandate just because they want everyone to be like them. And it is really sad that so many drivers would side with these carriers regarding a mandate and play a "holier than thou" attitude over this. All it does is betray their limited understanding of the broad spectrum of transportation.

It will all become a field day for lawyers. Nothing new.

 

I run legal & use paper logs, I do not need a box, nor another gov't/alliance mandate to tell me that I am in fact legal. Not everyone runs the same box for the same company to the same DC.

You need to take your attitude & kool aid back to where ever you got it from.

 

Cowpie1,
When you are talking about livestock haulers, those are usually intra-state activities and depending on the state, those do not apply to the ELOG mandate.

I agree with you on this point but it was my understanding they were already under different rules than general freight.

Also excluded from this are oil rigs haulers that can run longer days.


LBZ, in your opinion, what other solution would you propose to enforce the HOS rules ?


I got this "attitude" from reading about how ignorant people are in trucking. Any new law in this industry creates huge debate as it is a evil thing to impose on an industry. I've yet to see any drivers out there debating on how to really work with the government to improve the safety on the road. Only complaints.

Get involved , learn about it more than just what you hear on the CB.

 

Commercial Truck accidents are ALREADY at a all time low. Do you really think drivers are going to work with the government when it is the driver that will end up on the short end of the stick? Lobbyists & advocacy group dollars negate driver opinion. Give them EOBR's across the board, they will only want more after it is completed.

I am a owner operater with a single truck. I run legal & have a clean record to prove it. Let CSA run its course for 24 to 36 months before adding MORE mandates & regulations. They have stepped up inspections in every state as they are broke, every driver can see this rolling down the road & would have to imagine are reacting accordingly. If they are not, then that is what CSA is suppose to address.

Oh & no cb in the truck, so cannot blame that for this opinion.

 

These states are broke and as you stated have stepped up the inspections dramatically.

But one wonders, after the EOBR's are in, it will no longer be about logbooks and they will lose alot of revenue there. It will then make them work harder for the money.

 

Disagree.... many, many livestock haulers do interstate and international (Canada). They are not under different HOS than general carriers.

I am involved. I don't listen to CB chatter. I have gone thru all 26 pages of the latest HOS proposal several times.

One thing I have learned when government gets on a kick, is that they seldom try to see what the unintended consequences of their actions are. But then, they like the unintended consequences... it gives them a chance to further regulate and justify their job positions.