Elogs..The good,The bad and the ugly truth

I definitely agree pay should be higher....when I first used a elog I took a loss until I actually learned how to use it...but it saved my cdl....I was one to run run run...so im kind of glad e logs are in effect now...trying to match fuel recipes and 34 hours breaks and times in 3 logs books are not easy...but I still run 2800 to 3500 miles a week on e logs

 

I can't speak for other drivers and their experience with e-logs and pay going down,but I have been with Bison for 9 years and on e=logs for the last 3 years and my pay has not dropped at all.My 1st year with Bison made $70,000 and the last 2 years made just under $80,000.

 

What happens on Elogs when your headed home and run out of time 70 miles away?

What happens when you want to stop and take that pretty lady out to dinner?

they stink and make you nothing more than a robot. When they start paying a Salary per day and dispatch takes on the headaches then I am in.

 

THE GOOD:

Usually it tells you before make a mistake so you never have to worry about compliance (the violations mentioned below had to do with not filling in all the windows properly). You don't have to worry about turning in logs or making sure you remember to grab an extra book. Oh and your dispatcher can't tell you to grab a new book and keep running.

THE BAD:

I haven't been on e-log a full year yet but I do know that I'm seeing less home time for sure used to have 7-10 off per month now it's 2-3 and I'm barely making the same money. I also know that I've had 4 form and manner violations (3 more than in the previous 19 years of paper logging combined). I also find myself driving in rush hours and borderline fatigued states more than ever before. I also feel somewhat disconnected from my book, I find myself not knowing without looking how many hours I have left or what I get back tomorrow unlike when I used paper where I could almost recite what I had for the next 3 days.

THE UGLY TRUTH:

The truth is elogs highlight for everyone to see the problems with the hours of service. It's a shame that the only people seeing the problems with them are drivers and a few guys in safety and compliance departments

 

It's all about control....... Nothing to do with safety .

Micro managing the driver..


P.S. Still on paper, however the days are numbered .

 

I've ran e-logs while running LTL linehaul and didn't make any less or any more money with them. However the LTL operation I ran with ran strictly legal and all the runs were set up to be that way, unless something unforeseen happened, breakdown, bad weather, etc. . Did snafu's occur from time to time, sure did, but even then they would not let us run illegally. Say for instance we had a breakdown and ran out of hours, they would either make us get a motel room or come to get us and the truck, if we were close enough to a terminal. While that job was not paid hourly it was a combination of hourly, flat rate (for D&H's) and mileage my pay didn't go down when they switched to e-logs, it went up by the amount of the annual raise they gave us.

That being said, the last company I worked for will be screwed when e-logs are mandated or they will just close the doors. At that company the only way to make money was by running at least 70 hours/week, most times one was expected to run past 70, hours of service were not an excuse to not do a run there. This is the same company that essentially fired me (claimed they had no work for me) when I put my notice in when I found another job. If a driver refuses to run over hours they simply cut that drivers workload significantly forcing him to move on to greener pastures, that's what I had to do.

E-logs however are not a guarantee that a company comply with HOS rules though. CTI, Cryogenic Transport Inc. (division of Kenan) out of Monclova, Ohio runs e-logs and regularly manipulated drivers logs to keep them "compliant". The terminal manager would change drivers start times the following morning after they had to run over hours to get back to the terminal more often that not. I know that it is a driver's responsibility to remain compliant even if the company tries to run them over, but we're all adults and know that the real world doesn't always work out like that.

I feel for the OTR guys who aren't being paid what they should be. The e-logs will just cost them more money because once that clock starts ticking there's not much you can do to gain much extra time. One solution would be for the time spent at shippers or receivers to stop the 14 clock, to not have those hours count against the driver would make things better for everyone. Another possible solution would be to PAY drivers for that wasted time picking up or delivering loads over and above the mileage pay if the feds don't want to extend the 14 hour clock.

Sadly, nothing will change without even more government intervention which is something I'm totally against because our government could screw up a wet dream, heck it's proven it can't even run a brothel without screwing it up.

For me, the solution was to get a local hourly job running haz mat tankers, vans, roll off boxes, etc. It's a teamster's job (that's good and bad) it pays pretty good $19.25/hr to start with time and a half over 40 and double time for Sundays and on call time, union bennies and retirement. This job isn't for everyone, some actually do not want to be home everyday, some don't want to mess with this much haz mat (almost every load), I get that, what may be a great job for me might not be for someone else. That's why we have to weigh what we want against what we can tolerate and make the best out of any job that we can be relatively happy at. Change for the better always happens at a MUCH slower pace than change for the worse and it definitely seems we have been on the down hill side of bad changes for some time now.

 

Not much trouble due to e logs , they have definitely forced the dispatchers to tighten up and plan better.

Pay appears to be unaffected

 

I'm on elogs...just got .02 cpm raise and getting another .07 cpm in six months. Turned 3k miles last week too

 

SoCal plan better so that doesn't happen.