ELD Are there any silver linings

Ummm I go back to the days of do p@d work all day and then dispatch wants ya 400 miles down the road the next morning ..can't say I miss that .

 

There is too much scrutiny on professional drivers already. Most of this scrutiny seems to serve only the purpose of arbitrarily enforcing petty rules to generate fine money and fill the state coffers. Fined for a burnt out light bulb or a truck an inch too long? Come on! No such scrutiny exists for everyday drivers who have the potential to create just as many accidents, and, in fact, do create more public danger. Yet we as professional drivers are made to live under a microscope in the alleged name of public safety. There is something amiss here.

To add a minute-to-minute surveillance of drivers---aka " ELD " is not only unwarranted and prejudicial, it's unsubstantiated by statistical data and a possible constitutionally protected privacy violation. The ELD is the HOS regs on steroids.

The HOS regs toss every driver under a single umbrella regardless of circumstance, health, age, historical need for sleep, ability to perform, natural circadian rhythm, difficulty (or ease) of the particular driving type, and a number of other conveniently ignored arbitrary factors. The HOS are designed only as a fabricated deterrent for private industry that competes with the big transportation lobbies and a profit-generating device---aka "fine money".

The ELD manifesto is the latest effective iteration of unnecessary legislation. It is the oppressive enforcement of foolish laws that will effectively reek havoc with an already difficult profession by singling out our most valuable transportation resource---drivers.

 

I was the guy that swore I would hang up the keys if I ever had to run e logs. I could run two or three log books with the best of them. Then about 5 years ago I saw the writing on the wall, and knew if I was going to remain I. The industry I was either going to have to adapt the changing industry, or find another occupation.

At first I absolutely hated e logs, there is definitely an adjustment period, but I wouldn't go back to paper. On a few occasions I have had to get out of a company truck and get into a rental, in those cases I have had to go on paper, and absolutely missed my w logs. Just my .02

 

Every truck I own has an ELD and every truck makes money. ELD didn't stop or lower the revenue, but actually seen an increase.

Go figure.

 

Our opinions often differ, but in this case...I couldn't agree more. I too use to hate e-logs. I did everything I could to avoid them, but the company I was working for at the time forced me into using them. After a couple months, I got to the point to where I saw them as a plus, not a minus. And like you would hate to go back to paper.

Logging to the minute instead of the 1/4 hour, exact position detection via the machine(very usefull out west where towns are few and far between), 0 calculation errors, less scrutiny by DOT as far as random logbook checks...and basically a way to keep the company from forcing you to run when you can't do it leagally (years ago, not a real problem, but in today's lawsuit happy world, not a chance I like to take anymore).

As far as the tracking of the driver...if you have a qualcomm/peoplenet...you're already tracked. Have a cell phone? Again, your position is trackable. (Unless you pull the battery after every use). @quatto, the rules are there for a reason. Could you imagine the carnage out here if these 'training' mega's were allowed to push their new hires to the point of exhaustion? Unless you're 100 yrs old, the rules have been in place since b4 you or I sat behind the wheel for the 1st time, knowing that, you still chose to work in an occupation that had those rules in place. What's next...OSHA is trying to end the small business man's dream? Manditory vehicle insurance is just another scam? But if you were ever hurt on the job or hit by another vehicle, the OSHA regs and insurance laws then become a good thing.

OP, you might be confused about how GPS systems work. A GPS unit, even those units hanging in peoples car windshields, are not "talking" to the GPS satellites, they're not transceivers, they're only receivers. They are pinpointing a location based on multiple GPS satellite signals, then use that location to display a location from an internal map database in it's memory. Based on what I've read, the new ELD units use that location along with data from your truck's ecm to verify movement. And it's my understanding that these logging services that drivers use are a storage facility for the log info that the units send them so that the logs are accessible by law enforcement in case of an audit or accident...just like they are now, only they're digital instead of hard copy.

Bottom line, manditory ELD's will only hurt the drivers who like to run illegal. The rules are the same as they are with paper, and along with the ELD mandate, they also passed an anti-coercion law that has some teeth keeping companies from threatening drivers if they don't run illegal. And that law has already been enforced on several companies costing them big fines and civil restitution awards.

 

It would be helpful if you guys running the e-logs would disclose what brand of technology you are using. The field is getting pretty full with a spectum of choices from very low cost/feature to high end, expensive stuff. Hard for the one truck O/O to decide. Just my 2 pesos... Maybe add it to your signatures...

 

I'm in a company truck, we run the XRS system. It's a little box that plugs into the service port on the truck. It communicates via wireless signal to a tablet. I'm ltl, once you log on and pretripped it does the rest. Only time I touch ithe is to put myself off duty first my 30.

 

Saw a sales unit for VDO Road log the other day, got a photo with a check book for size reference.

 

That's all just rationalization. Nobody said *all* the rules should be removed. Nobody said that the mega's wouldn't take advantage of a no-rule situation. Nobody said OSHA was bad. And the fact that rules have been in place since Solomon is not an argument that mitigates how oppressive they currently are. The rules in place no longer serve what they proport to serve--public safety. In fact, they have turned into their own opposite---they now create problems that didn't previously exist.

There will always be those companies and individuals that will try and circumvent the laws for their own greed. Most laws are made because of ONE idiot individual or ONE nasty company. The rest of us reasonable folks then have to abide by legislation that was created because ONE scary possibility exists and we all want to avoid that scary possibility.

Most laws are created because someone wants to make a name for themselves, garner votes, further a career, sue someone, or justify their unnecessary job in government. The ELD and HOS laws are a prime example of this. That, and only that, is my argument.

Of course someone is bound to offer up the specious argument that "if we save one life" it's all worth it. By that line of reasoning we should pretty much outlaw anything dangerous---cigarette smoking, drinking, prescription drugs, motorcycle driving, hunting, gun ownership, car driving,.....etc.....they all just became illegal because they cause deaths.

Professional driving has risks. One of them is that you might get tired and make a mistake. What else is new? Better....how can limiting a driver's hours insure that s/he won't get tired?

It's kinda like Trump. He makes no sense but we voted him in anyway.