ELD Are there any silver linings

Ya ever notice how the vast majority of guys crying foul about elogs use terms like "grey area" to excuse breaking hos laws?

Guys, there is no grey area. Its blank and white. You are either in compliance or you are not. I strongly suggest you use these last few months to adjust your operation and driving habits to be fully compliant with hos. At the end of the day your options are be compliant, buy an old truck and deal with the high level of scrutiny it will bring, or get out of the industry.

 

Yes I will have to run perfect legally. and i will no longer have the option of choosing a cheaper route that might take me 30 mins longer that yeah i wouldn't log the 30 mins.
I would like to know how many of the guys that are telling me i am supposed to "Legal" anyway, or Elogs wont interfere or i won't lose money with Elogs are company drivers and who is an Owner Operator?

Because there is a difference out there between the 2.

 

Here is an example of my day today. please tell me how I am supposed to work this with an Elog and not lose the day now.

I made my deliver at 10 am this morning, still had 8 hrs to drive, i started at 7AM. the place i dropped at Did not have a trailer for me, so i had to detour to another yard to pick one up.
Now getting to my next pickup should have been a 2 hr run, with the detour it was now 2hrs 45 mins.
So i get to the yard @ noon. after running around for @ 45 mins looking for a trailer i realize they don't have any trailers either and i now have to wait for one to be emptied out. Left there at 1330 and arrived at the next pickup at @ 1430, just before they closed with of course the wrong pickup #. by time i was loaded it was 1615 and i am just outside of Hartford. So now im in Rush hour traffic with less then 5 hours left of my 14 when I should have been long gone before 1330 and well into PA. Now as it is i barley even have enough hours to make it to PA much less the delivery that was supposed to deliver tonight. and i have to fight Rush hour traffic in CT rather than taking the option of sitting and waiting till after rush hour and then run.
So i lose the day??
what would you do with this scenario?
Maybe i am missing something with these Elogs, but from what i understand, and maybe things have been explained wrong to me, in this case im stuck.

 

Owner op here. Never even been a company driver. Been on elogs just over a year. hadn't cost me a single penny in lost revenue. Now it did take a couple weeks to adapt and figure out how to plan better in order to not be trying to fight heavy congestion. But once that initial break in period was over i haven't had an issue. Basically, I've learned to use the 8/2 split effectively in order to not be going through Atlanta or chicago at 6 pm.

 

Sorry can't help ya on that. I don't deal with warehouse drop and hook crap. If im doing a drop and hook its a customer trailer and its ready to go the night before i get there. If i had to deal with the stuff you have to deal with id be looking for a rate increase so if i lose a day due to other people's screw ups, i don't lose anything off my bottom line. On other words, you dictate the rate and don't just accept whatever lowball figure they offer you.

 

So it would be the same on paper logs,,, you have the same 14 hr day and the same 11 hr driving time... so ELD's have nothing to do with how your day runs... things happen even on good days.

 

Yes, you can log out. But the ELD still tracks driving time, miles and change of duty status location. It just doesn't assign that time and those miles to anyone. And it shows up when the scalemaster looks at your logs. Hmm... so you shut down for your 10 in Schenectady on Thursday, and began your day in Syracuse on Friday? *scratches head*

 

Ok so looking for feedback here.
Anyone used any of these and feed back on how well they work or user friendly.
Rand McNally eld 50
Keep truckin
Foley version
Any other recommendations

 

True,, FMCSA says you can just go On Duty if in the same city... I don't think the E-Logs will be able to work around that since it is tied to truck movement.

Question 6: How should multiple short stops in a town or city be recorded on a record of duty status?

Guidance: All stops made in any one city, town, village or municipality may be computed as one. In such cases the sum of all stops should be shown on a continuous line as on-duty (not driving).The aggregate driving time between such stops should be entered on the record of duty status immediately following the on-duty (not driving) entry. The name of the city, town, village, or municipality, followed by the State abbreviation where all the stops took place, must appear in the “remarks” section of the record of duty status.

 

in my example im not thinking just a 10 hour break. more like i Finish my week Thursday at 2230, in Allentown. Im done, Trailer dropped, Bobtail home, Pickup my 5th Wheel and head upstate for the weekend. Drive back home Monday afternoon/Evening. Tuesday AM i Bobtail to NJ to pickup a trailer and start my week, i go on Duty at that point. Everything from 2230 Thursday to say 0900 Tuesday in NJ is Personal Time and Im sorry, but i don't want to be tracked. I don't want the Government or anyone else to know where i was or when. And you can make the example even longer, a week, 2 weeks, sometimes ill drive down south for 2 weeks and bounce around a bit.
So do i just pull the Jplug connection ??
It seems that this is a flaw in the system that nothing was built in to allow someone that owns the truck and uses it for personal use to go "off the grid" so to speak, which makes that an invasion of privacy, does it not?