Why CSA 2010 and E-Logs are a good thing.

That's where the company needs to break all the details down, date, time, GPS location, switches (Cruise, Brake, Ignition, RPM's) to determine what the cause is. These factors can help determine if the call is about an unsafe behavior, or if you want to take the direction of making sure the driver is OK. We've used the feedback from some of these events to change our routing to block certain roads as we deemed them unsafe (based upon driver feedback)

 

How much can you pick a driver apart. Don't you think its going a bit too far? Does there need to be a camera put in the bunk, on the dash facing the driver, and on the dash looking out if front of the truck. How about one on each side of the truck to get a side view of whats going on around the truck that causing drivers to use the brakes? How about attaching one to the drivers so when hes not in the truck the safety people know exactly what he is doing so they know he is still safe to drive the truck? Just how far should the intrusion on a driver go?

 

Instead of babying grown men and women you choose to drive trucks and watching their every move why not just fire their lazy butts when they violate the HOS regulations? Don't give them unlimited amounts of times to violate and force EOBRS AND E-LOGS upon the rest of us safe, courteous, professional and paper log runners. Companys have a choice not to employ or hire drivers with a log violation so how about they don't and that would weed out the bad apples and allow the rates to go up for the rest of us that run legally. How about any company that hires or employs a driver with a HOS violation gets fined $100,000 each offense? This would also get rid of the bad companys fast as they would be filing bankruptcy. Win Win for everyone involved. How hard would it be?

 

Not that far, my safety director was wanting to get information about camera's and lane detection sensors. I think I've talked him out of it for now, but if the right salesperson comes along I'm thinking we'll be headed that route. I think there is some value to the camera's but it's not worth the trust you'll lose from your drivers. Using what we have now, at no additional cost, we can track behaviors and it's enough to keep us busy. We're still achieving results and dropping our scores. Until the scores start going back up, I think we'll be ok to hang tight with our current level of monitoring.

 

Whats sad is there will always be a new crop of CDL holders that will not care and still go and drive for a company like this. Drivers need to stand together and avoid these kinds of trucking companys as they are just killing the industry. There are plenty of other decent companys that don't violate their employees they could go and drive for. But like I stated too many CDL holder that don't care until a couple years later and by then its done to late.

 

From your point of view it's killing the industry. From my point of view i'm helping to save a company. Rising CSA scores and concerned customers had us on the verge of losing one of our major accounts. A few minor changes, and what you may call spying, has helped to change the culture of the company. We're not where we need to be yet, but we're headed in the right direction. Miles are solid, drivers are making great money (for the most part, there are always exceptions) and we're managing our violations.

Just as an FYI since we started making calling on HBE's (Hard Braking Events) we've dropped from 10 incidents a day to 2 incidents a day. I contribute this to awareness. We have not let go of a driver solely for this reason, or a combination of Roll Stability. We have let go of a driver that had several other issues, that slowed down 40 mph in 3 seconds then backed up the Interstate and did a U-turn, but only because he had several other issues as well. It's my feeling that drivers like that do not need to be on the road, I could care less how compliant he is, if he thinks that dynamiting the brakes, reversing up the Interstate and making a U-turn thru the median is ok than he can do it somewhere else.

 

If loads are planned properly, then all of this "Elogs enslaving" stuff goes away. That is why I don't mind using one. My loads are planned well (I interact with load planners and brokers to schedule things right), I go home each weekend and off on holidays. No dedicated runs either. Just like in real estate it is all about location, location, location. With Elogs, it is all about planning, planning, planning. Most folks are getting their panties in a wad only because they haven't had to plan stuff efficiently. But when it is done right, it makes life a lot easier overall. They only see things thru the lens of how they have always done it and are convinced Elogs will destroy their ability to make a living. I didn't realize how bad things were planned before I went to Elogs. But now that things are done more efficiently, I find I don't work near as hard to get the same or even more work done and still have a life outside the truck.