I AM SO SICK OF ELD'S! It's not making the industry any safer.

I'm sure this is probably an old topic by now and there's probably been a bazillion posts on this topic but I'm going to go ahead and post my two cents. I guess it's recently caused me enough aggravation where I felt inclined to write about it.

I've been out here since 1985. I never thought that I would reach this mindset but I really wish they would bring back paper logs or even online logbooks. I love how ELD's save you the trouble of recording your day. I used to let my log book go for several stops and then I would have to sit down and figure it all out. Especially if the word was that the scale house was checking log books. Not to mention closing your log at the end of the day.

Believe it or not, it has also led to less stringent shipper demands. Of course, I'm a car hauler so I don't have the same challenges that many of you drivers do when it comes to shipper and receiver appointments. I remember when I started back in the '80s, you might get delayed several hours for a number of reasons waiting for a shipper to get your trailer loaded. Now you're in Ohio, looking at the clock. It's 6:00 p.m. and they want you in Brooklyn 8:00 in the morning.

And God help you if you were carrying perishable items. Because if you didn't make your appointment on time you got to go sit in the waiting lot until pretty much the end of the day. And that's if they were willing to work overtime.

As a car hauler, I don't have those challenges. Except for the numbskulls that only operate between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. and they won't let you do any overnight drops. Most of the places that I go to allow what is known as STI. Which means subject to inspection. I delivered to four locations today and I never had to speak with anyone. I simply unloaded my vehicles, drop the keys in the dropbox and moved on to the next location.

What I don't like is how you can't move your truck 2 inches without it placing you on line number 3. I still play by the old rules sometimes. If I run out of hours on one side of say Dallas, TX at 9:00 p.m. and there's no traffic out, I'm not going to sit there until 7:00 in the morning just so I can sit in rush hour traffic. That makes absolutely no sense!

And God help you if you move your truck 2 in before your 34 hour restart or your 10 hours is complete. Now you just screwed up your whole day or next couple of days for that matter.

I will say one thing. I don't think it's made it any safer out here. There was a time when you only heard about those pile ups on the interstate every now and then. Now they seem to happen several times a year and I don't think it's because of tired drivers going over hours. The biggest problems out here are 4 wheelers and insufficient driver training. But that's a different conversation.

I'm going to end this post with a little bit of humor. I can only remember two or maybe three times in my extensive career where a DOT man asked to see my logbook. Whenever they asked to see my log book, I usually replied; Which one? They would usually smile and reply; The only one you should have.
LOL

Ahh, the good old days.