EOBR Electronic Logs - Good or Bad

Ive been on the mcp 200 for over a year now.
Heres the good
1) don't have to sweat it going through scales.
2) It figures your split sleeper birth provision for you.
3) You can move around the shipper or receiver slowly and it will keep you in the sleeper or off duty.

The bad

1) Be carefull when you start your 14 hour clock.
2) your screwed if your running short on hours and you hit traffic, accident, etc.
3) your dispatcher may call you after looking at your logs complaning about taking to many breaks, why your not moving, and so on.

Have fun with your new E-log.

 

Yup... agreed. Love the free pass at the scale house.

Paying attention to when you start vs where you want to end up at, planning your stops - and including alternates within your time limits, and being aware of how your 11/14 hour clocks are doing vs where you are in relation to where you want to be are all important. You can't really push the envelope any longer, and there isn't a way to rip the page out and start all over - you have to be on your game the first time.

The sooner you know you are running out of hours, the easier it is to crank up the speed to deal with it. My carrier won't hold going over your 14 in exceptional circumstances (accident, weather) against you. They want you to call the log department so they can annotate the circumstances in your log file.

That is a crappy way to do business. There will be some micromanaging of drivers who are always late because of goofing off/poor planning, but if this is happenning to a driver who is doing things right its time to find a different gig.

It's a whole new drivin' world ya know!

 

If I call saftey they will change it. Example- I get done driving for the day and I forget and leave it on duty while Im doing my post trip, and I wake up in the morning and see that I have been on duty for 10 hours, when I wanted to be in the sleeper. They will change it back to where I was in the sleeper for 10 hours. Nothing illegal about that. They will not change your drive times, or the 14 hour clock, or anything like that. We can't do any editing ourselves. They will only change an honest mistake. If you drive over your 11 or 14 you will get a nasty message on the Q.C, and if you keep doin'it they will send you down the road.

 

I never sweat going through scales because of logs....
I have always pre-planned all my trips, when and where I will stop for fuel, for breaks, etc, I always call shipers to know about the load, parking, overnight, etc and never had problems figuring out my hrs on my own... and never had log violations.
My dispatcher and load planner are awesome, don't push me and don't force me to run illegal.
So far, I don't see any advantage with this electronic log.
Ive always communicated with DSP and load planner via QC texting. So, now it's going to be a real hassle having to park every time I need to ask something or read something....

I was told by log lady that will not work. She told me to do just the opposite, rush and then change status to lines 1 or 2 cause if I go slowly, and it takes more than 7/10 of a mile, machine will put me back in line 3...

Fun?? Yes, maybe I will have a lot of fun when I toss this thing (figuratively) through the window and quit....

 

So, tell me ironpony and rachi, do your QC let you read and type msgs while driving? I heard some companies still allow that but eventually, they will not, because of this law that forbides use of any communication electronic device while driving...

 

Yup... ours are still enabled. However, the reg regarding texting specifically exempts on-board satellite communication systems.

 

We have to pull over to read it or to type a message, although you can listen to the message as your drivin' down the road.

 

Just say no

 

Personally...I call then Nanny boxes. It's what they are. The companies hire people,put them in a 75000.00 truck,hook it to a trailer filled with cargo up to 1 million dollars worth, then say "by the way,we do not trust you to log correctly, or obey the speed limits, so heres your nanny to keep an eye on you for us."
Sorry,but I just don't buy the justifications used for this.