Paperless logs

What exactly do you mean, "Full Swing?"

 

Full swing as in if you have a certain amount of points on it insurance company's cannot cover you. Points will be added for several different offences, (not only moving violations) but thing such as "Driver fitness, If a driver is driving tired, any type of write up, log violations, dot insp. finds anything wrong with truck ,so on and so on. The list, or the 1 I saw, is very obsurd. As of right now dac is only used to get or share info about drivers. The add I read stated that in 2010 insurance companys wouldnot be able to cover any driver that had so many points (I'm guessing their adding points same as MVR would, dont know how many it takes before ins. co. cant cover driver) But they say as of right now 175000 drivers will be dismissed from their jobs. Once dismissed a driver will have to wait 36 months before they can drive a truck again. And this will apply to any cdl holder. O/O included. This add could be a scam, I dont know, but it also stated that for 169.00 your dac might be able to be fixed (70% sucess rate) But I'm trying to find out more about it. Thought I'd ask if anybody else heard this? Kinda got me worried, according to this a driver could lose his job NEVER recieving a moving violation. Or be involved in an accident.

 

I mentioned it to my boss and he said he uses something else on the internet. He hates DAC. His bill from them would be around $900 a month back when he used them.He aslo mentioned that DOT is cracking down as hard as they can next year to get rid of both drivers and companies, as many as they can. This will be a big business game only from now on.

 

I used to be totally against paperless logs because the last thing I wanted was "Big Brother" looking over my every move. However when you really look at it, "Big Brother" has been watching my every move for a long long time. Every time you buy fuel with a card, they've got your number! The engine computer has a time stamp log every time you make a hard stop or run an engine overspeed. Even if you use a QualComm without a paperless log program, the satellite tracks your every move. Then there is Pre-Pass time dating your moves between scales and ports of entry. Lawyers have been savvy to this data for a long time and will subpoena it all at times of a serious accident. They will use all of it to make an "innocent" truck driver appear to be guilty so the paperless log subject is actually moot now.

Knowing this and actually using paperless since 2005, I have actually learned to enjoy the upside. No more making up an 8 day log when I go on vacation and no more filling in off duty logs in between trips. When I begin work all I have to do is log on, do my pretrip and take off and when I'm done for the week, log off and go home.

If "Big Brother" ever quits using all the other data against us, I'll be the first to jump on the bandwagon to get rid of paperless logs.

 

Sounds like crap to me. From what I understand, most companies that advertise about fixing your DAC do the same things that drivers can do for themselves. Only thing is they have more experience doing it. Sounds to me like it was a company just trying to lure drivers into using them to fix their DAC before the supposed changes go into effect, which I have never even heard about the changes.

 

It's probably a company owned by DAC.

 

The whole DAC thing is news to me as well. This is the first that I have heard of anything like that.

There are so many problems with DAC right now anyway that it's not even funny. Just like an earlier post stated, not everyone uses DAC - mostly just the big carriers. Plus, it depends on what the company subscribes to with DAC as to how much and what information they get. As per Federal Regulations companies only have to show due diligence to confirm past employment which means sending a fax 3x or sending a return receipt letter as examples.

The information listed on DAC is not always correct as most of us know and it's relatively easy to dispute items which will then be listed as disputed or under investigation, etc. on the DAC that most companies use other means for backgrounds, employment, etc.

I've noticed that on alot of company sites there is an option to verify past employment which lends to the thought that most companies don't like using DAC either. They can post any bad information they want on their employment verification and there is no means of dispute that way, unlike DAC where they are dealing with a third party.

As for paperless logs, we use XATA and our parameters are kept pretty tight. There is no room for error but it's so funny when DPS or DOT ask to see your log book and we just point to the little black box! I don't mind them so much - it does make things easier and even if we didn't have paperless we don't run far enough or hard enough to have to "cheat" on our logs anyway. In fact we love milking the clock cause we get paid hourly and mileage so it works out either way for us.

As to the government intervention - oh yes! We as a society have been letting the government get bigger and bigger and now look at where we are. They want to socialize medicine, make us as dependent as possible on government and if we don't wake up and start doing something about it were all gonna be royally screwed even more than we are now. The wife and are already researching other countries to move to - this one is long over due for a revolution. We need to downsize government completely - we don't need any handouts & we don't need government doing anything for us. We need to take back our country and our rights from the so called government and get ourselves back on track!

 

I agree completely. Life happens.
While my company does not use paperless logs, we are monitored by Qualcomm.
We are allowed to move up to 15 miles without interrupting our break to find a suitable place to stay.
This may not fall within the law, but at least they are trying to be realistic about it.

 

Exactly. Just like the company that makes radar detectors, makes radar guns for the cops.

 

This year a new rule was introduced requiring states to have drivers have a copy of their DOT medical certificate on file with the state. Once the rule is fully implimented in 2012 many drivers with a CDL will not have to carry a copy of their DOT medical certificate because their CDL will not be vaild without a current med cert on file.

The DOT is working on a national board of DOT physicians to perform DOT physicals. IMHO eventually the physicaians will eventually do a direct filing of the med cert with the state and drivers will be taken out of the equation.

http://www.jjkeller.com/downloads/9-g/9G-Feb09.pdf


Currently the FMCSA has a national database for drivers and the database is searchable by last name; or first and last name; or CDL number. Currently the database is only assessible by by LEO personnel; however, eventually the database will be available to carriers to do previous employer checks and to check for D & A issues.

There is talk of a national regulation that would require all positive drug and alcohol tests be reported to the FMCSA by MROs to be used in the driver database.

In short eventually drivers with undesirable habits that have been caught multiple times doing such activities as speeding, D & A use, HOS violations, etc. will be disqualified by the FMCSA much as carriers with unsatisfactory ratings are prohibited from operating.

Only the undesirable carriers and drivers that have safety problems. If the driver and carreir obey the HOS, avoid accidents, and operate safe equipment there's no problem. If drivers continually get speeding tickets, have accidents, and are placed OOS for HOS violations they will be disqualified the same as carriers thet have crashes, drivers placed OOS for HOS and safety defects.

The paperless logs are not the same as electronic on-board recorders. Currently Werner is the only company that uses paperless logs; every orther company in the US has either paper logs or electronic on-board recorders.

There is a bill on the floor that will require all companies to have on-board recorders in five years.

http://www.landlinemag.com/Archives/2008/Dec08-Jan09/News/hot_NTSB_steps_up.htm


http://www.thetrucker.com/News/Stor...ldmandateEOBRsforallcarrierswithin4years.aspx

http://www.ttnews.com/articles/basetemplate.aspx?storyid=22212

Drivers are advised to improve their habits to avoid being disqualified from operating CMVs.

http://www.mrinc.com/north_carolina_requires_reportin.htm

http://freight.transportation.org/doc/highway/idaho/driver_info_resc_fmcsa0606.pdf

https://ai.volpe.dot.gov/Whatnew/WhatsNew.aspx

Rouge drivers and carriers days are numbered, eventually the 1% BBRs and outlaw carriers will be history.

http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/safety-security/csa2010/home.htm

Be safe.