Transition to EOBR

Let me put it this way it is mathmaticly impossible to run 100% legal. You let these folls tell you otherwise if you want to I know the facts and so does OOIDA they have lawyers too and they won't lie to you about elogs call em up and you'll see why so many drivers are stuck on stupid.

 

I will say this you cannot run legal and make the same amount of money as before and if any one of you knows the law you know this fact. IF we all did that rates would go thru the roof which is why the CEO's want these boxes so badly and when I say CEO I mean the large company CEO I know of one company that by the way is really small that removed them.
The large company owners want to bury the little guys with regs they can't handle and soon oh about 10-15 years there will be fewer small companies because the large companies are using the government to do their dirty work for em. It's called bribery.

 

So, by your own admission, if everyone ran eobrs, rates would go up and we would all make more money running less miles AND not have to be stressed about getting caught. This is bad because................?

 

Dude, that tin foil hat needs work! You gotta quit buying the cheap stuff... it's letting those evil Eeeoberrr Waves right on through!

 

they told all commercial fisherman on every coast in this country they would have gps sateliite intervention by the goverment back in 1995
by 2007 the goverment implemented it
fisherman refused.... goverment said ok fine we cant make you do this
but you cant leave the dock if you dont

elogs will either get you or you will get out
go along or be dragged

 

do you know what a mirror is try looking into it

 

AfroBat, I see that we drive in the same neighborhood. Anyway, you are wrong sir. I made good money running 100% legal last year, the year my company changed over to e-logs. I hated paper logs and I'm glad it's gone. I say good riddance to it.
I'm responding to your post for the benefit of the new drivers out there who are reading this. You don't have to cheat on your logs to make a living as a driver. And I do it in one of the most expensive places to live in the country.

 

I will concede, quicker than most, that even on e-logs, I am not totally legal regarding every definition of the FMCSA regulations. But that being said, I am not doing anything different than I did with paper, at least the last several years on paper. I didn't break out the calculator and do goody stuff with dividing total miles by speed limit and then drawing a driving line. Did some of that years ago, but even on paper, the last few years I pretty much "logged it as I did it", with only little tweaks like rounding up the start time to the next 15 min line or rounding down the stop time to the next 15 min line. And on both paper or e-logs, I only show 10-15 min loading/unloading at customer and other on duty stuff, except dealing with LE, and that gets the full time. It is the on duty time I really fudge on if anything. And for an LEO, it is the hardest to prove. There is no regulation that requires each and every minute, being on customer property, as on duty time. Only the loading / unloading and doing work. I have, legitimately, taken full breaks at a customer because I got there the night before the appt. And even a few times, taken a break on customer property after unloading / loading. It is the time I show on duty doing something that gets tweaked. I have no problem admitting that.

So, I have not actually had a net change in anything since going to e-logs. It just saves the paper and makes things easier. But it has not really changed much of what I do. For those that weren't doing extreme things on paper, it would only be something minor. For those that really play the creative game with paper, it would be somewhat difficult to change over. Guess that speaks more to the individual than the logging method. One thing that has changed as a benefit of the e-log, is the way freight gets planned and booked at my carrier. That has really gotten efficient and streamlined. That, more than anything, lends itself to being more, or at least as much, profitable as ever. The logs, paper or e-log, will not MAKE someone better or more legal. There are advantages to each and each can be tweaked to one's advantage.

 

Part of your contention is correct.... there is no way to be perfectly legal by every word of the regulations all the time and in every situation. But for not making as much or more on e-logs than on paper? It all depends on how "illegal" you were on paper to begin with. Read my previous post. Going over to e-logs has not had a negative effect on my revenue or net.

As for the conspiracy theory that all these carrier CEO's just want to bury the little guys in regulations, I don't buy that idea, in total. Sure, some of the mega carrier CEO's are trying to knock out the competition, and the ATA and TCA have their own agendas, but a lot of carriers went to e-logs purely out of efficiency, compliance, and legal challenges. One thing an e-log will do, is force someone to run things more efficiently or go bust. It saves time and manpower in recording, keeping, and using logs for compliance (which saves money), and it can help in some form of legal dispute, both criminal and civil challenges.

True, there will be fewer smaller companies in the future. At least with general and refrigerated freight. But there will always be a need for the smaller operations in niche markets. The big carriers are like big ships. It takes longer to change course if you are big. The smaller carriers can adjust "on the fly" a little easier to meet a specific customer need. And it is this same reasoning as to why many carriers like to use lease on owners. I can, for instance, tweak and change how I operate my truck and make subtle changes like ECM tuning and component add ons easier and recover costs faster than a fleet can. I am willing and able to do things that make my truck more efficient to operate than a carrier can. So some carriers assume the slogan "why try and reinvent the wheel?" They prefer to handle the major issues and leave it to the truck owner to tweak things for maximum efficiency of operation of the truck itself. Makes sense.

And lets not let the government off the hook here. The primary reason that most small business' (trucking or not) are quiting, being bought up, or not starting in the first place, is because of the political class itself and it's desire to nanny everyone. Some of that may come from the mega carrier lobbying these folks, but they would probably do much of this on their own. It is the nature of government to expand as far as it can and control more. The founders warned us of this.

 

My carrier doesn't have governed trucks but they have a corporate speed limit policy of 65 mph . Since we have e-logs they get a speed violation every time a driver exceeds 65 mph . Safety is getting very disturbed that 95% of the drivers violate the speed limit policy .
We also now get daily safety messages in our e-mail. I sent the corporate safety manager and head of the driver retention department a message that I pay attentionto the safety messages . The most recent messages were on keeping a safe interval from the vehicle you are following , the 65 mph speed limit , and vehicles in the " no zone " .
I told them the most frequent cause of haVing difficulty maintaing a safe interval and having passing vehicles in blind spots was driving 65 mph in a 70 mph zone . Vehicles were always passing then cutting in leaving at most a 2 or 3 second interval .
I then presented a challenge to them . I challenged them for the next month to drive their POV the way they expected their drivers to drive . They were not to exceed 65 mph .
When passing a truck going 63 mph they were not to exceed 65 . Going down a grade with a semi on their tail they were not to exceed 65 .
They were also told to note how hany vehicles passed them and what percentage of the time they were able to keep a 4 to 6 interval ahead of them .
I also told them if they keep pushing this speed issue they are going to have a problem with retention and recruitment . Our drivers won't tolerate being rolling roadblocks and drivers that have passed our trucks will never apply . Applicants will be drivers that have completed their year at starter companies .