A question that is NOT being addressed about the ELD..

So, for many of us, we have held ourselves responsible for when to stop and when to go, what is safe and what is not. We are indeed the "Guardians of the Highways"

The ELD is going to tell you when you can and cannot drive. Common sense would dictate that you "learn to manage your time correctly" .. unfortunately, our bodies many times have a mind of their own, and this is where long-time experience comes into play.

"A man has got to know his limitations"

An ELD device will tell you how long you can drive. It will "ping" you in real time. You can be ticketed after the fact. The factoring system will be detrimental, without a doubt.

My concern: If you are forced to stop for your ten hours off duty...whatever... what happens if you just ARE NOT tired? You take the time off... mess around.. try to nap but can't.. and then.. it's time to drive, and now YOU ARE TIRED. Your customer of which you have few (if you are an Independent) is calling you every 20 minutes and the ELD is pinging you every hour on the hour. Detention time occurred. It always does. That is a given. You will drive to keep this customer intact and to keep the duckets coming in, and to keep your good name....but.. you are not driving safely.. and an electronic device is telling you that you "must".....

Surely shippers and receivers will at some point be held accountable.. they don't want to pay anyway... and I'm sure that this scuttle-butt has a lot to do with that fact.

Throw in a facial recognition device that supposedly determines whether or not you are too fatigued to drive, and you have an accident 30 minutes later, after its approval. Hmmmmm..

Add a little roadside drug testing (Michigan Saliva test)... maybe we should be wearing an ankle tracking bracelet just like a criminal who has just been released from prison and is on parole.

Are we guilty before proven innocent.. or are we just suddenly deemed as criminals who need constant surveillance. Do not tell me that these implements are in the name of "Safety" because they most certainly are NOT. This is a corporate world, with limited partnerships. For those independents who cannot choose or have another career lined up, they will just hire on at a large trucking company, and the large trucking company will make even more money than it already is. Rates will automatically be driven up, without a doubt.

Is this constitutional? Is this America?

Do you realize how many GROWN individuals have absolutely NO IDEA what we are doing on the roads in the first place? They think we are there solely to annoy them and create some type of dangerous situation.

They have no idea that everything they own, including the ring on the middle finger that they often show you, was on a truck just like yours at some point.

I feel that this whole thing is entirely ludicrous and that our lawmakers have absolutely NO IDEA what they are getting themselves into. Our economy is already depressed, there truly is a shortage of really good, clean drivers (where an insurance company would gladly allow you to be hired)... we are headed in the wrong direction here. Disrespect just might one day turn into unbelievable respect... but I'm not going to hold my breath.

 

An eld isn't telling you crap. It's just an electronic way of logging. Going by your example, you'd be a slave to the eld. But the laws haven't changed, you still log under the exact same rules. So pretty much you're admitting to illegally driving now? Am I correct? Yes, you'll need to properly manage your time. No more trashing around the truckstop all day and giving you be up all night to make your delivery.

 

Drug testing. You have to prove yourself innocent before being allowed to drive. We gave up that fight a long time ago.

 

Everything is exactly the same. The only difference is the way the log is recorded. A paper log vs an electronic log.

 

Strange....I've been running an elog for over 5 years now and not once has it made me drive while tired.

What am I doing wrong?

 

The voice on my elog is female and twice the first month she hit on me; sure hope my wife doesn't find out.

 

No one on e-log has ever moved their truck without it being on line 3 right? Driving is driving right? Or are we going to split hairs and say that driving around truck stops, shippers, and receivers, isn't driving?

All time spent being loaded or unloaded you are one line 4 with e-log right? Your not cheating splitting hairs going in sleeper birth, or off duty are you? Your not logging your 30 while you should be on duty at the dock are you?

Cheating is cheating.
E-log is for pinheads. Mega's are the only ones that need e-log, because they have so many pinheads that cannot keep a legitimate logbook. No one wants this mandate upheld more than the officers on the boards of mega trucking inc.. But from what I've read, FMCSA has not met the burden of what the appeals court laid down.
So just maybe, the good guys will win one this time, and tyranny will not flourish.

 

And the average amount of experience of current drivers is what??? (I have one year)

Been on eLog for that time and it's really not all that bad... But I can see why some don't like the idea.

 

I dunno anything about eld's but I will say this, all states are hurting for cash and there are plenty of cash cow's rolling through their state day in and day out. Look at police confiscations, for instance near mexico the police are nailing vehicles heading west and not east, why? Because drugs come in from mexico and head east and the money returns going west.

 

The most basic problem is this.

You sleep a night, rested in the morning Pop out of bed to fix yourself up ready for a new day. Your body starts to build toxins. After about say 11 am you will slow a bit because it's lunch time. Then you will want a nap at 3 as the food processes inside of you. It takes alot of energy to process food. Then after a days work you are tired and relax. But you are still what I call "Awake time"

Usually around 16 hours the human body begins to create melatonion inside of you to induce you towards a nights sleep. We must have sleep at night because it is the way we are made. Our brains require rest to process the pile of input and take away the toxins from your system towards morning.

Now...

Staying awake fighting sleep say 30 hours straight, makes you equivilant to a drunken driver. And you will likely lose memory to boot. YOU WILL fall asleep as I did with eyes open at 60 mph or whatever it may be if you did what I have done staying awake for days and nights approaching 90 hours between any sleep with or without coffee, smokes and caffinee pills. I put lives at risk including my own.

Nothing is worth that.

If you are tired and must rest then get your rest. Dispatch may yell at you but when it's time to the minute with those electronic logs nanny inside that tractor. Park that thing and sleep.

We all have days and nights where sleep is impossible because the old logs paper will flip your sleep cycle every other day from night sleep to now requiring a day sleep then back again. One of my companies taught me that when I switch from day local to night time local I was to be off 4 days with specific orders to sleep by day so I was totally flipped over and ready when the first night load came on for me to take out for the new work week.

I turned into a total night runner rest of my time on the road. You can put away 600 miles without seeing another soul sometimes out west. No traffic, no bull no problem Rush hour? Nope, a meal and in bunk. Resting easy while a whole city rages on the road.

Even today I prefer night ops to day time.