Do you feel elogs should be mandatory or optional?

best answer so far ! X2

 

FYI: Not just drivers either. My former dispatch team was caught going in to the QC and making hours so they could get the iron and drivers back for a flip and get their bonus.......

Didn't nothing happen either, a brief NO NO boys and a new password on the system....pft! what a joke.......friggin hypocrites !

 

Ditto . . . No way I would ever run e-logs. . . or the 'electronic leash' . . . Qualcomm was bad enough

 

No e logs for me or 62 mph rolling road blocks I've turned down a number of jobs because of it....

 

E logs has made me a better driver and time manager. I wouldn't know how to act if I had to go back on paper. I would just have to adjust, but it would take a min or 2. I think it makes company's get their act together and the driver doesn't have to work miracles every night trying to get a late load some where on time. I did sometimes see those loads as challenging my self. So I made it fun, but sometimes pride sets in and it becomes dangerous because you are pushing your body beyond the limits. Here's my last few day's on E Logs since home time. I will say in the two years I've been on them. This is probably the best start. Truck is governed at 65 but I set truck at 62 and 63 to keep out of the hammer lane passing all the lease operators trying to save fuel.

 

I feel they should be optional .Yes ,you can rack up decent miles for the day even driving a governed vehicle but at what cost? Every other day I was fighting fatigue that could easily be fixed with a power nap and did not have enough time to stop and stretch or go for a walk, mostly due to 14 hr rule. You can advocate E-logs till you get into a faster truck and have paper logs, then it is a different story.

 

Got a chuckle there. I understand no one wanting these things, but it looks like none of us will have a choice if the government follows thru on the mandate for Elogs in the Highway Bill. Funding for the government to regulate it is still up in the air, but it is virtually here. Only option will be to leave trucking altogether.

As for 62 mph truck, I run about that speed. Now the truck will do somewhere around 135 mph on the top, but that is stupid. I like keeping as much of my money as I can, so running like the wind is not my style. I will let all those with choked back 65, 70, 75, 80, etc truck run on around me so that they will feel good and stroke their ego. Keep in mind, at 70, I am turning around 1600 RPM, but I am only in 16th. I still have 2 gears to go. Naw, I just never had that feeling of running with my hair on fire. I like my high 7 mpg fuel average. I ran that way with paper also. Nothing changed.

And I have made, and kept, more year over year since I have been using Elogs. I am sure it isn't directly attributable to that, it probably has more to do with loads and such, but Elogs have not hindered me in making a decent living. They just aren't that big a deal.

As for running fatigued and not getting that power nap? Why not? You have 11 to drive in that 14, that leaves 3 hrs in which to get that "power nap" somewhere, or a couple of them in that 14. I do it occasionally. Doesn't hurt me a bit. And with the new HOS, if they stay in effect, you will have to stop for 30 min sometime before the 8th hr driving anyway. When I want to take that nap, I will try and combine other things with it, like getting shower and other things. That way, if doing everything I happen to rack up a 2 hr off duty, then an 8hr sleeper later is all I need. Schedule is not interrupted. At least if the load is planned right to begin with, and that is the driver's responsibility as much as anyone in an office. And getting a shower after a nap in the afternoon is easier since there is usually showers open at the truck stop and you don't have to wait around.

We could go round and round using examples one way or the other to support or condemn Elogs. But for those that really want to, they can make it work very well with little disruption to their lives. Except for those that want to run truckstop to truckstop and waste time messing with Mary Jo Rottencrotch in the restaurant.

 

As long as there is a 14 and 10 rule, there will never be an electronic logging device in my truck! My body is on a clock not a logbook!

 

should depend on the drivers driving record

 

Let's all hope that the Elog mandate in the highway bill dies an ugly death. Otherwise, none of us will have a choice in the matter except to park the truck, turn it into a lawn ornament, and kick back on a lawn chair and watch the world go by.