Why CSA 2010 and E-Logs are a good thing.

Well I guess we're supposed to be impressed? Like Mr Volvo said, if that's your cup of tea, then go for it. I'm pretty sure we didn't ask you to go back to paper logs. So why is it your thought that your e log is our cup of tea? Hey, you do your thing, I'll do mine. We'll het along just fine, but that doesn't mean your way is what's best for anybody else. It initially was brought forth to as the CEO of your beloved US Xpress, "to level the playing field." Because we all know every truck and driver and situation and freight is identical. These paper log guys ate going it illegal because they are the dregs of humanity.

 

if they're running over their hours, how do you plan to make them work harder?

 

i'm serious. I would make a bet that the majority of "safety people" in trucking companies couldn't even get the truck out on the interstate a mile and yet they dictate to their drivers how to do their job. Kinda makes sense like reading up on how to run a marathon and telling someone else how to do it even though you couldn't even get running shoes on. Makes sense to me. I love the dispatchers who can't figure why you're not already thru Chicago because it's only this far on the map. Meltom, God bless ya for doing your job but after reading your posts on here, I honestly think you yourself don't believe this hog wash.

 

I'm talking about two separate groups of people, hard workers (aka violators) and lazy people. So it's hard to make a lazy person work harder, but it's easier to reign in a violator.

Telling someone how to follow regulations, and to expect people to cut you off, not speed, or drive too fast into that cloverleaf doesn't take first hand experience. All you have to do is understand regulations, check, and have common sense, check. I don't tell people how to do their jobs, I let them know when the violate their HOS. Part of those rules require companies to make sure y'all are following them. The extra bonus I get to do is use the OER data to see when drivers slow down suddenly or make the Roll Stability engage. Then we contact them. This should go without saying, but apparently you've have bad experiences, we don't tell people how to drive we just have them explain what caused the situation. Conversely we could not contact the drivers and just put all the claims back against the driver. I prefer my method.

 

Throughout this discussion he has said he doesn't think they should be mandated for everybody. At the beginning he didn't like them but now he does as they seem to be working at the company he works for. I could see how a company with over 100 trucks and drivers could like E-logs and EOBRs as it makes the employee's job easier. At Smaller companys E-logs would be a nightmare and unneccessary as they don't enforce safety nor compliance with HOS they just help track violations which supposedly the software DOT uses during an audit is so good they can catch any time you falsify your paper log. So if E-logs are just for "tracking" violations or spotting them "easier" then the bigger companys can have them and everyone else can keep the paper since we can track the same on paper. So other than being easier to track violations there seems to be no reason for E-logs as they have nothing to do with safety nor compliance since drivers can violate on E-log or paper just the same. I hate to toot my own horn but TOOT TOOT!!!!!!!

 

Are you still on this "I have yet to hear a concrete statement that proved elogs make you safer"? NO ONE HAS EVER SAID IT HAD ANYTHING TO DO WITH SAFETY! That has been repeated post after post. No Elog or any other device can make anyone safer. Only the driver can make things safer by how they do things.

Elogs do allow a company to see how things are getting done within or outside the regulations, but they primarily make logs easier for record keeping purposes. A lot of this Elog thing by companies has actually saved a lot of man hours, misplaced logs, etc. Elogs are just a tool. NO ONE IS WATCHING! I had a discussion about this recently with the higher ups at the company. They are not spending time and wasting resources watching everyone. Unless something gets flagged by the Elog, no one even knows what you are doing. It isn't this "big brother" game that some feel that it is. It has come about, with a lot of companies, mainly as a better way of record keeping for compliance ON THEIR END. They have far more to lose with CSA than individual drivers and they have to cover their rear.

Some of y'all need to sit in the office and try to decipher the goofy writing on some of the paper logs that come in. There is a lot of time wasted trying to figure out what is going on. Just because you understand your logs as you are doing them, doesn't mean that it is easy for someone in an office to understand what you are doing. And they have to be able to explain what is going on if they are in an audit. That wastes a lot of man hours just trying to get thru that mess.

 

I think the main complaint most have is the mandate to force everyone who owns a class 8 truck to install elogs. I have no doubt that it makes checking logs easier for the carrier. I also have no doubt that it is much easier to read something on a computer than some of the logs that I have read. If a carrier has thousands of trucks it may enable the safety people to do their jobs much easier. It will do nothing to make roads safer and that is one of the major selling points that the proponents have given to push this legislation through congress. It will also do nothing to provide a level playing field for the industry. That is the other reason these supporters have given for forcing everyone to install elogs.

Eventually, the government wants to be able to check logs without even having the truck to stop at the scale. They want to be able to drive up beside the truck, tap into their computer and see if the driver is legal or not. I could care less if anyone wants to install elogs in their own trucks. My problem is the mandate which forces me to purchase something that will do nothing more than can be achieved with paper logs.

 

if its about legibility, DDL and Eclipse work wonders

 

i agree with the eclipse logs i havent used it but one of our drivers is using it and he swears up and down about it and he gave me a quick demo of it and i must admit i like it so much im condisering it for my truck considering i have the lap top wireless internet all i need is a printer and the software and im good to go

 

Go on the DOT's website and look at the trucking companies SMS reports that run E-Logs. Those that have E-Logs have virtually no HOS violations. THAT'S why they do it.