ELD IS GOING AWAY !!!!!

The extra two hours in 14 to drive, 70/7 vs. 70/8, more flexible rest rules and additional items like deferral in the Canadian HOS vs. U.S. HOS make a huge difference. In my experience, far less creative logging occurs north of the border vs. south.

 

I'm just glad that 98% of my work is north of town. I've only had to cross the 881 scales twice in 5 years so I'm doing pretty good there. Trick is to find a bright purple or neon green Peterbilt gravel truck to follow through the scales. The CVSE are on those guys like flies to ####. They know they'll find something wrong in either the logbook or mechanically (if they're lucky enough for the officer to not spot the fake driver's license first!)

 

Do you have any actual experience with Elogs, or are you just guessing? Lol

Yes, the ELD only automatically puts you on driving and takes you off to On Duty, but only if you don't manually change it, but it is more accurate because it records to the second, not to the 15 minutes, and since it is much easier to push a button than pull your log book and pen out, the other status changes are likely to be more accurate as well.

As to the On Duty time at home, I know Peoplenet has an app that lets you go on duty or off duty, and I believe the web interface also allows this change.
I have not looked, but I imagine Qualcomm has this possibility as well, and so should most of the ELD options.

And if you start up your truck, you can modify the cab temperature before you add the on duty time into the terminal! lol

Shaving 15-30 minutes off your log is called Log Falsification.
It is better to drive 20 minutes over your hours to get home, and explain why you went over, then trying to hide it.

This attitude is one of the reasons for the ELDs mandate, because this bending the law is so common.
And to many drivers, an "extra" 20-30 minutes a day is pure gold to them, either because they are addicted to "One More Mile", or to try to make unrealistic dispatchers happy.

I have never had to go over, but it is not uncommon for me to have less than an hour left on either my 11 or my 14 when I get to the next stop, and my dispatchers are pretty good! Lol

In any case, most drivers are in a position where they can make more miles or gain hours illegally by using paper logs, and so the mandate is for everyone to use them.

And you have just admitted that switching to ELDs would constrain you within the law more than paper logs do, so you are a case for the mandate!

And while we can agree that an extra 15 minutes to get home isn't likely to cause a safety issue, it does cause a job and financial safety issue when you are breaking the law to do it.

Again, the real issue is needing to rework the HOS rules themselves, so that we can work better while staying within the law.

 

Repeat after me...

ELD's are NOT about the safety.

 

Let's not waste a lot of forum space on that again

 

That is the driving force behind companies choosing to switch to elogs, and it has always been companies pushing for the change to anything other than paper logs, back to the first rotary paper chart Automatic Recording Devices, and just progressing with technology.
Think how ancient the technology for the early Qualcomm devices was, back when it used Sat-phone to communicate, since the cell networks were mostly non-existent.

This progression of devices being developed, allowed, and adopted, has all been driven by the big companies.

BUT!
Now we have a new twist, and that is making the new devices the mandatory way for everyone to log with.

This is now possible because of the current state of cheap technology, combined with the power of the Cloud Internet services, making it so that you don't have to have a server and IT staff to run elogs, so it just takes a small investment to get started.

While the big companies may be in favor of this mandate, the real reason behind the mandate is that it makes it much easier to enforce the HOS rules.
This is why the big carriers are wanting it, so that everyone has to abide by the law, thus leveling the playing field, thus coming back to the point that if a large percentage of drivers weren't trying to squeeze more hours out of the paper, there would be no interest in the big companies in making others adopt it.

 

Maybe the megas could then further level the playing field by giving all of us their tire, oil, battery, and fuel discounts. But I highly doubt that's the type of leveling they'd agree to. Again, Big Business and Big Govt conspiring to eliminate competition.

 

But they will increase safety, when the people that usually fudge their logs now have to drive a legal number of hours, and thus are less likely to be driving fatigued...

 

Bull crap

 

They get those discounts because they offer a large volume of business.
You can get them too if you have a few trucks running to those businesses.

My current company has maybe 150 trucks, and we get fuel from Pilot and TA for 2-3 cents per gallon over their cost. I doubt Swift gets much better than that lol

And most of the people complaining about the ELDs are not competition for the megas, since there is still lots of freight the megas don't want!
Most of the mega freight is big accounts, good runs with very limited empty miles, and that leaves a ton of stuff for the small companies and independent drivers.

But half the trucks on the road being able to drive more miles, thus more miles per driver, because of paper logs, that does make a difference for everyone who runs legal.