The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has rejected a request to exempt small carriers with clean safety records from needing to comply with the Electronic Logging Device (ELD) mandate.
The request was submitted last November by the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA). It asked for the FMCSA to exempt any carrier which met the requirements from being forced to use ELDs. Requirements included fitting the definition of a small business (under $27.5 million in yearly revenue), having no at-fault crashes, and not having an Unsatisfactory safety rating.
OOIDA hoped to allow safe independent truckers, owner-operators, and small fleets to operate using paper logs for an additional five years. But FMCSA rejected the request. Details as to why have not yet been published in the Federal Register.
“We are puzzled and disappointed at the response from the agency,” said Todd Spencer, executive vice president of OOIDA said according to Heavy Duty Trucking. “For months, the FMCSA has been granting exemptions to other organizations, some not even actually in trucking, but relying on trucks for their businesses.”
OOIDA’s request had received a great deal of support, including from at least 24 members of Congress who co-signed a letter to the FMCSA endorsing the request.
Others were happy to take FMCSA’s side. “ATA is pleased that FMCSA has once again rejected an attempt to delay or subvert this important safety regulation,” said ATA spokesman Sean McNally.
Source: truckinginfo, overdrive, ttnews, ooida
Blame ATA for this
Yup.
Anti trucking assoc
I do not understand why anyone would be so foolish as to think that ATA or any other organization with membership of Common Carrier management personnel, would have any compunction to do anything to assist drivers at any level ! Drivers are the biggest factor keeping them from reaching their profit targets
ATA does nothing to support the “LITTLE GUYS” They probably get their biggest $$$$$$$$$$ (BRIBES) from the BIG GUYS, Like Schneider and Werner, and etc., the perpetrators of this farce. Having a ELD is like having a dispatcher sitting next to you with a riding crop whipping you constantly. The technology is “no where near perfected”, the eld’s that I have used have robbed me of at least an hour every driving period.
The FMSCA doesnt care for the valid arguments of OOIDA- they want to keep eld s.Also they havent changed the hos rules condeming drivers to a life of misery and lower wages when we sitting at loading docks for hours while the 14 hour clock ticks away! I m surprised no one hasnt stormed FMSCA s offices and protested against these bastards that make and enforce rules that arent viable in the real world! Truck drivers have no spine in America! In Brazil truck drivers shut down the economy..
You are exactly right. Truck drivers don’t have a spine. They take whatever is given to them
How u gonna blame the drivers?gotta blame someone I guess.hell,we drivers don’t do anything for the country or the industry anyway huh.we’re the least important spoke in the wheel the industry would do just fine without the drivers anyway,right?it’s sad that the driver can’t make an honest living anymore.as long as the companies have they’re revolving doors,rookies in,experience out.it’s never gonna change
Without drivers, how the trailers gonna get to the rail yard, it’s the big companies that letting this happened
And you are right sir they don’t take every damn Penny they make
Consider this: most drivers now a days are “steering wheel holders” fresh out of the “puppy mills” of trucking companies. Of which, most of them have approval by DOT to give the final road test/certification for their Class A License. That is the Fox Guarding the Henhouse. Then they go out with a “TRAINER” whom has only 30 days OTR experience with a trainer and maybe 90 days as a solo or team driver.
Personally, I feel that a trainer must have ATLEAST 3 to 5 years OTR experience, accident and ticket free.
Has nothing to do with this subject.
That’s like the blind leading the blind
Yes , when your government allows any CLOWN the right to obtain a motor license to operate a CDL class truck simply by going to a fly by nite school, or being trained by someone with less than a years driving experience. This is the reaction you’ll get from them , before they WENT to school they worked (if they worked at all). They are making the big BUCKS and are chewing at the bit to take your load much less support anyone’s idea of a shut down , TRUCKING industry HAS gone to HELL in the past 20years, I sometimes feel ashamed to be associated with this new BREED. Been here for 40 years and about at the end of the road, and guess I’ll die a poor broke ass for all the years of good driving I gave many companies. It will all be you all’s soon, so you had better get it together soon or join me in the food line.
You said it all!
although i had to leave trucking after i broke my back while off work i am so glad i have a E now ” because i have no med card the DMV took my A ” I am sooooooo glad i am out of the trucking ind. sounds like the past 5 years has really went to hell
Some here, drove for over a decade…wouldn’t even climb in a truck now.
5 years? You must not have been driving very long..
No, he is not driving very long, but he is smart and made a right comment. I would only change 5 years to 15 years driving experience trainer.
I would highly suggest you take the lead on your comments and see if other drivers will follow. You can’t just talk you have to lead. You might be surprised what might happen
Your wrong ,the ones that do have a spine like myself went and bought a 99 or older truck knowing that the majority of drivers in the usa anymore are the dudly do-rights who work for a big company and are blind and brainwashed.there is only a small percent of us oldschool true to the bone truckers anymore.had this happened 10 -15 yrs ago here things would have shut down .
I endorse your comment! I sold my 08 and purchased a 1993 COE freightliner….best decision ever👍
That’s good that you’re holding on to the old trucks but be careful out there..DOT is going to harass the hell out of you all I pray that you all do good get you attorney get ready for them know they coming after all the old trucks take care be safe out there
YOUR OUT OF YOUR MIND. I’LL be in my 2011 and not worry about it. HOW MUCH TIME DO YOU THINK YOUR GONNA do ILLEGALLY? If you would just learn how to run your truck wouldn’t be doing the dumb s#1t you just did. You’ll be the one that DOT really digs into the log book is pulled out. And I bet you get more tickets than someone that just goes with the flow. I have 30 years in this industry. I NEVER run out of hours the way I run. Don’t get me wrong the ELD is a pain in the ass for the little things like the 30 minute rule, it just sucks when your parked for 25 minutes and you forget and just move into a better parking spot or whatever and it starts the 30 over. Those are the things that bug me or I forget to switch over to sleeper or off duty. I have a V d 0 r oa d log and I’ve got my own authority and trust me its the way to go. They need to work on getting rid if the 14 hour rule. That 14 hour rule is the worst part of this whole thing and its just so unnecessary. They have the ELD’s now so why not just let us have the freedom of taking a rest WHEN WE NEED ONE. You can work an hour in the morning and no be able o reload for another 7 hours which you could sleep if you needed to then you’d be fresh and ready to go but NO your damn near out of hours on the 14 hour BS. THIS IS WHAT NEEDS THE MOST ATTENTION. NOT TRYING TO GET THAT # HOUR ADJUSTMENT. Sure that would help but get to the root. THE !$ HOUR RULE NEEDS TO GO. It doesn’t do anything as far as letting you drive longer. It just MAKES IT SAFER WHEN YOUR NOT FORCED INTO DRIVING 11 with no option to take a nap through rush hour, it use to be nice when I could stop and sleep at 4:00pm and go to sleep for a few hours and get up fresh and not have to deal with traffic in big cities. It’s just a no brainer.
I’ve been doing this for 30 years this year. 10-15 years ago it was the same way. The same shut down threats that nobody ever stuck to. I retired in January. Thought I would miss it but not a day goes by that I wish I were still doing it. Sold my Pete and MAC step, now selling all my equipment.
Don’t be a Slave to the computer brother that’s all they are that’s all thy are Slaves and the sad thing about it don’t Foods don’t even know it
HUH???
In other words you admit to logging illegal. The only reason older trucks are e emit right now is the technology is not there yet. DOT will most likely increase their enforcement on those older trucks while the technology is being designed. If they find high log violations they can add a ban of older trucks. Why not be a big boy and do the job right which includes legal logging?
I have to laugh at comments like jerry’s, I don’t thank any driver really wants to run illegal why would a driver want to spend 20hrs doing a job that should only take 10 it dosn’t pay anymore the problem is and always has been with the shippers and the recievers
Because the shippers, receivers, brokers, government, truck part manufactures, and everyone else you can think of have squeezed the last pennies out of the driver instead of taking the “losses” or “lower profits/wages” themselves!
Wow! Are not you Mr. High and Mighty!!?? What gives you the right to insinuate that the driver, and drivers of older trucks are all logging illegally?? And that we are beneath you “big boys” cuz you have an ELD and we do not. You sir are wrong in your ASSumtions. As for your running legally, I am sure that you have not always done this. Like using “personal conveyance ” th o get further down the road to a place of comfort for your break?? Hmmmm?? I thought so.
SPOKEN LIKE A TRUE “STEERING WHEEL HOLDER” Which company supposedly trained????? you? SWIFT, WERNER, J B HUNT, ENGLAND, SCHNEIDER, that take the CREAM off the top and pay sour milk. They pay their lease O/O’s $1.20 a mile, and out of that you pay minimum of $.50 a mile for fuel, at least $275. a week for your lease/purchase. Then toward the last 3 to 6 months of your 2 or 3 year lease, they start shorting you on loads, until they tell you that you are so far behind that they have to take the truck back. But then offer to put you in another truck for another 2-3 years like it is a gift.
Yes exactly!!!
PS,. Keep your ELD if you want, but I’m quite capable of resting when I need to rest, and don’t need government telling me when I can rest or when I can work. That’s the issue here, nothing to do with safety.
Are you stupid or are you dumb? Just because someone does not want a ELD doesn’t mean they’re breaking the rules. Maybe they don’t want someone tracking their every move 24 hours a day
I have been driving since 1976, even back then you could not get a “Majority” of drivers to stand together. I can not wait till July 19, 2021, the day before my 65th. I have seen sooo much stupidity out here in the last 10 to 15 years it is pitiful, and it is only getting worse.
I started in 1981. I have to agree about the last 10-15 years. Drivers are getting stupider by the day. 3 crashes in the last 5 days here in Tulsa. Always want to blame elsewhere. 37 years accident free. Been in some close calls but able to control my truck. It does matter if you have a ELD or Log. Where ever you go to pick up or deliver they sign you in and out. Toll booths take pictures of every vechile. Today has more cameras than trucks. So if your are running outside of the scope of HOS and you get into a accident your facult or not I pity you. Only a few mores years til I cut my CDL in half and happily give it to my closest DVM office.
What good did that do to get a 99 older truck you still have to be compliant by Dec.18, 2019
Go home. Most know that would hurt worse than an eld. You go home, someone else will haul that freight, bit you will be out the revenue.
I agree
We aren’t as hungry as the people in Brazil. Maybe that’s what it’s going to take here, a lot of empty grocery shelves.
What do you expect in this white mans world lol
we are weak enough being divided by distances, by not having an organization to protect our interests. now you suggest making us even weaker by not offering a drivers brotherhood but dividing us even more by race and ethnically. Or you witness the white drivers enjoying a bureaucratic harassment? are you a secret operative for the monopolies-bureaucratic cartel?
Where were you “George” when we had the Fuel Rally in Washington D.C. to protest the price of fuel. All the O/O’s were from PA with the exception of 5 from Maine..Actually where all the O/O’s ???
I would hope they would become frustrated enough to make the effort to contact their congressional representative, and express their concerns. ! just remember stay on point, be civil, and express your self as a professional !
small hope on elected representatives. only our own organization will make us stronger in our rights.
👍
George K. For a Gods sake, can we start to create our own, O/Os and Small Carriers Drivers Organization which would protect our rights and our interests? Can we eventually stop to be so weak, so divided, and becomes same Organized, United, and Powerfull as our Opponents who seems to have a tendency to create a Procrustean bed of arbitrary standards to which exact conformity is forced.
I feel & believe that ALL OFFICE PERSONAL n trucking, fmcsa & dot should have to take preemployment drug test & random drug test then we would also see what’s up with scum bags n offices, well eld is to stay we know this so sad but they need to change hos, do away with 14hr clock and just have 24hrs to do 11hr driving but guess that’s to easy and asking to much, fmcsa go to hell
George, that’s not the problem. Problem is how do u get enough truckers to actually make something happen. If u tried to do it u would get caught before u got started. Why? Bc drivers tell everybody everything. So it would get to this guy who knows a guy who knows a guy that works for homeland or something and boom. Some nice black suv pulls u over in GA, and u say this just a DOT cop. But then the guy that gets out is in a suit. Then it hits u, ur a terriost, and he’s from the fbi. Now it’s funny how that is a crime but if u come here illegally by hoping a fence or whatever that is perfectly fine. This is a very f***ed up country.
They will shut it down ….just give them more rope they are hanging the hands that feed us all..I get a kick every time I see a “farmer’s feed America” sign. They grow food.We deliver food. We all feed ourselves, it’s a chain and Trucking is the weakest link No drivers no food. No drivers no nothing…..keep on beating truckers for no reason. Then make stupid laws and take what little we make at the chicken coup or squirrel cage so their cousin’s have good paying jobs with official tax payer retirement plans. What a mob mentality Where the He’ll is J. Hoffa when you need him?
I’m here 6 feet deep. They got to me. Shut me up. Dont let them do it to ya.
is my wish for an O/Os and Small Carriers Drivers Organization to protect my rights illegal?
Haha sorry Jimmy Hoffa, if you are where they say you are I think you’re more than six feet deep hahaha!
You’re right George. My blood pressure, anger, resentment builds every time I read the denial results of every legal attempt to bring about change within this industry!
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Seems only massively aggressive “world wide attention grabbing actions are the only avenue to taking a stand.
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But how do we get enough of us like minded American Drivers to come together to even organize such a thing?
Watch “Hoffa”, read about the mob and send your little brother to law school. Then it starts from there!
We have been screwed for the last 15 – 20 years. You can’t fix it in one day. It may take another 15 -20 years to create our own O/Os and Small Carriers Drivers Organization which would protect our rights.
Our means 350,000 owner-operators plus 700,000 Small Carriers Drivers. If it takes 1 million trucks strike, then we can negotiate our issues. But we have to start to build such Organization.
should have gone after the money like address to address mileage pay or mandatory detention from the time we show up. ATA companies have stolen from driver long enough.
OOIDA’s argument that safe drivers should not have to use ELD’s is exactly like saying they shouldn’t have to use logs at all, which is ridiculous. The HOS never changed. They are exactly the same as they were before ELD’s. All the ELD does is electronically do your log for you. The HOS are the problem and where the focus should be.
I read a story last week where almost 50% of owner-operators say they have made more money so far this year than they did up to this point lat year. IF the arguments being used against ELDs are true, how can this be possible?
I suggest that those who are having problems were those who ran illegally to do their job and those people need ELDs, safe record or not.
The other issue is that there are those who either can’t or won’t learn how to use the ELD. With all the technology coming to trucking down the road, if you’re unable to learn to use it you better get out now.
The thing OOIDA has done is come up with so many ridiculous arguments, and lost their case at every level, from the lower courts to the Supreme Court, to Congress (the same Congress that mandated ELDs to begin with), they really have no leg to stand on anymore. Only OOIDA doesn’t seem to understand that.
Stop whining about ELD’s and focus on HOS. If you hate ELDs so much, go get another job and your problem is solved. Complaining about them 24/7 is not going to solve anything. They are here to stay.
The reason we make more money this year is because of economy. Not ELD’s! I used to make even more money 3-4 yrs ago driving even less miles.
the point exactly. Less miles, more money. Exactly what ELD’s will help you do. There is an abundance of good paying freight out there, you do not need to over work yourself for mediocre rates. Run legal, have less stress and make more money. I run a 30 truck fleet, and that is exactly what we have been doing since we put logs in 5 years ago. We have a split 60/40% owner operators vs company trucks. All of my guys are very happy with the ELD’s. They are making good money, and get a good night sleep every night.
I don’t call $150-$160 a mile good freight
He sounds like a steering wheel holder to me
That is correct. ELD’s cause more accidents due to WATCHING your time tick away then having to RUSH to get to your destination. Truck stops are a joke now….so full by 3pm trucks are playing bumper cars. Trucks are NOT the leading cause of accidents and it is time the world sees that. It is others not knowing how to drive around the trucks. I really wish the drivers would shut down for a day and see what happens! NOTHING moves in this country without the truckers and it’s about time we thank them for that instead of always throwing rules and regulations at them ….FMCSA Is not on the roads with the drivers , they know nothing~
An other temper tantrum from someone who cannot get their way !!!
ANOTHER COMMENT FROM AN UNDERTRAINED STEERINGWHEEL HOLDER. I’d bet that if you had been in Auschwitz in the 40’s you would have led the people right into the DEATH CHAMBERS.
Here’s the reason. There are no reasonable excuses not to have an eld. The only entity that should be against them is DOT. Do you know how much revenue will be lost due to not being able to write tickets for long mistakes. These so called clean small companies are dirty as hell.
pretty obvious Sam is a company driver, if in fact he is a driver at all
Driver its the principal of the hole dam thing about elogs I don’t want someone looking over my shoulder all the the dam time, most of you elogs lovers will never understand it because you’ve been brainwashed by the big companies you will never understand what real road freedom feels like you will be a elog slave from now to you finally get out of this business
YOU ARE WRONG , I AM MAKING WAY LESS THAN I DID LAST YEAR. YOU TALK LIKE YOU ARE A COMPANY DRIVER.
Then you were running with false logs. Of course you will deny that. But you have the same 11 hour rule, the same 14 hour rule and the same 70 hour rule. If you were running completely legal, not trucker’s legal, worst case scenario would be You are breaking even. So that means the elf I’d doing its job by stopping your illegal logging.0
Hey Jerry Pike, why does it always have to be that someone wants to run illegal to not want an ELD Mandate? I hear that every time someone like you tries to defend the ELD Mandate. Those ELD’s aren’t free. They cost money and most have monthly fees. How does that make me more money if everything were as even as you mentioned? I could match minutes with paper logs and the cost is more for an ELD. Tell us in your argument how that is a good thing to pay more and be further regulated. It’s not all about running illegal so stop with that same weak argument.
Sounds like you’re bad at your job, Lady Doe. And typing. And talking to people in general. But hey – its probably the FMCSA people, it couldn’t be you.
Agreed
Ooida does good work but you’re right. Elds protect drivers and the public.
OOIDA used to do good work but now they are on the wrong side of every issue.
OOIDA never did their job. 70-34-14-11 HOS regulations since 2003 beneficial for the megacarriers with 15 minutes Drop&hook and Repower options timing setup and unacceptable for the O/Os and Small Carriers with 5 hours average live loading and 5 hours average live unloading timing setup. To apply the same timing requirements to the carriers with different timing setups is unconstitutional and discriminatory for the Small Carriers Companies.
i did not like the idea at first of using a ELD i had never used one untill i went to work at sunbely in jacksonville florida but after i learned to use it i wanted nothin elde to do with that book roler and pen
No they don’t. They steal money right out of your pocket. You’re just too stupid to realize it.
Protect from what????! How does an ELD protect the public? And why does the public need protection from truckers? I rather think ( flippantly, I admit ) , and this is based on my every day experience during the last 22 years of truck driving, that it is us truckers who need protection from the public more than the opposite. As for ELDs keeping drivers rested? Sure, but only if he does nothing, but sleep during his 10 hour break and provided he is one of those rare individuals who has an OFF switch in the head, and can fall asleep at any time, night or day on a whim. Even local drivers who sleep at home might not always be able to rest, cause life often interferes. The ELOGs weakness is that it don’t actually record your sleeping pattern. You can be dead tired and drive legal. With the current lack of safe and legal truck parking, ELOG puts more stress into an already stressful job. How’s that safe when you have more anxiety and rage on the interstate?
No doubt , i’m sure you’re a driver for JB or one of the big companies which run terminal to terminal…same route, same customers every day…probably a rookie to this industry and don’t have any idea what it takes to try and live with all these regulations which are completely economic based and have absolutely nothing to do with safety. I first started in this industry in 1967 and i know how difficult it is for the independent to remain an owner operator with companies out there, probably like your boss, who try to cut rates until they can force the little man out…that is always what the ATA and those big company puppets do and have always done..they don’t rep real hard working honest truckers who built this industry..
For what insane reason do you think you represent the industry ?
You are exactly right. And they are already doing their job as HOS violations are down significantly based on the same level of enforcement.
Exactly. Well said.
Why such an extremist comparison? You must be a troll for the ATA or a high paid boot licker working for a mega trucking company.
Why do you people keep an eye on us if you are making soooo much more money than ten rest of us? It would seem to me that you would want to keep it to yourself and watch everyone else go under so you could hog more freight to yourself.
Thank you for your comments. These systems are not difficult to use. Some just want to be able to break the law.
Instead of repeating “brake the law” mantra can somebody explain to me how it possibly happened to require the driver with 5 hours live loading + 5 hours live unloading (small business) to be in the same HOS regulation bracket with a driver with 15 minutes Drop + 15 minutes Hook (mega carrier) working pattern ? Is it only me to see it as being unconstitutional and discriminatory for the Small Carriers and the O/Os?
I quit after 45 years driving is not the same anymore too many dummies out there too many people wear turbans making it hard on everybody else and. Safety only money you have a burnt out light on your trailer over $200 ticket where is that safety that is money grab it’s just another way of the government grabbing your money a few drivers out there don’t even know what a clutch is you don’t know what a to stick is because you got a soft with condom truck TVs Bridges everything that company puts in there for you I’d like to see your drive back in the seventies when I was driving
Think about what is next Skippy. Pretty soon the ELD will report direct to each scale. This already possible with PrePass. Eventually a driver won’t be able to do anything without the government knowing about it. You can play in that world if you want. Not me.
Your ELD can do that now BOZO
I agree with you on the ELD’s, but not on the HOS. I see nothing wrong with the current HOS.
Seriously? Even if the driver with 5 hours live loading + 5 hours live unloading at the same HOS regulation with a driver with 15 minutes hook + 15 minutes Drop working model? Isn’t it a little bit discriminatory for the driver with fewer hours left for the rest of his duties?
Spoken like a true ATA STOOGE!
Spoken like a OOIDA stooge.
Good point. And it’s looking like many truckers are taking your advice. They’re going out and finding other thing to do. They’re also getting their own trucks and paying themselves alot more money than the mega carriers did. Actually, ELDs have opened the door to higher pay and massive opportunity to be your own boss (if you have the brains).
Thank God I no longer drive. Call it illegal or what ever you want to, but I used to but I’ve been at docks for up to 12 hrs before. I would go back and write it down the way I needed to as I would sleep while there. If I had to use my drive time for that, how would I have made a check ? I thought at one time that was going to change where you would be paid hourly for sitting time ? I guess the DOT don’t care about that anymore
Never have the politicians that have oversight over those issues are paid quit well to stay out of that argument and they have !
It does not matter who cares about what. Besides bad regulations, we have a Constitution and Constitutional attorneys.
Tool
We should all take a week off from truck driving and see what happens.
As a cdl holder I feel they the industry has not been fair since before deregulation. We should be paid by the hour mot the mile.
WE CAN DO THIS DRIVERS, LETS GO HOME FOR JUST A WEEK THATS ALL WE NEED. LET THE FMCSA DELIVERY THE WORLD GOODS. THEY SEEM TO THINK THEY HAVE ALL THE ANSWERS ON SAFTEY WILL THEY SIT BEHIND THEIR DESK.
Go home. Most know that would hurt worse than an eld. You go home, someone else will haul that freight, bit you will be out the revenue.
Heard this same thing at least a dozen times in my 30 years. None of it ever amounted to more than a piss bottle. It has never happened and will never happen
It happened back in the early 70’s, but it was the unions that went on strike. They also shot at, and threw large rocks off overpasses and injured O/O’s that even had their trailer doors open and had written on their trucks and trailers “EMPTY” while driving home. My step father was shot at several times. I was in the Navy at the time, I asked my Admiral for emergency leave so I could ride “shotgun” with my stepfather to get him safely home to RI from GA. Yes, I literally rode Shotgun. 1st round was rock salt, after that O-O Buck Shot. I fired off 3 rounds of salt and 12 rounds of 0-0. Each of the three incidents was reported via the CB to State Police and we were told to keep rolling.
YES, I did injure a couple of the perpetrator’s, mostly from the rock salt.
Patrick, this is why I am asking to start to build the O/Os and Small Carriers Organisation to protect my rights and, if necessary, to call for the 1 million trucks strike.
A Truckin #Shutdown…….I wish!
Get your anger under control and stop yelling. Maybe then you’ll actually think of something intelligent to say.
And how best can they actually pay by the mile? The elf makes that possible. Paper logs are known to be inaccurate so no company or broker is going to rely on them. Have you ever heard of punching the clock? That is because people had a time clock, that they could not manipulate, put a time stamp on their time card. Today, the majority have to log in and out on a computer. Why should truckers be paid based on a timesheet they can easily manipulate? And if you are losing money now on an led, how much would you lose by shutting d own for a week?
They say that they pay by the mile, what a joke. Most mileage that is paid is zip code to zip code, worst yet is city center to city center. If you run a GPS, pay attention to the miles that it gives you and those that dispatch gives you. If you give your GPS the absolute PU and DEL addresses, you will be surprised at how much you actually lose in mileage pay per trip. Keep track of it, then look at the end of the week at how much you (usually) get cheated out of for the week.
Are you a trucker? How much experience?
I’m glad FMCSA act like that because we as trucker we not coming together on nothing, we don’t have a good union, you see if we say let take a week out off the road we will put USA economic down, but we will never do that because we care more about the road then are life and are career
Once again the FMCSA has proven themselves to be nothing short of a political enforcement arm of the ATA and special interest groups. If you ask the FMCSA about why ELD’s are so vital to this industry, they’ll say SAFETY. They are partially correct, it is the FMCSA that allowed the Trucking industry to become the “go to for visa recipients,” as proven by the previous administration for flooding this industry with Bosnian’s, Indian’s, Ukrainian’s, Russian’s and the list is endless. Unfortunately the Trump administration has done little to stop the influx of immigrants from becoming truck drivers. My question to OOIDA is why haven’t they demanded the FMCSA post an annual review of accidents and fatalities that would include the name of the trucking company, the demographic and disposition of the driver, ie, nationality, citizenship status and how long they have been driving. The FMCSA would fear the ACLU lawsuits that would be ensued for profiling and the ATA would fear the exposure for sub-standard hiring practices. So they will continue that SAFETY falsehood as the ELD battle cry.
Here’s the reason. There are no reasonable excuses not to have an eld. The only entity that should be against them is DOT. Do you know how much revenue will be lost due to not being able to write tickets for long mistakes. These so called clean small companies are dirty as hell.
NOT TRUE ! WE SHOULD’NT HAVE TO PUT UP WITH THE GOVERNMENT TELL US HOW TO MAKE A LIVING FOR OUR FAMILY. MEGA COMPANIES AND GOVERNMENT JUST WANT MORE MONEY AND CONTROL OF THE DRIVERS. WE PAY ALL THESE ROAD TAXES AND THE REST OF THE JUNK. NOW THEY ARE JUST CHOCKING THE LIFE OUT OF US. YOU SHOULD HAVE A CHOICE IF YOU THINK YOU NEED TO BE TOLD ND WHEN TO GO TO BED AND TO GET UP AND TO BE SAFE, THEN BY ALL MEANS PLEASE PUT IT IN YOUR TRUCK. ITS YOUR TRUCK YOU PAID FOR IT NOT THE GOVERNMENT. I DON’T NEED HELP IN MAKE SAFE AN GOOD SOUNDS DECISIONS.
What part of the HOS has changed with ELDs?
Bet you can’t give one legal change to the HOS and neither can OOIDA. Let alone any driver against elds
Overthrow the govt, revolt take over burn the bastard out of Washington ,start a civil war beem Donny back to mars
Most be a Company driver makeing $15.00 hrs working 70 hours for $1050.00 for 6 days full work at McDonald’s with benefits. Small fleet makes 1.000.000 years driver make $75000 year working 5 days FULL !
How much does the crooked ATA pay you to keep spreading that lie?
com.bil is probably the president of the ATA (American Trucker Assassins). ;-}
By the way , you people that talk about HOS rules. We have had to deal with hos rules for many years that not even pilots, air traffic control, train engineers, or anyone but trucking has been forced to comply with…why, as with ELDs, all about money, just as the CDL program was all about money….revenue..revenue..revenue. With all the reckless truckers out on the road today as opposed to twenty years ago these so called fixes and safety is a joke…many more dangerous truckers out there now..
Well it is quit obvious that you know nothing about the AIRCRAFT or MARITIME Industry, which I still hold license in both ! If you would grow up you would realize that the powers that be left the transportation industry to their own control and they let every thing go to crap, now we are going to pay for it !
Train engineers have HOS
Pilots have HOS
You might need to edit your comments
If you read the comment as written: the trucking industry was the first transportation industry that was regulated, the others followed years later.
You missed the point of JD’s comment.
I may not be the fastest car on the track, but even I understood what he meant.
He didn’t say the others didn’t have HOS rules, he was saying truckers have more restrictive (and unfair) HOS rules to deal with than pilots, air traffic control, train engineers,etc do.
Let the wailing and gnashing of teeth begin. Followed with the usual threats to quit. Look, I’m telling you people, if you want something done, it’s time to stop our wheels from turning. Not just for a day or two, it needs to be felt by the entire nation. A strike by American truckers would have an effect beyond our borders, one example is, think of how many cargo ships get unloaded every day in American ports.
Everyone should take an important time, like before Christmas, and take an extended vacation. Make them feel it. We can then demand most anything. Including pay increases.
OR, you can be a non-effective whiner and quit the trucking business.
And the time is perfect. With tariffs beginning to affect the economy a good week long shut down should give ‘the folks’ a pretty good idea of what is going on with trucking.
A trucker strike accomplishes nothing. They just waive HOS rules for a few weeks, or bring in foreigners or fast-truck truck automation, or any combination of the three. Or they would shift the load to rail or air freight. We (truck drivers) are simply not essential enough to be effective in a strike, any more.
It should already be apparent that there are plenty of truck drivers. If there weren’t, Hours of Service and Electronic Log Devices would exacerbate the problem intolerably. Is anyone seeing empty store shelves?
Seriously… Refusing to work, to protest regulations which restrict jow much work you are allowed to do, is self-defeating and stupid. Imagine telling your parents, “If you ground me, I’m never leaving this house again!” – sure, in twenty years or so, it might start to sink in, but in the meantime you are doing exactly what they want.
A trucker strike leads exactly nowhere. Please stop suggesting it.
Do you wear one of those dorky little mustaches under your nose too !
The ELD mandate is the best thing to ever happen to Mega carrier company drivers like myself. There are so many more miles to run and my truck never has to sit. The old timers needed to be held to the same rules as we are. Crying about having to folllow the law is ridiculous.
The ELD is just a tool for the carrier to take control of your log away from you, and put it in the hands of someone a thousand miles away, behind a desk – giving control of your log to someone that is neither responsible for it, nor has any knowledge of what you were doing during the logged time. It’s a tool with which to fire you, whenever they get the urge to do so – or to throw you under the bus, if there is an accident or any sort of liability issue. Watch, as your log magically changes after-the-fact, to show you in log violation at the time of the incident…! Yes, a record exists (or is supposed to exist) documenting any changes, when they were made, and who made them – but you’ll have to subpeona them when you want them (at your expense), and it may take several tries to get the details that you need… if they are available at all.
The problem that you are really referring to is Hours of Service, and although it sounds good on the surface to be mandated to get a goid nights’ sleep; that’s not really what’s happening. Too often, drivers are forced to park in places without bathroom facilities, food, or running water. We are often forced to park in unsafe locations, with poor to no facilities, in order to meet our log requirements. Truck driving is often a matter of risk mitigation, and sometimes, “Safety” is better served by my driving half an hour longer, to get to a place where I can get some decent rest, rather than parking now, and getting poor or no rest.
If this hasn’t happened to you, yet, then you are either very lucky, or too much of a newb to know what you are talking about.
All these dinosaurs scared of a little computer that actually makes life easier and reduces log violation citations. The OOIDA has been obsolete for years. I can’t remember the last time won anything for drivers. I can find more lawyers, insurance and small business loans through google.
Howard here is a news flash! OOIDA Was created to benefit Owner Operators, and in some cases did in fact accomplish a benefit for drivers at large, but , the original in devour was for the benefit of the Owner Operator !
Problem with OOIDA comes from the fact they don’t like differing opinions. They also keep the old guard in charge.
People when can have rolling protest!
Simply stop spending money in various states at unpredictable times for weeks at a time would get their attention. Starting with the states who’s Representatives have taken the most money from the ATA!!!
NO MONEY NO FULE DON’T EVEN BY ANY STUFF MANUFACTURED BY COMPANIES BASED IN THOSE STATES!!!
Problem solved…. Amen.
God will not solve your problems, so maybe take the “Amen” to church.
You have to buy fuel somewhere, even if you shut down – you know you’re going to want to idle, in the heat. You can’t stop eating or drinking or peeing or parking, and you probably can’t do some or all of these things without spending money. You could go home and stop spending at truck stops, but if you are planning to stay alive, you probably still have to buy things.
Please try to limit suggestions to something we can actually, that may actually be helpful, and thqt doea not rely upon supernatural intervention. Seriously, this should not even have needed to be said…
Ooida would be a great place for truckers to get the word on which week to take that vacation we all need to be heard! A week of no trucks rolling might just let us have a say in things, don’t you think?
I think that the carriers would just start denying vacation requests, or worse; cancel vacation time for vacations already planned.
Employers are not obligated to give you vacation time when you want it – or frankly, at all. If the protest is limited to owner-ops, then “vacation week” becomes a huge profit center for the giant carriers who came up with, and lobbied for, Hours-of-Service and ELD eforcement, in the first place. You wanna reward them for this stuff? Jus’ sayin’…
You have a say, just exercise it !!!
The union, and the government care nothing about safety.
Whatsoever
When crash statistics come out next year
We’ll look at the percentages of truck/car and single vehicle.
Yep….it was for safety
And the simple fact the this is going to slow the economy to a crawl.
Yep….it was for safety
The FMCSA should have their budget pulled
And the DOT needs their bell rang
Ain’t none of this crap about safety, and we know it.
The economy is rolling along just fine. In case you haven’t noticed, store shelves are well stocked with everything people want, and online sellers have no problem getting goods to their customers within a few days, at very reasonable prices.
There is always another broke housewife willing to deliver for Amazon, and another guy saddled with too much child support, willing to drive the truck between distribution centers. As long as people are broke, and have kids to support, they are going to do what they have to – and as long as that is the case, the economy hums along just fine for everyone else.
What would you ring the FMCSA and DOT’s bells with? If it’s not really about safety, then that should ultimately show up in the safety statistics. That’s what I would suggest ringing their bells with – if Congress, the President, the courts, or anyone with any sort of authority over them really cared about safety, in the first place…
Our problem is that we are out of the public eye and outside the public’s interest. No one notices us until something terrible happens, and then they immediately blame us for it – so we engender no sympathy from any quarter. Until that changes, we just going to keep getting the shaft on every subject.
It’s never been about “SAFETY” .. It’s always been about Control! (Compliance w their govt authority).
It is no longer the govt of the people, the tyranny has become too deep.
Time is coming for a civil war in this country… I’m ready, are you?
ata org was for all trucker. now only for big companies. they are the problem. congress needs have them investigate and see who giving them money. most of all accidents are big companies.
I am an o/o making great money on ELD. I usually run on my recap and can’t really see the problem. The government controls all facets of life if nobody hasn’t noticed, not just trucking. Try being in the medical field or food service industry. I don’t run for a mega carrier either. It’s a small company that all the drivers make money. I hope a bunch of you shut down for a while. More freight and better rates for the rest of us who keep the wheels spinning. It’s time to move forward instead of continuing to hold yourselves back by not accepting change.
I don’t know any paper log runners that don’t cheat. I also watch a lot of micro-sleepers swerve across lanes. Sorry, but because of cheaters and poor decision makers by some, all get to pay the price.
A lot of your microsleepers are in that state because the rest that they are mandated to get, occurs in conditions that make it inadequate. The lack of adequate available and legal parking with basic facilities, inadequate compensation, idle timeouts, poor carrier equipment maintenance, Hours-of-Service requirements, and ELD enforcement of those requirements all come together to create an environment that is hostile to driver rest, particularly for the often-inexperienced drivers that typically run over-the-road, getting little home time in which to try to recharge.
Hours-of-Service rules exacerbate the microsleep problem, and ELD enforcement exacerbates the Hours-of-Service problem.
I get that people should not have been cheating, and the ELD is merely a response to that cheating. But the cheating was often a driver response to the safety problems created by Hours-of-Service – and ifvthe FMCSA had been willing to recognize that, then the right solution would have been to change Hours-of-Service to make it safe to comply with – not enforce unsafe compliance electronically.
In part of what you said I have to agree with you. States are closing down rest areas and not replacing them with alternative parking. Truck stops are getting smaller and smaller. States have banned parking on the shoulders of on and off ramps and some have even narrowed the ramps so a truck would be on the roadway 3 or 4 feet. There were states that HAD wide shoulders along many areas of the highways, now they have NO PARKING Signs. The world of trucking is getting larger and larger and safe places for us to rest is getting smaller and even smaller. Then they are hitting us with regulations that are making it harder to find a Safe Haven to park at, at the end of our day. ARE THEY willing account for that with ELD Compliance, HELL NO!!!!! YOU ARE INVIOLATION That is why that in most truck stops it is hard to find a parking place after 5:00 PM.
MrYowler, you just took words of my mouth. Agree with everything you said. One question. Big companies 15 min. Drop&Hook setup against Small companies 5 hours live loading + 5 hours live unloading.
or… I spend at the dock 20 times more time than the Big company driver Is it right that I have the same Hours Of Service Regulation as a Big company driver? If not, this question should be addressed in the court through the Constitutional Attorney.
Why would they change it? This whole deal went down because the ATA wants to force small companies out of the market. So they lined the right pockets, came up with a good story, and presto-change-o, bought and paid for laws from non elected officials. We all knew the FMCSA wasn’t going to let their cash cow down, so we shouldn’t be surprised. Until the OOIDA and it’s members collectively grow a pair and put our foot down, nothing is going to change. This is about money ladies and gentlemen, not right and wrong. You want to change something you have to pay for it, and the ATA will spend its last penny to put us out of business.
If that’s true, then we’re screwed. The top five carriers collectively have more money than the entire rest of the industry, put together. We cannot possibly hope to win against those odds, if money is the only tool we have to fight with.
We’d better hope that money isn’t the whole of this argument – or we’d better find somewhere else to make our living.
ATA has been trying to get rid of smaller companies and independence since I started driving in 1976. They have run some out of business, or their clients have bought them out and then sold them off piece by piece. But we are still here. But they will continue to make it harder and harder for us, while FMCSA looks the other way for their clients. MONEY TALKS AND B.S. WALKS.
I am an infrequent driver. I wonder how much crap I am going to catch using the 8 day exemption if I ever have to deal with the police.
You probably won’t have to deal with them unless you have an accident. They really don’t want to bother us much anymore unless we’re driving poorly or really speeding.
That’s not true, these pigs pulling truckers over left & right from Florida to North Carolina..daily..they are in regular undercover vehicles…theyve always hated truck drivers and continue to seek us out.
What part of the HOS has changed with ELDs?
Bet you can’t give one legal change to the HOS and neither can OOIDA. Let alone any driver against elds
A Truckin #Shutdown…….I wish!
My husband is a trucker and I homeschool our 6 kids and our 4 teens are on a competitive speech and debate team – this year they debated Transportation regulation and guess what my boys built their case on? ELD’s & HOS.
ELD’s don’t follow the same rules as paper logs. If you were a trucker you would know this. I met the owner of a small company this December who only ran small loads to and from the Philadelphia area and with the paper logs being able to round down a few minutes – legally allowed – they were able to make their trips and return to the yard in time to go home each night. This was a LEGAL way of logging, contrary to what someone claimed above about small trucking companies being dirty… With the ELD tracking every minute exactly, these drivers were only able to get within 15-20 minutes of the yard and running out of drive time. This company only had day cabs, so their drivers were not equipped to stay overnight. This small business had to close up shop and it’s a sad story that is going to float around in every state due to the ELD mandate. Small businesses don’t have the resources to compensate for the extra costs of the unintended consequences of the ELD mandate.
Let me repeat, this company closed shop because of unintended consequences of the ELD mandate. They were a CLEAN and LEGAL company, logging legally on paper flowing the paper-log rules.
You can’t argue with this.
Anybody can argue with anything, and some people are paid to do so until you get exhausted, stop talking, and they get the last word – effectively winning the argument from the perspective of decision makers who don’t really care about the outcome, and weren’t really listening to the argument inbthe first place.
Not that I support the ELD/HoS position, but I will point out that the contrary arguments will include running team drivers, putting a drop yard between facilities and relaying loads between them, or moving facilities closer together. Also, one argument might be to point out that the consumer need is still being met, now thatvthe small carrier is shut down, so obviously *someone* found a solution.
No dispute or discussion is ever resolved by one side simply declaring that there can be no opposing arguments.
First of all, hats off to all owner-operators inside of America. But nationally owner-operators are outnumbered 10 to 1 by company drivers. The estimated 350,000 owner-operators today include a majority number of company lease purchase operators which they are simply glorified company drivers with the dream of one day becoming a bonafide owner-operator. Most all company lease purchase operators wake up from their dream once they realize they have been a sucker to take on almost all a company risk and expenses of operating ownership of said leased trucks and often trailers.
One thing is certain about the trucking industry in the USA big carriers make the real bucks and plan day after day how to screw the little man at the same time make him like it. Plus, keep the little man from uniting with his counterpart-other little men.
The only way owner-operators can avoid becoming a memory of the past is to unite around the commonality they share with company drivers if you all cannot do that accept the handwriting on the wall that the end days of the independent truck drivers is close at hand…ijs.
The other way is to get involved with the larger brokers who need o/o to compete with the mega carriers. There are brokerage companies today that are actually financially backing individual truckers and paying them enough to continue to operate. They are advancing them finances for fuel, repairs, tires, etc. The industry is changing radically and the opportunities to be in your own business had never been as good.
What companies?
The estimated O/O number does NOT include l/p drivers. If it did, that number would be closer to 1 million. O/O own this business. If we all quit today, the economy would collapse. The big corps, with all their trucks, couldn’t even come close to filling that void.
ATA needs more visits from welcome guests that dislikes them badly.
Of course the ATA is pleased they wrote this ELD mandate to put their competitors out of business along with the currently shelved speed limiters. This was the very reason admitted on video for having these things. The ATA doesn’t represent truckers. It represents scumbag super corps while pretending it gives a shit about safety. The ATA is the dirtiest organization in American and makes the Mob look like good guys.
I just got done reading all the comments here. Sounds like most of you don’t have a clue about this. The main reason FMCSA did this is most drivers are not honest when keeping paper logs. I’m sorry to say this but the drivers out there brought this on themselves. It’s way to easy to cheat paper logs to fit your needs because of hold at docks and traffic. The one good thing about ELD’S it keeps everyone honest including trucking companies. If FMCSA really want to make trucking safer then need to figure out how to get the steering wheel jockeys that can’t follow the rules, read signs ect. Safe driving starts with the drivers not trucks with a lot of electronics gizmos. Being able to a truck up and down the road doesn’t mean you’re a professional. Being professional is the way you conduct yourself out there.
Partially true however, the original idea behind eld’s came from the mega carriers as an idea to both simplify their paperwork and micromanage their drivers to keep the cost of operation at its lowest level. As a side light they realized that if they pushed this through Congress and forced all truckers to adopt the technology they would get many of them out of the industry and that is what has happened. They felt that the playing field would tilt in their favor and they would be in a position to increase rates which they have done blaming the driver shortage for the reason. There is no driver shortage there is only a large number of mega-carriers that will not pay drivers what they should be paid. it’s hard to understand the entire story unless you’ve been in the industry for more than 40 years like I have.
I agree …its all about decreasing drivers & your boy is in office to dismantle everything in so called America that benefits people from having a livelihood and wealth…babylon is fallen
EXACTLY!!
It doesn’t keep anybody honest, it keeps you driving tired in order to utilize the time available. It makes me ‘sleep’ because an idiot in an office says so, even though I’m wide awake. It doesn’t make ANYBODY a better driver, just like seatbelts. Safety is not, and never will be, a line on a log or a piece of paper in a file. It’s what you do behind the wheel
With regard to elds…..it has cost me at least 2 extra days to do what I normally did on paper, so I can’t claim any benefit or increased revenue. I resent having a government agency that needs to monitor every minute detail of my life, and I believe it’s time for drivers to push back against this endless parade of regulation, instead of mindlessly bending over when a new ‘rule’ comes along
It’s all about NWO & big brother…
Right along with u my friend this the kind of people we need like ur self and me to get a result
Douglas Kirk. My only hope that Collective intelligence of the smartest among the drivers like yourself will bring us eventually to the point of creating an O/Os and Small Carriers Organization which would protect our rights, unite us, organize us and when it says strike it will be 1 million drivers strike. I don’t mind a membership fee to overturn the nonsense created in the last 20 years. Big Carriers can do whatever they want. I respect their right to conduct business as they wish.
But one should realize the Big Carriers ( 15 min Drop + 15 min Hook) and the Small Carriers (5 hours live loading + 5 hours live unloading) are the two different entities. No same regulations applied. My right to conduct my business safely should be respected.
Who exactly is being cheated?
Kenneth A. Thompson. “It’s way to easy to cheat paper logs to fit your needs because of hold at docks and traffic.”
So you know the problem, then why would you come up with Synthetic, Artificial HOS Regulations which is maybe a good fit for the 15 minutes Drop&hook Big Carrier business model but devastating for the 5 hours live loading + 5 hours live unloading time for the Small Carriers.
Can I paraphrase yours saying as: ” It’s way too easy for lawmakers to cheat and camouflage their nonprofessionalism by creating artificial regulations which are may be OK for one group of drivers and unrealistic for another group of drivers”?
Maybe this generation of drivers will see past themselves and realize the value of collective bargaining.
Trucking from when I started 29 yrs ago has taken a turn in a direction that favors electronics based upon FMCSA’s requirements (ELD’s). Like others I have listened to and read their comments in reference to these altering changes within this industry are quite opposing and conflicting at the same time. There are things that can be done to steer away from ELD’s temporarily, such as
1. If you drive within your state and do not cross state lines your allowed to run loose leaf logs for now. You might ask, how do I know this to be true, I’ve spoken with my states highway patrol officers hence where my information is coming from.
2. If your able to, like a gentlemen in one of the above comments stated which he is absolutely correct, go out and purchase a 1999 or older truck and you will not be required to run ELD’s.
Now if your not opposing ELD’s and that’s what you started out with in your beginning times of trucking, you have no disputes, complaints or anything to gripe about. Here’s why I say that, if all you’ve worked with is ELD’s and no other logging method then your not in a position to say what’s better or worse per se. This is truly about choice, if your choosing to remain in trucking, then you need to decide how you want to remain in it, there are various avenues to choose from that will have a direct outcome in reference to ELD’s or not.
1.OTR driver ( newer trucks) – ELD’s Yes.
2.local/ Instate driver – ELD’s No for now.
3. OTR driver (1999 or older truck) ELD’s No.
It’s pretty simple math if you ask me, it’s all about choices and decisions, just make one and stick with it and don’t complain about it, after all we have to stand accountable for everything we say and do. Keep it safe everybody.
They do not need to set it at 27.5 million
They need to work with an owner of a tractor/ trailer. Not a group of people who have 10 DRIVERS.
What is so puzzling about this? The #FMCSA is doing the bidding of the mega carriers. They don’t want all these little competitors running around cutting into the massive profits from the driver shortage they ‘created’ with their broken business model do they.
As stated many times, the HOS , not the ELDs is the problem. I’m only in my 10th year of trucking, so the HOS sucked from day one.
I’m a part time company driver with a small company. I take off 3-4 months per year, otherwise I couldn’t deal with this nonsense. I’m going to be out in 2-3 years and living in the Philippines. The rotten culture & government tyranny is becoming untenable for me.
It’s on us drivers to push back against the exploitation from the industry and the ridiculous fines.
SHUT DOWN OR SHUT UP.
What safety,newer saw so many jamed side safe guards,look what is average speed limit and how much truck are going!
They are speeding eld,and looking not to violent some eld rules.
Eld can stay,but with lot changes.
Shippers doesn’t care,no staging aerials,long loading and unloading times…
What you expect,to be loaded and reloaded on same place.Yes,in Hollywood,not in real life!
Got a go,my 14 expired,be safe!
I don’t where you got that statistic 50% of O/O making more since ELD’s came into effect. I ran legal with paper logs my pay year to date compared to this time last year is less. ELD’s are not about safety if that were true then these mega carriers would have much better safety ratings than what they have this can not be disputed and they have been on ELD’s for years now. It’s more a driver management tool for large companies with thousands of drivers and the government wants it in place because its easier to track fuel taxes on each truck out there because of the GPS on the devices. There is no safety benefit to ELD’s they do not make you a safer driver it’s just more regulations by our all knowing law makers who listen to idiot organizations like the Anti Trucking Association (ATA). O/O for 22 years and total experience of 37 years with 3.5 million documented safe driving miles.
Highest freight rates in history of deregulation and part of that is due to the end. Why would someone wish to exempt the majority of the trucking industry and go back to low rates?
That was supposed to be ” part of that is due to the ELD”
ATA has more money than OOIDA so I’m not suprised. Big trucking companies pour millions into ATA.
Large carriers haul the loads for pennies of profits, most good owner Operators pick the best paying loads and get the job done right and on time, the eld is designed to keep the good drivers held back so the shit drivers (mega Carrier drivers) don’t look so bad and so the big companies make more money….. then lie about safety benefits
The mandate has called more fatalities and more fatigued drivers to be on the rd. I’m sorry but someone has to say this, those ppl in Congress don’t know nothing about safety and the trucking industry, the have stake in the eld’s. Making money off truckers .
Companies should start paying odometer miles instead of mover miles. That would help a lot where Pay is concerned. They should also be paying for everything we do including sleeper berth Pay. Because we are in fact guarding the freight. Too many years have went by with companies lowering pay and abusing drivers. Most companies when we were doing paper logs made the drivers falsify them. Dot regulations are based off of the lies not the truth. The elds are proving that fact. Before trucking was deregulated the drivers made more money. Pay has consistently went downhill since 1980. Until these problems are addressed, it will continue to go down.
I get paid Odometer miles. Trust me, it doesn’t even make a dent in the amount I’ve lost since December.
What a bunch of cackling hens.
I have a silly question. Are the roads any safer because of the eld’s? On my last trip back from the east coast, with no rain or snow, I saw 3 trucks laid across the interstate. Anybody know the actual stats up or down since all this foolishness began? I’ve been an owner opr for 35 years. It’s just truck driving, not rocket science. pick up the load, drive it to where it goes, deliver the load. You could probably eliminate 80% of the regulations and things would be just fine.
Simply stop driving trucks like I did..stupid business.
My problem is not ELD by itself, but the unconstitutional and discriminatory HOS, which ELD is enforcing.
My solution is: all the O/O’s and small fleet companies have to be organized and centralized before the bureaucrats regulate us till death. Any form is ok. Union, brotherhood, association, assembly. With a small membership fee. Then, if our organization say – strike, than it would be 1,000,000 truck strike, not the sorry 22 trucks somewhat year ago in Washington. 1 day. 2 days. Week. It doesn’t matter. Let a big companies deliver in the New Jersey and the New York rat wholes one dock in the grass receivers. They will not. I never saw jb hunt trailers in the rat hole receivers. They like to deliver in a big walmart lots, becose their 3 month experience drivers will going to destroy or the rat whole receiver dock or the equipment. Our Independent drivers organisation should be rich enough to afford to hire the group of constitutional attorneys from ACLU to not to negotiate, it is nobody there to negotiate with – nobody has a clue and simingly do not realy care about truckers real every day challenges. (sorry OOIDA, you prove to be worthless and ATA can continue to side with the mega carriers).( I want to see the robot truck change the lines in New York where in conjunction of highway and bridges on different levels samentaniously GPS simply useless ), but the divers organisation has to sue the government for the unconstitutional and discriminatory HOS regulations.
Excuse me. 10 hours sleeping. Very good. 14 hours working. Excellent. 11 hours driving. OK. But only 3 hours left for
PTI, loading, unloading, finding parking place, shower, fueling, eating, documents ( fax multypages BOL for prove of delivery). In 3 hours?!
When shipper hold me for 5 hours and receiver brake down and count the pallets for another 7 hours?
And you call those 70-34-14-11 HOS a law?
“Puzzled”? Why “puzzled”?
The FMCSA has been overtaken by the mob (like the rest of our government), whose soul purpose is to destroy competition and create corporate trucking monopolies. Of COURSE they’re going to shove these unconstitutional ELDs down our throats, and make us drive tired, p***ed off, and always in hurry.
Eventually there won’t be enough drivers, and we’ll have to outsource to foreign labor and autonomous trucks to keep the country from falling apart, and that’s -exactly- why they’re pushing for this stuff. You guys know good and well this crap was not needed, and isn’t doing a d**n thing to make the highways safer. It’s only making people drive less safe, putting more inexperienced drivers behind he wheel, and herding us like cattle into closed rest areas, abandoned scale houses, and packed truckstops to try and get any sleep.
Our highways and infrastructure/bridges are falling apart, and yet WE are PAYING these criminal thugs to drive us out of our businesses and or way of life.
It will take nothing short of a million trucks just shutting down to bring this corruption to an end, and even then, we’re running out of time.
This populace needs to wake the hell up, and they need to wake up now. We’re not being made “great” again. This f***ing mob we call our government is draining us and driving every one of us into government dependency/national socialism that monitors and controls every aspect of our lives.
How is it when paper log is mentioned some a- hole says your running illegal! That’s B.S. I run paper and I run legal as others do with eld’s, also, I admit I run over time sometimes trying to find parking, I don’t like to park up with 1-2 hrs. Of driving time left- do you ? I drive an older truck not for to run paper but to keep the wheels rolling, newer trucks have numerous sensors that one of any ,can shut you down or drop your hp. To where you are a hazard to traffic ( been there – done that )! Biggest problem I see with profits , is trucks are talking loads too cheap and of course setting at load out 3-6 hrs before getting loaded. If loading facilities had to pay the truck a fair price , after a reasonable amount of waiting , we would stand to make more profit because the wheels are rolling ! By the way, I have a question for you big time supporters of eld’s – Posted speed limit is 55 for trucks and 70 for others ,What speed do you drive? Remember 56 and higher is breaking the law! Same as over 11/14.
The more reason why Truckers like everyone else in this “right to work” for nothing corporate highjacking of our labor forces need to come together and shut this country down for three days in protest. To keep saying we can’t do it is to allow the Corporatists and their government butt buddies to continue to take advantage of our hard labor and sacrifice being away from our families !!!
I’ve got damn near 30 years in trucking.. I hate a few things about the ELD’s. I have my own authority and bought the VDO ROAD LOG which OOIDA recommended and it cost me about $600 with no monthly fees and it will print 2 weeks of your logs right out of the small mini monitor right on the dash and there are a lot of nice features on this.
Also WHY DOES OOIDA KEEP WASTING TIME TRYING TOGETRID OF THEM ALL TOGETHER? Why not just try to go back and get rid of the 14 hour rule? I mean it’s not the ELD that’s got things so messed up, its the rules they put in place and make no sense. Sure I’d like to get rid of it but I don’ t see that going anywhere anytime soon. It just makes it look like we want to break the law so we want to get rid of the ELD’s. GET RID OF THE 14 HOUR rule and I guarantee we have safer drivers. Forcing people to drive 11 hours in a short period makes mo sense. SPEND THE TIME AND MONEY TRYING TO GET RID OF THE 14 HOUR RULE!!!!!
70-34-14-11 HOS regulations, when being OK for the 15 min drop&hook Big Carriers, are detrimental for the 5 hours live loading + 5 hours live unloading Small Carriers.
The first step to change the regulation is to establish an O/Os and Small Carriers Organization to protect our rights and to sue Government for Unconstitutional and Discriminatory for the Small Carriers regulations.
They say they want everyone to drive safe and during there comfort zones yet the ELD forces everyone out og there comfort zones to make these loads ontime so how is it making anything better we are out of our comfort zones and always having to drive tried so how SAFE is that …
What happen to that No Big Gov. saying that all the presidents was saying from Regan down to now? Sounds like it is all Big Goverment now.
This is why I don’t want to talk to anybody. I just want to bring the issues in Constitutional Court.
NO!!!!
Well , all I’m going to say is ! I should be able to sleep when I’m tired and drive
when I’m awake. The FMCSA has got me out here driving tired driving and sleeping awake. I’m so sick of being told when andvwhat to do by someone who has never drivin a truck. Pisses me off ! And things go thru my head about how to stop all this stupidity ! But it takes a while community and an organization to do it. I can’t do it alone. To many crybabies listening to the Goverment , to scared to fight for our rights. I couldn’t be in Washington because my truck was broke down .
It’s a war of attrition & it’s working. Trucking is becoming a job, no longer a profession. Big trucking, (ATA), wants drones. The goal is to increase profit without raising rates & it’s a downward spiral. They’ve kept the rates so ignorantly low that they risk pricing themselves out of work. It is easier to hamstring your competition than to provide value added service to your customer. E- log or not, this where the true professional owner operator outshines the big box companies and always will. Because for some of us the pride in striving for perfection is still the driving force. Whether you blame the E- log, the 14 hr. rule or the brokers, shippers & receivers. It’s a race to the bottom & getting there fast.
I shake my head in wonder when I see or hear ads for these big box companies proclaiming, ” our company was founded by a guy just like you, a single truck owner/ operator! “. Then I think, bet he couldn’t do it in today’s regulatory environment. But when you start writing laws to restrict competition, that is the end of a free market economy. Why are they not pushing just as hard for more restrictive training policy? For those of you that love to throw the outlaw/ cheater word around in a “discussion” on e- logs, Remember this, there isn’t a company now or ever that wasn’t founded by an outlaw just like the rest of us, willing to bend the rules & do what ever it takes for the customer. So before y’all fall off your high horse remember the only difference between us & them is, your working for them & we wouldn’t hire you anyway.
ATA, you’re a bunch of crooked people. Ask the public about the number of careless drivers for larger companies who cant even drive let alone use a elder. Myself I’d like to have paper back we all know how much money we lose a week. Decent planners are hard to find and dispatchers 95% need pink slips. It doesn’t make any sense to put a record safety smaller company the benefit to keep using paper if they have fantastic safety records. That Sean Mcnalley CEO is a complete Moron!!!
You do realize all it would take is all of us shutting down one week and the government would panic…and we could do away with this crap…..we have more regulations in our job than any other job….besides airline pilots….it’s getting sickening….
ALL OR NOTHING. You can’t pick and choose who is forced to use ELDs and who is not. It’s here and I would bet it’s not going anywhere so stop bitchin and get hitchin – there is freight to move.
Government Control, not safety. Just Control!! Pushovers!!!
I wish they’d stop using resources to fight a battle that’s impossible to win and instead use their (OOIDA) money and resources to get changes made with HOS, ELD’s are here and they aren’t going anywhere.
Shut the trucks down till they listen!
Those driving school rejects can run it all, the people will hurt from it but get by it would be a nice wake up call to a lot of selfish and inconsiderate people that I see are out here everyday. and all it would be to us is a well deserved vacation.
There just trying to get rid of all us old outlaws that made Trucking a name. Its a new breed world now and the Government has control of the ones that use Eld,s. Full control that’s the way they want it. Go 99 and paper. Keep on Trucking. Panty Snatcher Alabama yoop yoop.
How is it no one is talking about the ignition tied capabilities of these eld’s? I’m sure we’re all able to record and log drive Time, Load Time, delivery time within reasonable limits to the law but what I don’t understand is how come nobody’s outraged by the fact that some of these devices can actually force your shut down. This feature is the furthest thing from safety! And nobody’s talking about it. Literally trucks are not able to restart their engines because the ELD is talking to the computer. This is a very big deal ….very big deal. this is why my husband and I are no longer over the road… if you’re stuck next to a reefer and it’s bedtime and you decide you want to move your truck across the lot in search of a more peaceful destination (lol) you won’t be able to without getting under the hood, bypassing the computer and forcing your starter. This is obviously ridiculous, not in the line of safety, and a way bigger deal than worrying about somebody’s half-hour break. our biggest suspicion was that once they did get the eld’s passed, then they would add on the sensors and gadgets they need to actually be tied to your ignitions. Good luck out there drivers.