Hanging up my Hat to ELD's

It never did, please, we have been regulated just as long as the airlines.

 

Trucking is "regulated", but not all that heavily if you compare to other things. Want to see major amounts of rules and regs compliance requirements? Be a building contractor working towards a state or federal construction contract.

CMV inspections have their long list of requirements. But so does code compliance trying to get a dozen+ various permits and approvals from start to finish of a building project. Engineers, concrete finishers, electricians, plumbers, carpenters, mechanical engineers, masons, etc ... they all have thick books [that change yearly] telling them just how to do every single aspect of every minute detail of their work. Truckers and trucking industry really aren't all that heavily regulated when you compare to other industries.

Truckers have to keep their hours in line with HOS rules set by FMSCA, and other trades have to keep their hours in line with various local trade union requirements. Not much difference, really.

This notion "truckers are regulated to death" is ridiculous. Truckers are truckers worst enemy. Too many trucks chasing finite freight levels is your biggest concern, and that is not the fault of any government agency.

 

I may want to revise that statement. In fact government tax breaks and allowances for large carrier corporations to train new drivers and employ foreign nationals ... to the point of creating a never-ending supply of cheap labor, has contributed heavily to the glut of trucks with cheap labor sitting in them. But, nobody put a gun to their head and forced carriers to participate in the various federal programs and incentives that have perpetuated stagnant rates.

 

I would imagine a Russian would value Freedom.

But in this United States, in order to have freedom you need money. A certain amount of it and you will be free to do what you need to do without having to ask may I from anyone.

The Politicians had to ask we the people locally for permission not only to spend money on a 750,000 dollar ladder cannon truck which improves our ability to protect against fires quite a bit locally and regionally, they also made it to the people at the Ballot to raise the money via a sales tax in two ways, if one failed at the millage rate which is imposed on homeowners via property taxes each year (I own a car, it's property here in this State therefore I support the schools and various other expendatures undertaken by the politicians in our area.) The Revenuer (Yes we use that word since Reconstruction and occupation by federal forces during the 1870's) so that either the millage tax increase or a county wide 1/4 cent increase would pay for this 3/4 million dollar expense paid for in 5 installments over a few months time. The first two 160K payments have gone through. To give you a idea of the power of 1/4 cent, our Walmart super center generated roughly 24K in sales tax alone that is payble towards this fire engine over one month. 1/4 cent at a time I believe. Actually it's something like a 3% rate where in Pulaski County not too far away in Little Rock, the sales tax is 10% there. So your 60 dollar carton of smokes is another 6 bucks in county sales tax then Arkansas sales tax. Then then then.

As far as the ELD. I have never been exposed to it. Nor I have been exposed to a mandatory 30 minute stop or a 2 hour split this split that or something else split during what is supposed to be a straight 11 hour driving time.

Any trucker with stamina knows dam well that if you were to stop 200 miles into your day with 400 plus to go, to sit around 30 minutes or lay there 2 hours.. it's literally a time liability. You will get to where you are going much later in the evening or towards sunrise the next day with potentially no parking availible etc.

In my day it's 10 hours 70 hour work week and that's it. No split this split that do something else etc etc etc. phooey. And on paper logs too. Even if I ran ELD today I would turn in a 10 hour driving time, use the last hour remaining to park at the first nicer legal spot for the night and deal with tomorrow, whatever that might be. I would not care to play russian roulette squeezing out the 11th hour. It's literally not worth it.

25 dollars at .50 a mile? Ha. Forget it. We are going to burn twice that in fuel by the time we get up tomorrow.

Im medically retired, but my spirit on some days long to be running, even if I have to cop a ride off one of you for a round trip in 10 minutes or something. It's not much. Im not much good for rides, I do well enough on certain TTR drivers here via you tube and give everyone else a hard time.

If you stop trucking, I hope you find something else to get into. For your sake. Something that gives you a enjoyment in life. I have spoken in the past how difficult it is to reinvent a future for myself but I actually am living it well enough helping certain persons in my world. If that is what it takes for God to be pleased at my small tiny contributions in life for whatever it's worth towards the sunset then so be it. But I will die a trucker. And there is a certain amount of fierce pride in that statement even though I have not been the best at times nor have I been bad enough or truly evil in some of the things Ive managed to cookup on the poor sob dispatcher. (God forbid I should turn into a dispatcher msyelf... I think you truckers are big boys now, you dispatch yourselves...)

 

I would love nothing more than to seriously hop down into the battle what with the overseas immigrants coming here to do trucking. Anything here has to be way better than what they must have endured back home wherever that was.

I better shut up now. There are people who would like nothing more than to see me go buh bye for opening my big fat mouth too much....

 

First of all its not that we cant afford them. It happens to be that I cant justify the expense. It has no improvemnt on my safety. I cant have added expense for the same outcome. Im a business owner. If you are you should understand that you dont invest in something that does not return profit. We are all here for profit.

 

But you can justify the expense to manage and audit all the paper logs that are probably falsified to the point of absurdity? Or is it the extra revenue from falsification that you rely on to pay to manage the paper logs?

I guess I get that but you guys just aren't going to get a lot of sympathy from us guys who've been out here making good money on eLogs for many years. If the large carriers find the expense justifiable, why can't smaller carriers?

Most larger carriers today could not function under current HOS rules if they had to go back to a paper system.

 

who said falsified. I run legal. Your opinion is like @-holes everyone has one. There is some of us that run a legit business. Im a 4 gen owner op. I can make money legally. I takecare of my customers. Audit yes I can justify them because its audited when i fill them out legaly. See i might on run 62mph and are capable of double that. Im running a business. My equipment gets good fuel milage at that mph, but my lunch pale is full and thermos full of coffee. Ill drive slower and still beat you there. slow and steady.

 

its just the false pretense of safety they keep throwing around...

for the record i feel safer around and owner who smudged his logs a bit then to see that swift logo trying to pass me

 

Im so glad to finally have a US president who understands that to much regulation on small business is not good for business!

Look at the major cities around the country, see the business' that are there: walmart, target, best buy, tj maxx, taco bell, burger king etc
[ a k a corporate america ]

Small business gives America flavor, gives America personality: check out cities like New Orleans, Denver, even L.A ... entrepreneurship is strong, the variety is present, Americanism lives there:

Corporate america serves its duty, but an America with only big name brands is a bland boring cookie cutter world:

Small business needs flexabilty, less regulation, more lee-way, more tax breaks, and less scrutiny.

Small business makes jobs too: we take pride in what we do. We do it "safe" too. Safe is a given in this business it's common sense, all this new hype of being safe is a distraction and a gimmick to introduce more regulation on small business. Duh, be safe- not a thing new about it/// forgot though, swift and them need e log, driver facing cameras and lane avoidance technology to help their overnight cdl "professionals"

TRAIN your drivers right, make the regulations tougher right there in the beginning, that will make things "safer" smh

My opinion