JCT

Well i guess if you don't like elogs...I guess it's time to find another line of work.

 

I was wondering does JCT put you on eLogs?

Ok but seriously, you shouldn't see a drop off in your miles if you know how to plan a trip. It's just unfortunate the number of drivers that cannot plan a trip. I get the pleasure of coaching drivers that cannot do so. It's easier to blame an eLog than it is to look at what you may be doing wrong and change it. I know it's hard to believe but that's part of your job.

 

Easy for a driver to plan a trip, but what about the companies that plan the trips and set the appointment times. How does the driver plan that?

 

I'm struggling with that now, it's a harder sell to make the dudes and dudettes setting appointments understand that there are HOS. So back onto the driver to say "I can't do that", then when the dispatcher says "sure you can" the drivers response should be "please transfer me to safety".

 

I'm going to take these last few entries on this discussion as an E-Log debate, not a JCT debate. I am a company driver through and through, I've been one for 30+ years. I have absolutely zero ambition in this stage of my career to try a L/P. In 30+ years of driving I am now at my third company as a driver. So I'm quite sure I have something to add to this E-Log debate.

My company has had E-Logs for 2 full years now. I mainly run from the house (South Florida) to north east PA (Terminal). I run on average 2800 miles per week and always leave the house with a fresh 70. I occasionally run to the west coast just for a change of scenery, like I have done this round since leaving South Florida on Monday November 28th. I will keep this short. I left the house with a fresh 70. I loaded in Perry Florida with a load going to Exeter PA. Total miles.....1310. 1 p/u, one drop. I then loaded the same day that I emptied out. 1 p/u in Binghampton NY, 1 in Pittston PA then 2 drops in Portland Or. Total miles.......2970. When I got my last drop off I had 35 minutes left on my 70 hour clock, just enough time to get to Jubitz for my reset. When I got loaded in PA I knew then that I would have just shy of an hour left on my 70 hour clock. Total miles for the week.......4280. Done with E-Logs, legally. How you might ask? Trip planning. It takes about an hour to figure out where to fuel along the route, where to end my days and where to take some breaks along the way.

I then loaded in Ontario Oregon going down to LA with 2 drops. Here's where it gets tricky. If I reloaded the day I got empty in LA without a reset, then I would have needed one here in PA in order to get home this coming weekend. Instead, I took another reset in LA, Loaded on Saturday and am sitting at my receiver here in PA to unload in the morning. I also got my reload info to go home with tomorrow for Christmas.....Total miles from LA to Pa to the house, 4050. How you might ask? Trip planning.

By the time I get home Saturday morning I will have been gone 3 days short of 3 weeks and ran a total of 9575 miles. All done with E-Logs, legally. I had 4 days of 715 miles per day, how you might ask? Trip planning.

My point to all this is simple, if you plan your trips you can run with E-Logs, legally. One last thing, I know you guys at JCT run produce back, well so do I, in fact I had the pleasure of spending my reset in Jubitz with one of your drivers. Real nice people, he and his wife. Our trips out west are on even tighter schedules than our produce loads. The biggest thing with us is our dispatch dispatches us to work within the HOS parameters. If we tell dispatch we have the hours to run then we run, they do not want to hear that we don't have hours after we tell them we do, the last thing they want to do is run around trying to repower a load because a driver can't add and subtract his hours properly.

This is just my take on this E-Log debate. In 2 years of using them I have not seen any decrease in miles or pay.

 

Will try to adjust and tuff it out for a few months. Maybe miles will come back up, adjustment for office people too. Can't ask me to run 1000 miles over night any more. Computer will not allow it, and yes i have done it/probly not any more. The one good side is I do feel better now that I am forced to take a real 10hr break, hopefully the new year will bring better miles...and ## too smart #####

 

I did that to the safety dept once and they said, the log book says you can do it.

Safety also answers to the owner.

 

Then it's time for a new company.

 

3 of the last company driver positions were this way. Not unusual if 3 out of 4 were this way.

 

Guess the world needs more "me's" in it.