Do you feel elogs should be mandatory or optional?

I've got a '96 N14 Celect Plus (Red Top), sitting on the floor of my shop, waiting to be rebuilt, already. There is no need to run out and buy a whole NEW truck. Just update what ya already got. It's not that difficult or expensive.

 

Dang right. There ya go. If you do have an autocar like your name is, than I wouldn't want to give that truck up.

Ethan

 

If thats what was happening.. it would be nice.. but its just as totally fabricated as the rest of the anti-OBRD rants.. People were not stopping to rest, they as a majority were working off the clock, and of course just pushing their work day in several days and at the same time killing themselves and other people. The truckers became weak victims unable to tell the boss "NO" and they cried and cried for the feds to come help.. Well, they did. The first thing they did was a major sleep study using DRIVERS... they came to the conclusion that the old HOS were killing people.. not today, not next week, but the fatigue levels of drivers were effected to the point that they were dangerous. You free work folks can claim all you want that the old rules made it easier to rest.. I'm calling BS,,

 

Get rid of the STUPID 10 hour rule and the 14 hour window. I'll buy an EOBR tomorrow mandated or not.

 

Id be happy with just getting rid of the 70 hour rule. I stay out for 20-30 days at a time. I usually do 2-3 resets. I can't stand sitting still for this long.

Ethan

 

Please post this sleep study with the conclusion that drivers were killing people. I wanna have a look... Please please post. Come on, now... post it. Who came to this, 'conclusion'? Who conducted the 'study'? When? Where? What was the data pool? What were the conditions?

I'm calling BS

 

Then you're simply being foolish... If you want to pretend that these changes to the HOS were done on some whim, knock yourself out.. Truck drivers already beleve that they can work outside of everything inclucing physics so the continual tantrums are nothing new to me.

 

I never had to push to get somewhere inside of a 14 hour window under the old hours...I could take my time and see the sights along the way...made plenty of stops to visit family & friends while on my way to wherever because the hours I spent off duty never counted against my work day. Anymore, if I want to do that, I have to lay over for the night because that stop would push me past the 14th hour before I'd make it up the road to where I needed to go. Even under the old rules, I never had any problems telling dispatch I was out of hours and needed to take a break if I was out of hours or feeling like I needed to stop for a while. That is up to the DRIVER to do. If the DRIVER chooses to run illegal, he has no room to complain that he's being run into the ground...it was HIS choice.

Before I bought my truck, I had a fellow company driver get on my case about how much time I was logging on line 4. I showed ACTUAL load & unload times...logged everything as I did it....LEGAL. He said I shouldn't be logging more than 15 minutes for loading or unloading and should log my driving time at 64 mph....all the while complaining that he hadn't had a day off in 3 weeks. Who's fault is that? You make the CHOICE to log illegally...showing bare minimum time for loading & unloading and log according to how many miles you drove rather than how long it ACTUALLY took you to drive in order to "save" time in your log book...which allows dispatch to send you on that run over the weekend when I'm sitting comfortably at home relaxing taking my 34 because I was too close to 70 hours to do anything else. I have no sympathy for those who screw themselves out of their "personal" time by giving it to the company.

Everything is a choice. Either you use the log book to benefit yourself, or you use it to benefit the company. When you log 100% of the time you work, you are getting paid for everything you do...and you are guaranteed not to have to put in more than 70 hours per week. When you CHOOSE to falsify your log by showing less time than you actually worked...running multiple books...whatever...that is ALSO your choice, NOT the company's. Don't blame dispatch...YOU have the keys to that truck. If you choose to run illegal, it's on you and you alone.

That is why on the very rare occasion I run illegal, it is for my own reasons...for example if I need something in town and I wanted to stop at the store on the way home to pick up some groceries or whatever else I needed instead of going home, getting in the pickup, and driving 20 miles one-way BACK to town to shop at the store I just drove past on my way home. If that puts me over my 14, so be it...I'm going home. I will NOT falsify my log book in order to get that extra load. I will NOT falsify my log book in order to satisfy the dispatchers desire to have the loads covered...like they say, poor planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine. If I don't have the hours, I'm going to tell you I don't have the hours. I'll run my truck within the scope of the regulations, and the freight will get there when it gets there...and my log book will show it as I did it. If it takes 10 hours to load, that's 10 hours I just spent on line 4...I don't "give" away my time. If I can't make enough money working 4 or 5 days per week, I need to rethink what I'm doing.

So I don't want to hear about drivers "not stopping to rest, they as a majority were working off the clock, and of course just pushing their work day in several days and at the same time killing themselves"....THEY were the ones who made that choice. The fact of the matter was the old rules DID give the drivers more freedom to rest as they felt they needed it....but it was still up to the drivers to make the choice to do so. These new rules try to FORCE rest by limiting the driver's options to take a break if/when needed during the day, and then making the mandated "rest" period so much longer than necessary that a driver spends a couple hours in the morning sitting around waiting for that 10 hour clock to expire before they can hit the road again.

The current HOS are a joke, and have NOTHING to do with safety.