Concerns with the future of flatbedding

If the government makes it unprofitable to drive then I'm guessing a bunch of us will find something else to do. There comes a point of diminishing returns where it wouldn't cost you much to just find a job close to home. I hear ya ......... every worker and business owner is nervous about making an investment these days. My wife would love for me to give it up and stay home.

 

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I get what you're saying on logs. Every situation is different. I run out and back in the upper Midwest most of the time. I can't tell you how many times I'd sleep a half hour to a couple hours away from home if I was on elogs.

 

I think the effect of e-logs will depend a lot on who you are competing with the most at the shippers you deal with. I seldom see the big companies with e-logs hauling from the shippers I haul from.

Most of my completion is the smaller trucking companies that run paper logs.Switching to e-logs will change my operation very little. From what I hear other drivers say who work for my competition many of them will have to change a lot. Some of them will probably go out of business.

I do NOT want to see e-logs implemented but if they are it will probably help my business by eliminating competition and causing rates to rise.

I am sure this eliminating competition is why the big companies are pushing for them. The safety excuse is just a BIG LIE put forth by the big companies.

 

I don't know why E Logs bug people so much. They can be just as "Loose" as paper once you figure it out. The only exception to this rule is mega's which has "Other" people in charge of your logs.

I worked for a Mom and Pop company that has 80 trucks and we had MPC 200 Elog system. They had absolutely no problem going in and editing around drivers drive time to be able to make everything look legit. This is really no different then taking a paper log and re doing it, When the company still holds all the "Keys" to the vault DOT just kind of has to trust they are doing the right thing.

 

If ANY company is running a legitimate and legal E-Log system they can't just go in and "edit around drivers time" without it leaving a paper trail and big red flags, big red flags that the DOT will see the second they open the books. If someone from a company changes anything on line 3 they will have some serious explaining to do when the DOT walks in for a review.

There's so much false information being passed around as gospel with all things technology related. These stories of companies "editing" drivers logs from the office to force them to drive more is utter and complete BS. Any company that has spent the money willingly to go to E-Logs is not going to do that sort of thing. The companies who like to force drivers to run illegal and by virtue of bad CSA scores are forced to implement e-logs to continue operating are under a microscope and changing line 3 on drivers logs is a one way ticket to a cease operation order.

I'm still waiting on someone to post real proof that any of this has ever happened. Every single driver now days carries a high quality camera in their pocket. Take pictures and post proof that someone on the other side is changing logs. Oh and FWIW, any changes made will be RED lines regardless of the line its on. The line will stay red till the next duty status entered by the driver and will forever be red when the DOT stops by for a look.

Now if a company is running some sort of system that doesn't change the line color or keep a paper trail it's not legal per federal regulations and therefore will be viewed the same as running with no log books at all.

 

I feel that on the whole elog mandates are bad. Not really because they'll have any effect on me or my business, nor because of the cumulative effect of it putting a severe strain on many others in the trucking community.

I see it as an issue more so because once regulations are in place for that, what's the next law they'll look to pass? Where will they look to regulate us on the next bill?

Regulations are in place for different reasons. At different points in our history as a nation, rules needed to be made to protect the many from the few.

I recently watched a series "the Men Who Built America" and would recommend it to anyone. A lot is left out of the individual stories. But it gives a good general idea of what particular industries looked like at a given time in out countries history.

One point of note was that in the 1890's, 1 in every 11 steelworkers died every year. Now that's only deaths. Tha doesn't include if someone was burned up or horribly disfigured and lived. Laws were passed to protect those workers, and unions were formed as well. Did regulations cut profits in that industry? Surely they did. Was it still a profitable industry to be in? Absolutely.

I'm against elogs, not because it will have a tremendous impact on my actual business, but because the logic behind it doesn't stand. Drivers on elogs are no safer than drivers on paper, simply by virtue of a computerized big brother. Big fleets run elogs and have accidents all day every day. Bad drivers don't need to be tired to cause accidents. And being 5 minutes over your 14 hour clock doesn't immediately make you a road hazard to everyone else on the street.

I don't like regulations passed based on the ideals of those that would use them in an attempt to restrict competition.

As an independent carrier, I'll have to pay for systems that monitor my hours. That's another expense, and therefore my costs increase, an therefore what I charge will have to increase. But it certainly won't make me any safer, nor anyone I share the road with.

That is my opinion on the elog situation.

 

You go on the asumtion that the drivers were NOT ok with them being edited. As with any tech, Its alot easyer to erase red flags then you think (on my current MCP50 the line does not turn red when time is edited it does get a little mark next to it tho until I approve the logs, I cant say what it looks like on the other end tho) They had also no problem passing a audit why I was still employed with them.

Been a few years sense I have been there. No idea if they still have the same practice, But if its still working for them I dont see it changing. That was there mind set and anyone working for them knew it.

 

Most of us agree Ruthless...not that it matters at all.

I haven't seen it, but "The men who built America" sounds like a nice piece of nostalga. Sadly though, we are in a different phase now...more like "The men who profit from it". Corporate insiders and lobbyists and corrupt politicians are passing laws to line their pockets. Where have I seen this movie?

All is not lost though. We are witnessing history. It's the fall of Rome all over again.

 

You're absolutely right. Elogs have nothing to do with safety. It's the lobbyist attempt to level the playing field. It's the brainchild of the teamsters and the ATA. Everything that they've done in recent years was designed to make people who would not otherwise be competitive to be competitive.

A few years back, there was a big push from the teamsters and the bottomfeeders to run teams in trucks. Do teams make more money than solo drivers? No. Team drivers run fewer miles than the solo drivers did 15 years ago...so how can they make more money, especially since they don't even get the same CPM?

Is the Dumb and Dumber program safe? Is allowing rookies with less than a years experience to train safe? If it really was about safety, a Million Mile Driver would command double what a rookie would. Yes, I said it...if Safety was priority number one, a Million Miler would be making 6 figure income. They would be showing numbers like Catalina Flyer. That would be industry standard. I have known company drivers to make 6 figure income. Thing is, you're paying for performance.

Back in the early 90s, I made my money by overnighting loads from Calhoun,Ga to Denver,Co. Every week. 1330 miles overnight. The load was brokered from another carrier, but the other carrier couldn't get the load there before Thursday. They gave us the contract because I got there Tuesday. The amazing thing was, I could pass a drug test any day of the week. The problem came in when they put a cranked up driver on that run, and he blacked out a couple days and delivered the load on Friday.

So, you have a customer out there that needs his load yesterday. He calls for a truck. Is he concerned about safety? Sure he is. But he keeps looking at his watch. If he were to talk to the average TTR driver, he would be disappointed. "Oh, I don't chain up. Oh I don't go here. Oh, I don't do that. Yessir, I want your money, but it will get there according to my schedule." What a downer.

That's like going to the Mustang ranch with major wood and a girl tells you what she doesn't do. Yeah, that's one way to get rid of wood. " Sir, that's the $50 girl. She doesn't like to be touched." Well, isn't she in the wrong line of work? So when Miss Don't Touch Me complains about her income, and has negative things to say about the a Mustang, do you sympathize with her?

The goal isn't to have a job, the goal is to be good at what you do.

 

Same thing up here. The OTA, who represents the interests of the mega carriers go to the Ministry of Transportation and say they want electronic speed limiters. Voila, there are speed limiters.

Meanwhile the speed limiters put the lives of the drivers at risk.

Makes me want to puke.