Door swinging sucks

I run product for three automotive manufacturers. This is expedite freight. That load today in Defiance OH, when I got to GM Powertrain, they were just printing it off when I walked up to the window. That is how we roll, there is no planning involved, you GO!

The reason we are so well compensated, and quite frankly, the rates have been pretty good. The downside is the frustration of having this computer in the truck dictating my day to day activity. I can no longer just wake up and go, I have to sit and wait for that egg timer to tell me I can go. And I don't go anywhere, this week has been quite the bag, quite a few miles that I normally do not do. Most weeks, prior to the ELD were 1500 miles or less, now, hitting 2,000+. I'm not liking this. And I am not liking being stuck in places I never allowed myself to be stuck in when I was on paper.

 

All it means is that you don't want to, or cant, run legal.

 

I don't think anyone here is suggesting the industry isn't diverse with many different types of loads, drivers, what have you. Freight lanes, shipping times, everything is a variable and you just cannot compare to two point blank. Paper vs elog.

I've ran both... I can't say I prefer either one, especially since I adapted really quickly to elog, maybe due to my age or just my ability to adjust to change. But #### me if the way some of us talk about them isn't comical as hell... it's there to log. That's it. You don't want to park at Speedco? Don't. Go to a truck stop. It's not any different than you falsifying your logs previously...

14 hour clock gets sucked up at a shipper? And the guy next to you running paper? What about him? Is he on some time travel #### where his clock isn't moving? Alright...

It's bloody comical. Get to the truck stop and shower, driver.

 

LMAO! Dude, I am out here to make MONEY! Not to sit in a truck stop or Walmart parking lot. Thirty years out here, two speeding tickets on the Green Stamp, 63 in a 55. No accidents, one verified log book violation at the W Memphis scale house, which I got a warning for. Not bad in my book. This is the seventh truck I have owned, had my own authority and multiple trucks and drivers... Blah Blah F'n BLAH. So, what is your story Sport?

 

Today, 40 miles to a truck stop the I had time, 80 miles round trip, I BUY the fuel. Last night, Lowes, as I blew through the 14 hour clock and had to be right back to where I delivered, and was still 2.5 hours late for my 0500 appointment, even though I was ready to go at 0400 when I woke up.

The other night, no truck stops for probably a hundred miles with a shower. Most of the time there just isn't one. I'm not out here OTR, and that is what most of you guys are thinking. When I get a load, it is normally 100 miles or less, now explain to me how I explain this to my dispatch and the customer that I am an hour late? I had to stop and take a shower? BS, that is not gong to fly. Trust me, if there was a way, I would have found it. Must be nice to live in such a perfect world, unfortunately, I'm just not there.

I can live with the ELD, it is the HOS that is driving me nuts, and the fact that we have had to change our entire operation to revolve around this stupid F'n computer bolted to my dash.

 

I don't, I run freight, the ELD is an annoyance because we have had to change how we used to run to placate the stupid computer. no more naps, no more 14 hour breaks, now it is go go go!

 

And if you were on paper you'd be able to take a 14 hour break....?

 

You only have to change now because you didn't change in the last ten years to comply with the rules.

 

Hell yes! I always did, unless there was something pressing. I would park at night, get up, grab a shower, sit down and eat breakfast and text dispatch that I was ready... Then the race was on! I might work 18 hours straight, but it was an easy 18 or even more, because I was WELL RESTED. Now, ten hours and the load is there, and it is go go go until I ether blow through the 14 or there just isn't time on the clock to do another load.

The only saving grace with all of this is that the rates are up quite a bit, the gross this week was up there, but I had to buy more fuel to do it then I normally would. The net was OK, but the fuel costs, as the loads are now longer... I don't know, the jury is still out. I miss my 1200 mile weeks.

 

I use that instead of showering now.