HOS changes and my perspective on EOBR's...

Until I started in the office I had NO idea of what this side of coin was like. You're right, getting ALL the drivers to turn in violation-free logs is impossible. EOBRs are taking away almost all of the Form and Manner violations, that's a great big help I'll tell ya.

 

I do understand what he is saying, and to be honest, 20 years ago, I would have said the same things. I was a driver before I was an owner, BUT, until you wear both of those hats you only have half of the information needed to make an educated statement.

Something else that has not been mentioned that he apparently has NO IDEA about, in fact even I did not realize just how big of an impact it would have on us.

This is business, plain and simple, those that do it better, quicker, safer, or more efficiently will be around longer, that is an undeniable fact in this industry.

With the advent of elogs, our efficiency has been raised considerably, we are running less deadhead miles, we are better matching drivers available hours with length of runs, which in the long term leads to drivers making better money and actually getting thru the house more often.

At least that is how it is working here, I can not speak for other companies.

 

That was the problem with Quality Carriers . They got nailed in an audit because a small percentage of drivers knew they could get falsifications past the safety department . That was obvious to FMCSA and is why QC now has e-logs .

 

We were audited a couple of years back, before we had elogs, and although we did not get fined we did have some things that did not match, mostly fuel tickets and toll receipts.

One Toll receipt that didn't match stood out because we had the truck breakdown as soon as he paid his Toll and was leaving the booth.

Because I had a receipt that showed that we were towed AND at the dealer (just a couple miles away) and our dealer arrival time proved that our logs were correct. This could have turned into a big deal, as the next day the driver was involved in an accident.

We later found out that what the toll people were doing was just running off a bunch of 5 axle tickets for their shift and just hand them out as they went, all with the wrong date/time stamp.

Elogs would have eliminated all of this, and saved a bunch of time in the process.

 

two things stan,just because I never used the things in my truck doesnt mean I have no idea how they work..number 2 ...EOBR are not needed to know " where " your millions of dollars are ...A simple Qualcom can tell you everything you need to about your trks without harrasing the drivers HOS....and one other thing if drivers who cant do paper logs give you a poor CSA score ..get rid of them..

 

Why would I spend the money on Qualcomm just to know where my trucks are at when for the same money I can also have bullet proof logs and times, plus access to hours available?

What exactly do you mean about "harassing the drivers HOS"?

 

Easier said than done my friend. 'They' say there's a driver shortage, they're partially right, the shortage is finding well enough trained and qualified drivers from an ever shrinking pool.

 

the quality of driver is based on what you pay them, there is not a shortage of drivers, just a shortage of drivers WILLING to put up the bs that comes from all sides out here

 

See stan you want the EOBRs for enforcement reasons..ITS your company ,your trucks, use them...But the court case for mandatingthem is for SAFETY reasons. When you have access to MY (the drivers) hours you can also use that info to push me ..WHAT ARE YOU MISSING WITH MY POSISTION ?

 

Easy to say from where you're sitting.