Effects of the ELD

And the rise of TQL, they want a tracking app on your phone, if you say no, you face the phone call every two hours.

 

Throughout my years, I've only been given the opportunity to catch my log up a couple of times. Been shut down way more. Hell, I was shut down at a mobile scale on 93 outside of Kingman running team with my wife because I was lazy. All my fault. The zero policy now is most likely because of the ELD's, loss of revenue stream.

Why is it no longer pay the fine and run like hell? I'm not sure, but I thought a drivers csa was only affected when you were being inspected?

But I do agree on your last statement, shippers and most companies have relaxed the hot load bs. However, I am amazed at how many driver are allowed to be solar powered these days.

 

The only time I ever got shut down was because I broke my own rules. Wanted the buffet at the J on the west side of the scale in Butte. That's back when it was an independent one. Dude got me on the 5th day back, speeding after the fact.
While he's F with me, this salt & pepper female team pulls onto the scale, they don't even have a log book between them.
He tells them go down to the J, get their act together, then he closes the scale and goes home.
Yes justice was meted out that day.

 

A lot of the big brokerage firms are doing this.

Back in the day I was almost always given a chance to get my log book current as long as it wasnt more than 24 hours behind. I got a lot of written warnings over it but very few tickets.

As for csa points, any time you get a warning or ticket it adds points to your csa score. It doesn't take more than a couple violations to give you a very high score. With a high score you practically make yourself unemployable. This effects independents less than a company driver or an owner operator leased to a carrier.

Maybe I'm wrong but I believe that, along with law enforcement being pushed to focus on hos, is the main cause of shippers backing off the pressure on drivers to break hos. It also matches the time line of when the big and midsized carriers implemented ELD's. I don't think that's just coincidence.

The amount of trucks being solar powered is just a by product of the current hos, specifically the 14 hour rule.

 

I still think e logs are a product of the mega's preaching log as you do, but dispatching hot loads constantly, ripping off fleace ops, so they ran too hard without the skill level to do so. They bring in street urchins, and the DOT just got tired of the constant F up log books.
Then at one mega summit meeting, somebody scratched their head and said, " You know we can make this work for us."

 

I think many of us aren't looking at this properly. I say us because I feared the elog at first too. Here's my POV:

There's legal weight limits put in place, yet people disregard them. If you're heavy and the scale is open, detour around or wait for it to lock up.
Speed limits are in place, but with detectors and the radio, you can run it until you know you're coming up to that bear.
Noise levels are in place, yet people have unfiltered exhaust stacks (not just trucks either).
And so on...

So now we have what MIGHT be an elog mandate. The easiest way to avoid it right now, go buy a pre 1999 truck. That's our way to avoid it.

In the end, people will find ways to cheat. Some do it for the money, some because they look for that adrenaline rush, maybe some because it's been that way since great grandpa started.

 

the mega carriers want cheap drivers. so they imported them. they can't log so they adopted elogs. the elogs dictate with a hard copy record when these guys drive and stop,so their ability to get the job done suffered.

so their answer is to put all of us on them,so we can all be "equal" in service. a few exceptions had to be issued to make this work.

i was at a costco delivering a couple months ago. i rolled in about 3:45am and the receiver met me outside and told me to back in. she walked ouit to a swift truck to tell him the same. i backed in,and 10 minuites later the swift driver comes in and says when he releases the brakes the screen on the dash says he is in violation.

he was awake. standing around,same as me. but he couldn't back his truck in.

apparently i should have had a warm feeling of safety wash over me,that this driver had to wait 3 more hours-awake,mind you-till he could back into a dock,because the machine knew how unsafe it was for him to back into a dock. so much safer to stand around for 3 hours. this is the type of service failure this stupidity brings. not the white pill popping mad crazy outlaws that some try to paint to make a point.

as i drove away,load delivered early,i reflected on what happened. obviously,i,a mere cupcake,was in the presence of a real man.

 

He could have docked, it wouldn't flip duty status for that.

 

That doesn't happen in personal bankruptcy because court settlements and judgements are set aside in bankruptcy as one of the hands off items that can't be written off.

This can also apply to LLCs and depending on the circumstances corps.

I had something like this happen when I had another business, the accident wasn't the issue, my employee sued the driver of the truck who was at fault, and I was named as a co-plaintiff. When the case ended, before the judgement was announced to us, this guy was filing for bankruptcy. The federal judge denied it because of the pending judgement and the loss of the case itself, stating that he could not avoid a settlement.

 

as has been stated before,its not really the eld that's the issue. its the asinine HOS rule.