I Just Heard That E-Logs Will Be Mandatory In 2015

Stop listening to rumors.

 

I went from e-logs to paper and never want to go back.
Long live paper!..........oh and I work in the timber/paper industry so my job's on the line too.

[video=youtube_share;VweJslplSbE]http://youtu.be/VweJslplSbE[/video]

 

Some folks just love government intrusion. they love & need the government giving them permission on every aspect of their life. they are the same sad ones that think there is no success without government. the fed gov, loves to control peoples lives. just read the h/c law. some here love the fact gov has control over them. A government that will give everything TO YOU, is a government, that WILL TAKE EVERYTHING FROM YOU! some really think that disobeying a comp sys telling you when you are tired is the same as wanting to disobey a traffic signal which could result in the death of some one. to e- logs....

 

This is the mind set trucking has been reduce to......

 

Google (or Bing or Yahoo or whatever search engine you like) MAP-21. The real deal (in a super condensed version) is Congress passed a law that (among many other things in the 300+ page Highway Improvement Bill) required the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to make a rule requiring all motor carriers subject to the Hours Of Service regulations to use electronic logs. I think they gave them a year to make the rule and a 2 year implementation prior to enforcement period. MAP-21 was passed and signed into Law July of 2012 so that's where everyone is coming up with the "e-logs will be required of everyone in 2015" information. The "information" (like most things we hear OTR) is kinda right but kinda wrong. It will affect the vast majority of Motor Carriers and almost everyone will eventually be required to use some form of e-logs, but the FMCSA Rulemaking process is so convoluted and drawn out and then goes though challenges in Court by various industry associations (like ATA and OIIDA) that in the end the Feds usually get mostly what they want but it takes longer than originally predicted. As an active member of various State and National Safety and Compliance organizations I feel comfortable saying it is generally expected that by the end of 2015 most motor carriers will have to have some type of electronic HOS recording. What the language in the Rule will say exactly and the enforcement timetable is still on the drawing board going through the public and industry input, revision, comment and various other periods and processes. We're certain mandatory e-logs will be a reality, what's uncertain is exactly what the rule will say or what the "drop dead, you have to have it by X date" will be. Might as well prepare and start learning to manage the HOS rules 100% compliant because like it or not the Feds are making it happen. I am now with a company that uses e-logs and runs 100% compliant. It has been quite a challenge for me. I was so used to just finishing the trip (within reason - usually. I did stretch things way more than I should of a few times) and making the paper log say what I wanted. I've really had to retool my entire trip planning mentality. I still get a few hits (the 14 hour clock) and catch myself going; "That's only 50 miles. I can work out 45 minutes." Well, no I can't. Not with e-logs lol. I'm getting much better at it and I'll say it can be done and I can make just as much money running e-logs and legal as I did running paper and "working out" the stretching. It IS a lot more challenging, though. I think part of the challenge has been my learning curve and having to CHANGE my ways. The folks coming in now and doing it this way from the get go don't seem to be having the same challenges as us old schoolers. As far as liking it or not liking it; I don't know. It's had it's pros and cons. I do get more rest, but my checks have been more up and down. Overall the same money but there's times I used to stretch my legs and get the load done in time to go on this week's check and now it has to go on next week's. Plus the shippers and receivers do seem to respond to our HOS challenges a little better. Been a couple of times I've messaged my DM that if they didn't get in gear on a live load/unload that I was gonna turn into a pumpkin at the dock and someone at the company made a call and they went ahead got me outa there. Not always but a lot more often than it used to be. Used to NONE of them cared about your HOS because WE didn't care about them and made the paper say whatever we needed it to. Now, with all the major carriers running e-legal the customers are starting to HAVE to get more aware and work with us better. Like I said, pros and cons. In the end it really doesn't matter if I like it or not. It's gonna happen before I retire so I might as well accept it and go ahead and learn how to make a living within the box the Feds are now really getting built.

Hope this was helpful.

 

Pretty much sums it up, and I think a lot of it comes from those who never were in the industry back when it was somewhat fun and don't know better. Now days the mega carriers just load up the brand new warm bodies with the kool aid and tell them this is how it is and there happy. Its the same everywhere not just in the trucking ind.

 

They Did What...?
Let's take a brief look at drivers who were caught falsifying their log books.

• The Office of the Inspector General at the Department of Transportation liststhis:
  
  Stanley N. Waddy Jr., a former commercial trucker for Tapscott Trucking in Thornburg, VA, was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia to time served in prison on state charges (16 months) and put on five years of probation. Waddy pleaded guilty on January 5 to ten counts of making false statements to DOT for falsifying his driver logbook to hide how long he had been driving without rest. ...
  ​
• A Google News search on "falsifying logbook" is here.
• A Google News search on "falsifying log book" is here.
• According to a July 28, 2011 article in TheOlympian.com[SUP]*[/SUP]: "An Oregon truck driver faces multiple charges after he fell asleep at the wheel on Interstate 5 near Tumwater early Thursday morning and his tractor-trailer crossed the concrete median barrier, blocking southbound traffic for five-and-a-half hours, police say." Although no one was injured, there was an expensive cleanup and one of the charges the driver faces is falsifying his log book.
• As reported on May 7, 2012, a truck driver was sentenced to "18 months in a federal lockup" after pleading guilty to "federal charges he had falsified his driver's logs" when he was involved in a 2009 accident that killed a businessman and seriously injured the car's passenger.

 

We've elogs or digital tacho graphs in Europe for years, trust me....ya don't want them, it's gone to the point where if you go 10 minutes over your time you'll get fined for it, you could be caught up to a year after , offences can range from 60 euro to 10's of thousands, interfere with them it constitutes fraud and you can get up to 2 years in prison, I personally have missed a few weekends at home because I ran short on a little time to get home.

 

so nobody on elogs falls asleep,or crashes,if you believe that your a fool.i know lets see stats on accident rates on trucks on e logs

 

why don't you post some articles with elogs also. cuz, you know, they go to jail too.