"Are you sure you wanna do this?", said everyone. 6 month update.

What does plugging in an ELD have to do with all that? Or did I misread @Midwest Trucker? Seemed like he was willing to put the guy's truck on and the dealbreaker was Omnitracs.

The reason that driver declined could be one of many:

- He wants the freedom to falsify his logs. Maybe a little, maybe a lot. Who cares? I don't judge.

- He doesn't want to be tracked. Some folks have a fear of that.

- He doesn't want to give up that little bit of control regarding his time and whereabouts.

- He could be a technical Luddite like my Dad, who is 74 yrs old and can fabricate/build anything. But put a smart phone in his hand you may as well be handing him a live rattlesnake.

He'll find someone who will accept the risk associated with his needs, and go to work there instead. Eventually there won't be anyone willing to accept that. By that time, maybe that dude will have retired anyway. It's a change in the industry just like every other change before ELD's became a FMCSA wet dream.

I've made the decision to go with an ELD equipped fleet, but with pre-DPF power for the reasons you brought up with your T660. The ELD is the path of least resistance with respect to compliance, and makes me a low blade of grass for the enforcement lawnmower.

If you want to run even older trucks so you can exploit the benefits of paper logs, along with accepting somewhat greater risks, whip it on. That's your business. Everybody does it different to suit their needs.

 

What does headlights, emissions. ECM have to do with ELD? New trucks are junk?

Midwest said he understood why the guy wanted a ‘99 engine......ie he wanted to violate the HOS. I know you understand there are more benefits to an older truck than that starting with.....but not limited to....the ones I listed.

pre 98 chassis no ABS reqd
Pre 95 engine no speed limiter reqd
Pre ?? Driver rewards on the ECM
Pre ?? No ECM at all
Older truck cheaper insurance
Older truck cheaper plates
Older truck cheaper parts
Yes some but not all of the benefits are Lost with a glider.

Yes you could get some of those benefits with 2000-2003 Power but why would you limit your resale when they offer no benefit over a pre 2000?

And now you’ve gone and done the same......that is you state that if a guy has a “older” truck it’s obviously because he want to violate the HOS rules. The truth is there are many reasons to drive an Older truck and I would argue they are more important than the perceived benefit of violating HOS. But continue to perpetuate that story line. Even though I have never had an HOS violation and never drove around a scale in my life until ELogs. Now that we have ELDs though, I avoid them wherever possible because the DOT cops think like you guys and are determined to write the outlaw a violation for anything.

 

Well said. Exactly how I feel and what happened.

@rank RedForeman said that as many different reasons not THE reason. I feel like your being a little sensitive and jumping to us being haters or something.

 

For the record, I have no beef with you not taking the guy on.

 

Take it easy LOL. I didn't say why he bought a glider with an exempt engine. I said that is one of four possible reasons why installing an ELD on his exempt truck would be the sole dealbreaker of an otherwise attractive offer to lease on. Different premise. It's got nothing to do with how much headlamps or aftertreatment costs. That problem got solved the moment he took delivery of the glider. I'm focused only on the rationale of his business decisions that depend only on whether an ELD or a loose leaf page is required for timekeeping.

I'm serious when I say I don't judge. That said, I refuse to tiptoe around people that want to do something and use faulty logic to rationalize it or call it something else. I personally was not in favor of the ELD mandate for the loss of being able to fudge here and there when minutes made a difference between a service fail, lost reload, and costly unplanned idle time. See? I said it. It's not that hard to just be honest. In for a penny, in for a pound, it is what it is. When it comes down to the nut cutting, what I did is treated just the same as my neighbor that carries around 7 days of off duty logs and just drives whenever he feels.

Really, I'm not jealous or really care all that much how you or anyone else records duty time. Nor am I someone that paints everyone who wants to run an old truck, or on paper logs, as some kind of criminal. Sorry if you thought that.

 

I don’t fault the business decision either.

There’s no tip toeing around the fact You could put a Elog on a ‘98 truck and still be better off than with a new truck.

Think what you want but the Eloggers have it easier than paper loggers now anyway. I wonder what DOT man will say when I log PC on paper

 

I actually got better contacts via Big Rigs & Trailers for Sale group on FB. For the truck I sold, that was ultimately where the buyer came from. You'll still get a few less than serious buyers and scammers, but overall not so bad. Not sure, but you may still be able to get your first ad free on Truck Paper too. Worth a look anyway.

 

For some reason I thought this was a done deal, being that you're selling the MC# and everything. What's the scoop? Why are you selling? Details on the truck?

 

OP, care to provide more details on what happened?

This is completely up to you, of course.