Oh what fun! Elogs

Trip planing

 

there is no way to plan a trip if you dont know what obstacles you may encounter. Traffic, weather, shippers and recievers, breakdowns, inspections, fuel lines, shower times parking, and so on... I plan deliver times and make it on time everytime. regardless of all these obstacles (except mechanicle issues). but day to day trip planning is not possible.

 

People will always want to evade the laws governing this industry and will always look for a way to make them unworkable.

Fact right wrong or indifferent they do what should have been done on paper logs.People's ability to easily falsify that record is what they want to maintain.

 

I want to make sure I understand what you are saying. Basically you're saying running legal all the time and always running on time are mutally incompatible.

 

can you plan and guarantee an 1800 mile trip in three days? it should be easy I could do it no ploblem, but with the 14 hour rule, if I have a weather issue today or an issue with a shipper or reciever I may only make it 400 miles. tomorrow I make my 600 and the next I make my 600. now im late I have 200 more miles to go. cant do it today even though I planned it. the only way to make this trip is to go over on your hours and make up for time lost in the snow storm. I used to make multiple pickups in LA and bring fresh Produce Back to Montana. A stop that should take a half hour could take three hours you just never knew. there was no way to plan it..

 

Did your time start before arriving at the shipper? If yes then theres your 14 if no it wont unless you changed status. same principle as paper just you cant back em up more than about 3-4 hrs a wk

 

I've worked for CRE and now Swift. If you listen to people on this board these two companies - and the othe mega carriers - would expect you run illegal or fire you in a heartbeat if you are ever late.

First, almost every load has a little bit of slack. Second, at no time have I ever been held accountable for weather, shipper, mechanical or traffic delays. In those instances the delivery has always been rescheduled. There has never been a reason for me to violate my 14.

 

You are right, there is NO GUARENTEE that you will make your 3 day trip on time. There is NO GUARENTEE in life except death. Sounds to me, and I may be missing something here, that you are taking all the responsibility on yourself as the driver. We as drivers guarentee based on NORMAL cercumstances, not bad weather or traffic backups that are not forseen. If you find yourself in one of these situations, you simply call and let your DM/FM know as soon as possible. It is in their hands now, we cant control the weather or traffic so why should we be held accountable for those things. I don't see what the problem is here. I ran E-Logs and it did not effect me in anyway, except in the beginning while I was getting used to them and learning the ways of the program.

 

Sadly, I drove for one of those companies that matched logs and all.

There were NO EXCUSES for a late load. This includes a road closed by the snow.

We parted ways rather quickly.

 

Roadmedic,,I would part ways as well if I was ever given grief concerning something I had no control over. I believe in having great communication with one's dispatcher and things should always go smoothly,,,I say should.