E log vs paper

E logs don't make you a safe driver, it makes you compliant with the regs.

 

Judging by the number of violations being written on elogs.......that's not even true in all cases!!

 

Like I said it makes you compliant. It can't stop someone from driving over there hours. It's up to the driver to stop the truck when out of hours. Whether you on paper or elog you have to follow the regs.

 

I've been running for 8 months as well. I'm on paper logs but im not OTR so it doesn't really matter. But I don't know how you don't know how to fudge logs lol. My log book class was nothing but the instructor teaching us how to fudge.

 

Your statement is contradictory, if it MAKES you compliant, then how are you able to keep driving when you run out of hours, which would then make you no longer compliant? It doesn't do anything other than save companies money on wages by eliminating jobs, elog or paper, neither one is more safe than the other in theory, and apparently in the real world. They can both be fudged, or ignored.

 

people say we have to print out elogs,
Those of us on Qualcomm can go here ,https://dhos.myqualcomm.com/dhm/ enter in our username and password and our logs instantly come into view
Or if DOT wants a paper copy all we have to do is enter a fax #, and those same logs are faxed to their office. I have never had a road side inspection, where they wanted me to print out on the spot my last 7 days. And in 7 years of being on elogs, only 3 times was I inspected at a scale, where they wanted they could print them out via the fax #.

 

I think the new drivers love the E-Logs because they don't know better. The problem with the E-Logs is the 14 hour clock. Imagine having this clock ticking over your head once you start driving,will you take a nap? Most new drivers will lie and give robotic answers how you need to plan your day. You can not put time on safety.

 

I've ran both. I prefer elogs.

 

But the gooberment and anti truck groups want EVERYBODY to believe they are the only way to make trucks safer. Its a crock of #### but what are we to do. Fudging is one thing ignoring is another. I'd like to see a guy on elogs leave Nebraska get down to OKC and then get stopped in Nebraska 18 hours later at 11:30 with 4 hours left on his log, and deliver in Wyoming at 8pm mountain time. Yea not something I see happening. BTW my log was legal when I got home that week...even after showing the inspection...least that's what's on file back at the office anyway.

Both can be fudge ignored etc. But it does seem funny that from my experience the little sticker that says driver using electronic logs seem to rarely have their books checked. Seems like evey god darn time a state boy stops me first question I get asked is can I see your log book? My answer? Wtf do I need a log book for I ain't hauling logs I'm hauling cattle I need a god durn cattle book.

 

I've been running on e-logs for about a month now. pro's and con's for sure. I wouldn't recommend them to everyone, but if you're like me in that you rarely drive over 500 miles/day it may be to your liking. The paper is a constant source of frustration for me and to be honest I wasn't keeping up with it all the time. So on the elog's I'm always current and ready for an inspection, big relief.

I did do a longer haul this week and FYI, I ran 1800 miles in 48 hrs, legal without speeding, on elogs. I don't know about everyone, but I would rarely care to run much harder than that. Some people have the idea you can't put down some serious miles with elogs, I don't think it's true. I would mention that while on that run the first morning I had to wait 2 hours for my 10 hour clock to reset, and the second morning I had to wait 1 hour for it to reset. I think some people would find that frustrating vs. just fudging the paper a bit.

There is a good amount of fudging that can be done with elogs, (not that I would ever do such a thing), but it can be helpful to be parked at the reciever or shipper in the morning so you can turn the clock on when you leave rather than before you get there. It can be helpful to log 2 hours in the sleeper at a stop so you can take 8 later for a partial restart instead of 10. Most drivers on elogs have a personal conveyance option, a fudger for example could use this option to go from truckstop to delivery and back to truckstop rather than start clock. I'm sure eventually I will find myself 2 hours from where I want to be and have to stop for 10. I'm sure eventually I will start my clock in the morning and have a golden load pop up in the afternoon and have to turn it down. But the pro's outweigh the cons for me at the moment. However, I am not forced to do elog's, so I may change my mind and go back to paper if it starts to become a problem.