ELD for safer trucking

100%

 

Yeah the whole personal responsibility part is what made it go away, it's the 2/3 rule, 2/3 of people in this world are to stupid to wipe there own ###, yet you give them the responsibility to make the right decision and actually trip plan and make good decisions and that is how we ended up with elogs. I watched, I drove then to and watched people continually make bad decisions and just drive until they couldn't any more. I haven't seen a truck rolled over in the middle of the night for years, when it was a regular occurrence during the paper days. I absolutely hate elogs, but in all reality truckers are 100% to blame for them. If people would have shown a little self restraint and not pulled the BS they did back in the day we would still be on paper

 

I saw more elog trucks then paper.

It's more common now then when I started before hos got ruined.

 

ELDs intended purpose was to record the driver's activities in real time and in a way they could not be manipulated. The mega carriers were on board for the unintended consequence of they're being able to do have access, but that was not the legislative purpose.

 

I drive under the old rule that was unchanged for over 40 years. I remember one time I loaded near Seattle for LA. When I started my 8 hour break had been overnight. By the time I stopped in Corning, I needed to do it in the early afternoon. I spent 6 hours trying to sleep (I had split my sleeper berth. You could then). I left around 6:30 and stopped at the rest area by Sacramento, finally tired. There were flaws with that old system which is why they changed it.

 

I'd like to see some statistics proving the number of accidents, fatalities, incidents involving CMVs at fault, are any less than they were prior to 2018. It's been 7 years, the data should be plenty. Also, it would be interesting to see the number of moving violations, particularly speeding infractions, and illegal parking cases on highway shoulders, ramps, streets etc.
My guess is that HOS wise, things are more legal. The question remains, are they safer?

 

In the old rule, you could have used the sleeper berth split anyway you wanted, provided that the shortest sleeper time was 2 hours. You could have slept two hours, three hours, 4 hours, then drive some and then complete the 8 hour break. The only other rule preventing you from driving was no more than 15 hours on duty per 24 hr period. Of course there was 70 hours per 8 days and no 34 reset but you had loose leaf pages for that.

 

The reason for ELDs is simple, to bring the industry into modern world. There isn't a problem with ELDs other than the driver not wanting to use it to their advantage. The HOS rules are where the problems are.

While the 1962 HOS had flaws, it was the best one of all, if it was tweaked and a change from the 18 to 24 hour cycle made, it would have been a lot better but they added too much crap and fogged up the HOS rules to the point that it was hard to understand.

 

I don't know where the flaws were.

8/10/15 60/70 in 7/8 days seemed easy.

I recall on the road dog channel that drivers wanted 11 hours drive instead of 10. And 14 on duty hours instead of 15. No one wanted the 34 reset BS though.

 

Under the old rules I slept about 4 hours a day splitting my sleeper all the time. I was on a pretty dedicated flatbed loop in and out of Utah. Coming north I’d sleep around Dillon MT. When I got to my delivery I’d log sleeper again to finish it out and by the time I unloaded, reloaded, and tarped my sleeper was caught up and I could drive again. I’d run back down toward the Idaho border and go to bed. Next day was the same thing only I was unload, reloading, and tarping in Utah to finish out my split. Was it better then? I don’t know. But it was easier.

With the new rules but pre-ELD we could actually log SLC to Kalispell MT with the 11th hour. Going south I just had to make sure I could get thru the Perry UT scale before going to bed. The mornings were spent unloading and reloading and tarping. Then I’d back everything up to look good enough on paper so that I didn’t start my clock too early. Going north once thru the scale at Lima MT we didn’t have much to worry about. So that made things easier to log on the north end. I felt like I was sleeping more but getting the same amount of work done. I was less tired at home on the weekends.

We also have OOIDA to thank for the stupid 30 minute break. They had a call to action after the 14 hour rule became a thing and had everyone and their uncle send form letters saying that with the 14 hour rule they couldn’t stop for a break or stop to eat. So the government “helped” us by making a 30 minute break mandatory.

The ELD was never touted as being safer. Even the ATA said they wanted to level the playing field between megas and small carriers/owner ops. Take someone like Swift, how many people did they employ just to scan and audit paper logs? How much money did they save by cutting those office positions with the change to electronic recorders? It was advantageous for the large carriers to go electronic because it made their world easier, the downside was that there was no fudging and they realized that was a disadvantage for them.

The biggest thing that screwed everyone was the OOIDA lawsuit challenging the first ELD mandate. The first time it came about they were only supposed to be mandated for carriers with egregious HOS violations. Why on earth OOIDA would fight that is beyond me. When the MAP21 funding bill in 2012 said that FMCSA needed to come up with an ELD mandate they made sure all their bases were covered when it came to everything OOIDA brought up in their original lawsuit. Everything OOIDA brought up the second time around the FMCSA had an answer for. They created the coercion hotline because one of OOIDA’s arguments was driver harassment and being forced to drive immediately when the break was up. The “flexibility” argument never held water because everyone knew that was just a way to say it’s easier to lie when you’re drawing your own lines on a graph.