Log Books and illegal driving or unsafe driving.

Your post isn't 100% right.. You said you can only be on duty 14 hours in a row.. That is 100% false.. You can be on duty from now until the end of time.. and you will never be in violation..

Until you move that truck..

and yes the government is trying to screw us.. These rules were written by Regulatory bodies.. not congress...Which big companies are consulted on..

Other than that I agree with you 100%.. I am the captain of my ship and I don't move if I don't feel safe and rested.. These young guys out here saying.... The company made me do it.. are idiots.. Just go to bed.. take your breaks... and be a #### man about it when you get caught doing something illegal.. You knew it was wrong to drive 20 hours straight.. yet you did it.... If all the other trucks were driving off a cliff would you? Stupid people are every where.

 

yes I got dot'd the other night... and he had me go through my elogs.. show him all my stuff.. then he said where is the paper back up... I pulled out my paper log book he looked in it ... Said its blank.. I said yeah.. the computer is workin....He smiled and said most drivers get mad and think they screwed up...

But yes you have to have paper logs in the truck.. just in case your elog goes down.

 

I disagree with one part of your post.The government isn't trying to screw us,they done succeeded.They'll just keep screwing us.Can't wait to see the next set of laws they'll be implementing.

 

Personally, I think the HOS is just a way to even the playing field so that slackers and people who should not be driving can have a job. If the law stated that drivers had to run more than 450 miles, but no more than 550 miles a day, you would have the drivers on the high end screaming in anger, but drivers on the low end whining about being forced to drive.

450 miles.

Thats 7.5 hours in the slowest truck. And you have guys that cant do it safely. Video gaming and TV watching when you were supposed to be sleeping. So, how can they make you sleep? Putting cameras in your truck? Or how about making a contraption that plugs into the Qualcomm and your sleep apnea machine that determines how much good sleep you got before it allows you to drive?

If BigBrother mandated 450 miles a day, and monitored a sleep meter, for "safety", the companies would go out and buy big house sleepers, and put 3 slackers in it, and make them split $.30 cpm. 3 drivers in a truck and they still wouldnt see more than 3500 miles a week. How much money do they make?

When I pulled a box, the average driver pulled in $1000/week. They put 2 drivers in a truck and both together may make $900-$1000/week. Put 3 in a truck and all 3 together will make $900-$1000 a week. A win for everyone, but the driver.

It's communism.

If it WERE about safety, they would go the opposite way. It would be boot camp style in driving school. They would run you hard and see who'd crack first. Prove yourself durable, and you get your CDL. Wipe out slackers completely. Trucking companies would send scouts (instead of recruiters) to the schools. And they would throw money at you, "Swift is offering you a $20000 sign on bonus!" "CR England counters Swift's offer with a $25000 sign on, plus $2/mile loaded or empty." Drivers would run for a season, then they go home.

If its about safety, you'd require better drivers. Knock out the slackers at the start, and the bottomfeeders lose their lifeblood and start forking out the money for quality drivers. They would have to in order to stay in business.

It was the ATA who did the big push for the HOS. Dumb down the laws, and give a dummy a job. If instead of doing the 11 and 14, they went to a 16 hour day. 16 on, 8 off...what would happen? Overnight, all the bottom feeders would dissolve all of their teams trucks. 1/3 of all drivers would be obsolete overnight. Pay rates would go up (supply and demand...the demand would be for the driver that can do 16 hours and deliver safely $$$$$$$). If they went to a 16 hour day, it wouldnt matter if they made elogs mandatory or not, would it?

"16 hours? Thats not safe!"

Some states have their Intrastate HOS set at 15 hours drive time a day, and their CDL age range all the way down to 16 years old. So, what's so unsafe about 16 hours?

"But what if a driver gets tired?"

Pull over and catch a nap. Do you really need someone to hold your hand?

 

We know it's not about safety and protecting us from companies.If it were then why aren't FMCSA going after these companies.Look how many get sued every yr for running illegal practices against a driver and other companies are getting sued for the same thing.So why isn't the law shutting these companies down.We get busted for something illegal and immediately we're put OOS and in some cases the vehicle gets towed.But a company goes yrs without anything happening.We know these laws are all about revenue.Like you said,we don't need no one to hold our hand.All these laws are one size fits all laws.Where are laws to protect ONLY the driver.What about the csa score,how long are those points on the drivers record and how long are the points on the carriers record?

 

Screw the laws.....I'm gonna do what needs done and worry about potential problems as they arise. When I'm tired, I sleep. If I need to rewrite history to get somewhere, I'll do it if and only if I'm not tired. As far as worrying about being fired for being late, because you are tired, its time to find another company to work for. BTW, before y'all burn me at the stake for my beliefs, I run local, so the HOS isn't really an issue. I rarely work more than a twelve hour shift. But when I ran OTR, I never had a log violation- ever. And I was only late a handful of times, but I was ALWAYS well rested....

 

I'm well aware that we need to keep paper back-up logs in case the e-log goes down.

What I said was that it is illegal to RUN both e and paper at the same time.

So you can't be using e-logs and be writing a paper log as a 'backup copy'.

 

As long as the two match up I don't see where it would be illegal. It might make the DOT ask a few questions as there is no real reason to do so, but I never have heard or read of anything where it is illegal to do this.

 

Yep, elogs are going to save the trucking industry, but just in case, keep paper logs, which we've used for 30+ years. No problem there......

 

My fleet managers called me "Boss" and there is a reason for that. We are in charge of the truck and the truck makes the money. I was never pushed around and I was always firm. Be a boss.