I was wrong. E-logs save lives

The 11th hour was never meant to be used a driving miles production hour; it was meant as a one hour to find parking hour.

In today's electronic logs environment, managers are expecting drivers to push through fatigue to drive as close to that maximum 11 hours a day as possible.I see drivers on fb pushing close to 13 hours a day driving legally, trying to get up to that mystical magical 800 miles in 24 hours. Drivers get drowsy and instead of pulling over for 20 minutes and lying down, they end up crashed out in the ditch for 20 hours of emergency recovery of their equipment and possible trip to the emergency room.

Electronic logs offer no flexibility that paper logs did, where we could pull over and take a nap and carry it forward and use that time as part of our 10 later.

 

It doesn’t make any difference if you drive 9:55 or 10:55. That 1 hour less used yesterday will be 1 hour more used in the coming days. Driving three 10:45 days back to back ... so what? If that’s how the truck stop spacing lined up, then what’s the problem?

Especially in winter, when the weather is good, you roll as many hours as is granted you and especially if you’re dealing with appointments.

 

Its called "thinning the herd"

 

Who made the appointments? The planners and managers who are counting on that 11th hour of driving productive miles to make the load on time, that's who. And the drivers who accept the notion that the 11th hour is a driving miles production hour as opposed to the original intent of the 11th hour which was to find parking after running your 10 hours of driving miles production time; in the old days 10 hours was the max and drivers and companies were complaining that drivers were using the 10th hour to find parking. Government agreed to supply one more hour to allow for parking; in the years since it has morphed into using that 11th hour to make miles and now we are using P/C to find parking legally.......

 

Elds have nothing to do with it, the crap licenses system, crap drivers and the push for more to fill non-existent gaps have everything to do with it.

 

The article does not mention the HOS to be the biggest factor, not even fatigue driving. I would even argue that is something else. The biggest culprit is the distraction: smart phone being the causation no 1. That's from my observations. With it goes inexperience; a veteran driver knows much better how to play with a phone while driving...which is not to say they they should but it is true and natural, just like the confidence of backing up, driving in snow, down steep grades while icy....feeling a truck comes with years of driving it. Driving while fatigued goes along with inexperience too.

 

We Are still adjusting to ELD. I get loads that dispatch says you can make it. The ELD and traffic say no. I have load right now that delivery is for 9am, I'm still 250 miles away and can't start driving till 9am.

One group of drives says they can't drive 11 hours a day or be on 14 hours. They say the ELD and dispatch is pushing them. Ok let shorten the driving hour to 10 a day. Another group say the 14 hour limit is to much and can't make money. I think the ELD show drivers need more time to do the run. That the problem load planner or dispatch or shipper don't allow enough time.

Why not stop if someone is tired at 7pm and park till 7am. That the part nobody want to talk about. If drivers claim they are driving tired then the ELD is showing they need more time for the run. The driver could have a sleeping problem but nobody want to believe that or admit they can't drive 10 or 11 hour without a nap. Dispatch is so far off on my load, this load will be 5 hour late probably more like 6 if I stop and eat or use the bathroom. Good thing I have ELD to show I have to stop and I get 10 hours off.

 

Driver takes 3 hour nap and runs out of his 14 an hour away. Who’s fault? What’s the Carrier going to tell him? I don’t think He’s going to get a Safety award.