10 hours not the issue

Lol nope...turning your truck around should not matter not once. Even in creep mode. I'm on a 34 now, and I'm parked in a reserved spot. I didn't pay though lol.....it should not be a big deal if they come out here and make me move as I'm not working. Thank goodness for the limited PC time and notations though.

 

Who says I can't move? The HOS, that's who. Every time I start the truck the time and gps location is recorded. If I stop the truck more than 50 feet away from it's previous location, it can be detected. Any lawyer worth their salt will be able to prove that the only reason their client rear ended me is because I was violating the HOS.

On the account I'm working, we park our bob tails in the employee lot. I put myself into yard move to move over to my trailer, then couple and pretrip. This trips the "logging audit" software as not having done a pretrip. I was told by a safety critter to just "creep out of the POV lot, that won't throw a violation". The way that I am logging is less illegal, but more visible, than what the safety critter advised. I'm always amussed (or enraged) by my conversations with the safety critters. Most of the time they can't see the flagrent violation of the HOS, but they will catch you on ticky tacky stuff all day long.

I know how to cheat a paper log, I know how to cheat an AOBR, and I know how to cheat an ELD. FMCSA has decreed that short phone calls from operations doesn't violate a 10 or 34 hour break, but movements of the truck do. I spent an hour this morning stocking the truck for the next week. I made the bed, stowed the laundry and groceries, vacuumed and wiped down. I had a 30 minute phone call with OPs. None of that is recordable and is arguably not a violation of the HOS, but had I moved my bobtail 50 feet over to the clean out station, I would have definitely violated the HOS despite the fact that it would have taken 15 minutes less to do the same activities.

PC and Yard Moves are not legally defined. Their existence is dependent on "interpretations" which have become more expansive over the last 2 years. 5 years ago PC was generally limited to bobtail movements, and you had to return to the previous park location (can't advance the load). Current "interpretations" seem to allow moving loaded trailers, but there is no basis in law. If you can show me a definition of 'Yard Move' in the actual regulations then I will treat you to a night on the town in Green Bay followed by a regular season game at Lambeau.

My point was that it's easier to hide all the little violations with a paper log and it's easier to flense a driver over minor issues on an ELD.

 

You're right, it shouldn't matter. But it does.

When we were testing ELDs I was saying that their implementation was going to have a huge impact. The office folks said "logging to the second will actually save you time". 8 months after the fleet was transitioned to ELDs they raised the governed speed to 65 MPH. It wasn't due to CMS reducing crash frequency, or the 'increased fuel economy' of the new trucks. It was due to the reduced miles/day caused by the ELD.

We first tested Yard Move on a dedicated account and they found no difference in truck efficiency. The lawyers were ecstatic as their is no basis in law for 'yard moves'. Then they tested it with me. One truck. The data they got off my truck showed that Yard Move was going to save the company millions.

Creeping at 2 mph for 10 minutes is a much bigger imposition than the 3 minutes it would take to get turned around if you don't have to worry about speed. I can do the latter without 'breaking' the HOS, but if I do the former my hide will be nailed on a wall. On a paper log we don't have to worry about any of it.

 

I don't necessarily agree with that. You're talking about various generations of truckers. How can this generation of truckers take it up the ### if they never knew what it was like before elogs? By the way, if you're still driving, and using an elog, then you're just as much apart of this generation of truckers that took it with no Vaseline.

 

Wow!
You guys crack me up! Whatever... carry on!

JD

 

I don't know man. I don't feel any less free on an elog than with paper. My ability to make money hasn't been compromised. Ok so I can't cheat the logs no more.....big deal. That's really what it's all about anyway. I don't really see a huge difference in pay based on logging technique. Where is see the difference in pay is the amount of freight my company has and the way they plan loads. To me, that holds more weight than the logging technique I use. Slavery? The Berlin Wall? That's totally different. Going from paper to electronic is minor. It's simply, the world evolving.

 

My dad's company would have the driver's call person-to-person for Mr. Williams, who of course was never in the office. Austin, the boss would call back at regular long distance rates.

 

Remember phone "credit cards"? It billed the call to your phone number. That's how my dad called home, like every third day or so. I talk to my wife more often in one day than my dad spoke to us a,whole trip!

 

Personally I think we just had more ability to run at your own pace and style. Yeah we were able to cheat w multiple books but more likely, for me anyway, it was a way to show you got your rest without having to prove it. Then you went about the trip till you got tired and then you rested. You were able to show legal bunk/OD time despite the hours you actually slept.
I'd regularly leave MN at midnight to get into Chicago before 6am. Show getting there 10 hours earlier and now I had a fresh book.
Seems now everyone is either running like a banshee or creeping across the lot to not go into drive mode. Yrs ago it was a way different job with much more freedom and less scrutiny. Gotta roll w the changes.

 

I think the way the job has changed is the major cause of so many drivers (actual real drivers) getting out.
It is just no fun in it anymore.