FYI

There are no new rules; CSA2010 is using the existing rules that have been in effect for years. CSA2010 will hold the driver accountable for their mistakes and hold an employer accountable for hiring or using irresponsible drivers.

Mike M.D. You apparently missed my sarcasm. I support the idea and understand that it is all about keeping records. That it will eventually target and reduce the number of crappy drivers and carriers on the road. That will in the long run "Reduce revenue from enforcement" Please reread my post with that in mind.

 

I believe by the end of 2010, there will be no affect to the carriers at all. None will be closed by it, nor will they be fined any worse than they are now.

Government will not lose the cash cow.

 

You know what i dont like about 2010? Now the government is apparently pressuring all the big carriers into paperless logs. For a long time, werner has been the only national carrier with paperless, and the cops thought it was not possible to cheat them, and so they usually don't bother to look at them. Looks like soon most national carriers will be paperless. They have to look at someones logbook!

And then, since paperless forces you to log basically EVERYTHING, what happens if it takes me an extra 5 minutes to find a truckstop to sleep at, and i go over my hours by 15 minutes because of the way my log system works, and the DOT does a level 3 on me in the week after that? It's definitely a violation, and probably wont fall under the exemption. Thats going to be a ding on my record. I know someones going to say i should have trip planned better, but guess what? Lets say i started driving at a time (i dont feel like doing any math right now) that makes me run out of hours at 11pm. You know that most truckstops are full at 11pm. The easiest way to avoid a violation as a solo driver is to simply stop driving at a very early time, but most of my loads are very tight, and in such a situation, i probably wont be able to stop before 9, and most truckstops are going to be full already. Lets say i already found a couple of truckstops to choose from when its time, and that i started trying to shut down early. Well, theyre all full, and the first one i can park at is that one that takes an extra 15 mins to get to. And even worse, since i got off the highway and probably spent several minutes looking, if i wouldve just waited longer to stop, i wouldntve run out of hours? (lets say it was a rough day and im running out on my 14, cause i always put myself on line 1 or 2 as soon as i pull into a truckstop, depending on what im doing there...)

 

None will be closed by it because the government could tell they were going to go out of business regardless and didnt want to waste the money on doing it themselves.

 

The nice part about the 14 hour rule is that it can start any time, and the earlier you shut down the earlier you can start. The driving hours are the same, the 10 hours breaks are still only 10 hours, and if you shut down at 6:00 pm, when there's room at the truck stop, you can roll again at 4:00 am and still arrive at the same time. Running to 11:00 pm and having to sit until 9:00 am doesn't make sense to me. There are always exceptions based on distance and appointment times that I'm sure all will point out, but they are the exceptions. If you plan your work you can plan to shut down earlier.

 

You make a very good point but the fact is there is still a HUGE lack of enough parking out here regardless of what time of day it is.

 

Nice to plan the work, but a failure when the load planners set up the schedules. They have no clues.

You have to deal with each company and their problems.

 

Whenever possible I start my day at 0400 local time with the intention of shuting down between 3:00-4:00 PM local time. I make adjustments as needed to accomodate pick-up and delivery times, somestimes starting later and sometimes using 8 hrs. in the sleeper to make it work. The split sleeper allows me to return to my early drive times very quickly.
When able to shut down that early I have never had trouble with parking. I spend 90% of my time West of the Mississippi, if that makes any difference.

 

I try to, but its hard because all werner loads are scheduled very tight, and most of mine are not loads that take multiple days to deliver, so i can't always do that.

I like it when i end up running at night and im parking at 11am instead of 11pm...so much easier!

Also, werner expects you to use all of your available hours every day, unless you arent loaded in a way that lets you. or the fmcsa requires you to (too tired, etc). I've sent quite a few qualcomm messages to the effect of "Shutting down early because not many truckstops in area". it was just fine to them. Usually thats because i planned to check for parking in several truckstops that are quite a distance apart because of being in an area without many, and if i end up shutting down at the first one i still have kind of a lot of time on my clock, but who knows if the others have parking?

To tell you the truth, i have not had any "real" log violations in the last 2 months. I did have one for excessive line 2, i had a correctable but very obnoxious one for sleeping where i did not have a signal, and a few where i forgot to sign the log before midnight, which is not correctable and very friggin annoying. I've also pretty much run between Illinois and the east coast, and most of my real violations happen way out west...



Hey, i was reading the FMCSR on the EOBR. I noticed something dumb....if the carrier or driver is found to be abusing the system, the carrier or driver can be forced to run paper logs. Is it just me, or are paper logs universally easily fixed? Why dont they give us stone tablet logs? Cant be edited.

Also, i am planning on buying my very own volvo cabover soon. It will not ever be equipped with sattelite technology or an eobr.