Would you quit if forced on eLogs?

Absolutely they are. But right now a 4 wheeler isn't regulated like we are. In fact, I'll bet you every policy maker out there would fight tooth and nail if any type of goverment regulation was started to regulate driving time for a 4 wheeler. I live in South Florida and everytime there's an accident caused by a retired senior citizen that includes a fatality, people start calling for more testing of the seniors and having their driving privelages reduced. Because of their clout in the state goverment nothing is ever done.

When was the last time you heard of a 4 wheeler running into the back of a church van and killing 11 people? Or a mini van ramming another van and killing 7 people? The first one happened in KY last year, and now because of that accident they are pushing for a nationwide ban on cell phone use, not in 4 wheelers but in commercial vehicles. The second one happened a few weeks ago in In, god only knows what will come out of that.

I travel I-95 every Saturday and Sunday, I see what goes on, between the 4 wheelers thinking that the I-95 interstate sign is really the speed limit sign, and a lot of these trucks being driven just like a 4 wheeler, it's no wonder I have counted 132 white crosses along the highway from Richmond VA to Fort Pierce FL. And thats just on the southbound side.

 

I would wager that there are more people killed by 4 wheelers than a big truck. In fact, there are many more accidents involving 4 wheelers than trucks. Make them use EOBR's. No more than 4 hours driving time in a 24 hour period of time. All must have a physical every 2 years to prove that they are physically capable of driving a 4 wheeler.

 

then i would lose 2 days on the road

 

Only if your willing to pay overtime

Othereise it will be three after the supervisor approves offsite labor, a portalet, adequate food and water

 

Here is the deal, I have been doing just fine for 10 years working paper. It takes very little time out of your day and is not hard to deal with. I don't need some electronic device to tell me if I am doing it correctly or not or do I need an electronic device to do the job for me.

I know how many hours I can run a week and how many hours I can run in a day. I know when I have to be shut down and don't need a device to tell me when it is time to park.

Heck I don't need or use a GPS other then to check my speedo against it.

Some of you elogers act like log books are rocket science or something. A 4th grader could keep track of paper logs.

Not all of us work 8ish hours a day. Some of us work a little harder then that. Sometimes this causes us to push against our aloted times a little. Dealing with traffic, unexpected road work, weather etc raises some issues with me and an electronic log. Not to mention that unexpected stop to drop a duece or feed a hunger pain or that unexpected headace etc.

Some of us have to to 650-700 mile days and have tight load and unload times.

Fudging 15-30 minutes out of a day does not make me any more unsafe then you guys that run strictly by the book. I actually think it makes me safer because I can slow down a bit, not drive like my hair is on fire and still make my scheduled load and unload times. I can leave a little earlier, drive a little slower, stop and drop a duece or have a sit down meal and not have to hang over my steering wheel while trying to snarf down a cold sandwich or some nasty crap out of the heated glass case from a truck stop. If I am driving through a town and notice a car that is for sale etc then I can actually stop and talk to someone about it.

I can make it home at night and spend some time with my kids and not have to call them from a stop somewere 45 miles away to say good night to them.

Not to mention that we have temperature sensitive loads and they don't do too well sitting for 10 hours in our trailers when the temps dip down to -0 degrees. We don't run reefer trailers, we have small heaters in the trailers but they can only keep the temp above freezing for so long.

We don't get to pick and choose our loads if we want to keep our jobs. My boss does not get to pick and choose were the loads come from.He is under contract to haul the product. If the plant wants raw spuds from 350 miles away then he has to send trucks out for it. If he looses the contract then we are out of a job. Simple as that.

It is not like we have 3 days to cover a 1000 to 1500 miles.

Sure I could go off duty, log personal use and drive the rest of the way home but then I would have to get up and drive back to were I went off duty at before I could restart my day. That is usually 45 miles out of my way and a waste of my personal time. Would much rather log off duty closer to home and have my ten hours at home rather then use part of it up driving home and back again in the morning. If fudging 15-30 minutes off my driving time does this then so be it.

As far as guys getting on other drivers for fixing small issues with their trucks. Well it is not hurting you so it is actually nuya business. You guys can keep running around with burnt out lights and non functional tail lights waiting for an opertune time to get it in a shop so you boss can pay highly elevated shop rates with minimum shop times being an hour no matter what the job is. Just go ahead and keep spending your bosses or companies money but I don't want to hear all the whining when you don't get a bump in pay because you spent too much of the companies money fixing little crap that could have been done in 15 minutes by yourself.

 

Explain how it contradicts itself.

 

I quess you don't get it. One of my regular runs takes me from the far edge of eastern North Dakota to the far edge of western ND and back again. I base about 40 miles north of Grand Forks. This run takes me to Williston ND to load at a potato warehouse out there. I then have to beat feet back to Grand Forks ND to unload then back to base. The odo in "my" truck reads exactly 701 miles. The truck is governed to 68 mph with new rubber on it. right now it runs a tad over 66 mph with some wear on the drives. There are a few towns that you have to slow down to 40 mph for not to mention some hills to contend with that scrub speed off especially when loaded 105+K.

I like to leave way early for this run. I take my time and run just under 65 for the most part so I can make the trip without having to top off the cut down tanks on the truck. They cut them down to install a pusher axle. I like to stop in Minot for a little break also. I have tried to log this as I run it and I ran like my hair was on fire the whole way. Had to stop in Rugby ND and add fuel on the way back. I was beat when I got back to GF and felt like I had been running 20 hours. And I was still over by about 25 minutes when I parked the truck at base.

When I slow down and take my time then I feel like I could turn and burn back to Williston because I am far less worn out. I am not hammering the throttle all the time to excellerate as fast as possible. I am not playing ricky racer trying to weave through traffic in some of the towns so that I can make the lights and don't get delayed any further. I am not hammering on the truck trying to hold some type of speed in the hills.

Another trip takes me from base out to near St Cloud Minnesota then back to Jamestown ND then back home to base north of Grand Forks. Again, if I drive like I am on fire then I can just make the run within my 11 hours. Just barely. But then I am wiped out on the trip back to base. If I slow down and take it easy then I feel good when I park the truck.

I am just saying that Elogs are not the end all to problems with driving a truck.

I am not the type of guy to try and do 800-900 mile days. I don't like the idea of trying to drive a truck when I am tired and fighting just to keep 1 eye open muchless 2. I don't push my logs that hard really.

I have been doing this particular job for over 5 years and have yet to have an accident of any sort.