A question about ELB's

The dummies I work for. The elog updates ever half an hour. The system hardware is one thing. The service plan for the system is another. The service provider for the elog system a monthly fee. Like your cell phone. So they have to log into the website to get a live view. There is only one elog system out there I like. It doesn't require a subscription to a website. And there's only 2 ways for companies to view the hos or graph. Either it's got to be faxed,or the truck has got to be at the terminal to be downloaded. It is sold by peterbuilt dealers. I think it's around a $1000 for the unit. It a plug and play setup. Comes with the printer built in to it.

 

still marks the grid.

 

I love E logs... There are plenty of ways to maximize your driving time like mentioned already. I don't feel it s a set back at all.

 

My company has our elogs setup to go to driving after the truck has rolled 2 miles at speeds above 4 mph. When you stop the truck(even before you set the parking brake) you can change your duty status. When you stop driving and park and shut off the engine it automatically puts you on duty until you change it manually.
I only ran paper for a short time, but I like elogs...my company can see them from the office, but they don't try to micromanage me...if I was on paper they would still want to know my available hours each day...this way I don't have to report to them.
There have been a few times when I have wished for paper, just so I could squeeze in a few extra miles, but really it's not necessary to fudge anything.
The times I have had inspections the LEO's just take a quick glance to make sure there are no HOS violations, and off I go with a clean inspection.
For me the benefits of elogs outweigh the benefits of paper any day, I can run a lot of miles, and no cheating or worries about violations or even honest mistakes...

 

I generally don't mind elogs, cops don't dig into them like paper and it saves me some paperwork each day. Ours log everything down to the minute, it doesn't automatically switch me over to driving until the truck goes 7 miles, there's no speed limitation on ours so as long as I'm within 7 miles of my delivery I can run in there on sleeper birth and save hours. If all else fails there's one fuse off the battery you can pull them elog and gps tracking are both disabled and revert to paper.

 

I can also pull the plug on mine or log out of the system altogether and then it doesn't log anything, except it does flag my location at my last change of duty status...so if I drove unplugged from the matrix for any significant distance and logged back in at a complete different location, it could raise some eyebrows in an inspection...I carry paper for backup but I'm not supposed to use it unless it's an emergency...I can also log line 5 off duty driving IF it falls into the criteria set by HOS regs, but I have to notify safety before doing so.

 

Lots of ways to cheat it too. Time for a 30 minute break? Pull over 5 minutes before the exit and log off duty. Roll up to off ramp and confirm it is still offduty. Roll into truck stop, some 8 minutes have gone by now. By the time you pull into fuel island 12 minutes, hang a hose on your catwalk to make it look legit, run in and grab coffee and come back out 22 minutes. Get back in saddle and head back out on the interstate. 29 minutes at the onramp. Pull over on the side again til the box says it is OK to go.

The big thing I hate about it is what if you are at a dirt lot customer for 5 hours and the truck stop is 4 miles away? Have to finish your 10 right there instead of rolling over 4 miles and getting a shower/shave/hot meal. Plus once you start your 14 you are committed. On paper just roll over there and start your 14 when you get your next load, maximum efficiency.