Chinks in the armor

Exactly. I pull a flatbed and go home every night. When I'm loading, I know what time I need to be rolling again in order to make it home legally. If they are taking too long playing tetris with the load to get it all on there and I find time running short, do I do a hurry-up job on securement and HOPE nothing falls off? Or do I take the time to properly secure the load and blow past the HOS limits? What happens if I'm on my way home and a random cop decides he wants to have a little look at my paperwork? If I was already cutting it close, this now puts me in violation. I've been in the situation before where I was cutting it close using the 16 hour exception...and once I'm past the 14th hour, you MUST make it back because if you stop short, you're in violation. Pulled into my driveway at 15:40...just enough time to post-trip and be released from duty inside of the 16 hour exception. Had I been stopped in the last 1:40 of the trip, I would've been FORCED into violation, because at that point I wouldn't have been able to make it home inside of 16 and I'm already past the 14. I was legal WHILE I was rolling, but as soon as I stopped I would be in violation retroactive to the 14th hour. Luckily, I didn't get stopped THAT day...but a week prior? Yup. Heading home on a friday afternoon and the cop just wanted to look at my paperwork. 30 minutes and a clean inspection. Had that happened when I was pushing it to the 16th hour, it wouldn't have been good.

All of this is easy enough to deal with on paper to avoid throwing up red flags. On ELD? Not so much. I'm NOT shutting down a stones throw from home, so when the box eventually finds its way into my truck, I won't be turning longer trips. Probably hook back up to an end dump working 12 hour days inside the 100 air mile radius. Revenue might suffer, but I've got responsibilities at home that I can't manage if I don't make it home, and motels cost money. My piece of mind knowing I won't be stuck 30 minutes or an hour from the house is worth a small pay cut.

 

I remember that push.

18 is too young for that kind of responsibility. Yes Im aware they drive tanks, helicopters etc but have officers who are responsible for them at all times with them.

18 in a big truck would be equal to child labor 100 years ago. Taking excessive advantage of youth's ability to stay up for days and days.

I follow this congress on CSpan daily like all the previous ones and have a strong feeling that this particular Congress is full of do nothing. Sure they will name a new federal VA clinic or throw down a bit of money here and there but actual big time laws that have not yet cleared the house, then the senate for the president to sign or not sign has been decaying for the last 8 years plus. Essentially a do nothing Congress.

There is a very small number of people in the House and Senate that decide what bills reach the floor to vote today. All other bills sit rotting uncalled to the floor. Some on purpose, others to delay for various reasons such as the recent McCain surgery to remove clot in AZ a few days ago. They want his vote in a pending bill for health care. SO they are going to wait on that one a while, they have been sitting on it over a month so far. Nothing is going to come out of that one and our current O'Care will collaspe in a few years.

I can go on. But our Legislative system has been buried in a swamp of bills to vote on and move forward on but due to a variety of leadership issues poltically nothing will move. Basically leaving Trump with nothing to sign in this first term as much as possible.

In the mean time the Federal Register added many tens of thousand of laws saying don't do this or don't do that or something else creating felons out of us Citizens everywhere each year. I wonder how in the world do they do that?

Elogs? Not everyone will be on board with this. They will do whatever it takes not to allow Elogs into the tractor and write paper logs which we all know is pretty much fiction most of the time. At some point when drivers gain rewrite access to Elogs, they will become fiction as well.

 

Don't know. I choose the Canadian HOS? How's that?

 

So I'm unamerican because I don't want a driver driving 20 hours straight on the same road as me?

 

No. you're unamerican cause you want the government to try and control someones actions that have nothing to do with you. Only to make it feel "fair" cause you're lazy and only want to work a set day.
If you're scared stay home.

 

I have money and stuff and don't want to work 15 hour days, you should hang out with me

 

Interesting theory, but the hours didn't change, so the Government is controlling anything they don't on paper. Think of it this way, instead of using crayons and a coloring book you get to use an etch a sketch. I keep hearing trucking is stuck in the 70's, moving from paper to computer is bringing the industry to the modern world.

 

I'll pass thanks.

 

Let's take DL550CAT's reasoning to it's logical conclusion. So laws against driving while impaired would control actions of another person "that have nothing to do with you".
How absurd. The moment that drunk crosses the center line - or a fatigued driver over on his HOS - suddenly has everything to do with me when he hits me or some one else head on.

 

Not every operation is the same, and the one-size-fits-all way they feds go about regulating might work great for someone doing drop & hooks with 1000+ mile hauls living out of their truck. Not so much for a home-every-night day cab running a 200 or so mile radius out & back every other day with the odd days not going more than 30 miles from home delivering the back haul and grabbing the next load out. Might have a 13-15 hour day one day, and a 3 hour day the next. MIGHT run a whopping 1500-1800 miles per week, working a total of 40-45 hours. I don't run tired...I just want to make it home again to sleep in my own bed. Because of that, I WILL resist that box as long as humanly possible, doing everything I can to delay and encourage a change in the rules to deem it unnecessary. It is an added expense which cuts into my ability to get home at night. So, unless @tucker @Studebaker Hawk @Ridgeline and the other supporters of the ELD mandate want to chip in for my extra hotels, GET THE #### OUT OF MY WALLET. Just as my right to wildly swing my fists ends at the tip of your nose, your right to dictate my business decisions ends at the tip of my wallet. There is NO real-world evidence to suggest ELD's will do ANYTHING to promote safety...just the opposite. If you're really wanting to advocate for safety, you're on the wrong side of the ELD debate.