mercer transportation

I am one truck owner operator, what benefit is an ELD to me?

 

If you'll read

Not your words, but they were said.

I get home just as often as before which is whenever I want. I net more while my gross stays the same.

Must be voodoo.

 

Yeah we get it. You've done it all. Good for you....no one here gives a ####. Class, no class...it doesn't matter.

You can cheat on elogs just like paper. One is just as legal, illegal as a guy wants to go with on it. Give criminals a way and they will thrive. One has no more benefits than the other, just different options of how you wanna handle it and use it to your advantage. That's a fact.

 

When I was an independent, I ran paper. Looking back now I realize it would have made a few things easier at the end of each quarter and at tax time. Instead of marking on paper logs for days out for per diem, I could have earmarked entire months in the time it would take to mark 5 days worth of logs. I could also match up logs and loads much easier in case of audit. And since most everything I do now is electronic, I could build a folder at the end of the year that had everything in it instead of just a P&L and cash flow statement.

It would have made organization much more convenient for me. But I'm comfortable with computers and can operate on them faster than I can pen and paper.

 

At no point did I say the at paper logs are the only way to make money. I , like you make the decision of when to work and when to sleep
Do you think a green driver is going to do the same we hen pushed by a dispatcher? The way people drives tells a story

The fantasy is that ELDs are safer than paper.

 

To me it's an added expense with no value.
Something that was originally designed to help track large fleets or as punishment for the bad actors in our industry is now forced on everyone.

 

One size doesnt fit all in this work in my opinion. The government says ELD is safer...in reality its just a money game.

When states go on winter relief emergencies and we get exemptions to run 24/7 in the winter, all of a sudden it's ok. What a joke.

 

It's funny how you run out of bravado when you have no more room to make assumptions on people.

Hey you said it not me. I'm not looking to cheat nor accusing anyone of cheating. Like I said earlier, I do not buy that brand of sentiment on ELD's helping safety or stopping cheaters. It does make it harder though. At the end of the day, I do know which recording method is more susceptible to cheating.

 

As soon as any exemption was made it was pretty clear that saftey was not the primary concern, just a sales tool

 

Yes, it is a fantasy that the ATA perpetuated to the government. Guys that don't realize that the rules didn't change, just the way the score were kept, are still trying to push like it's 25 years ago. You can't walk across a truckstop without keeping your head on a swivel.

However, people also need to realize that individuals are responsible for their actions. Behind the wheel, we are all captains of our ships. If a new driver is in the top side in a parking lot, I blame him and whatever poor training he received, not his logbook because I've seen both do it.

This is the argument my dad uses. It holds water if you still do everything by hand. If you're like me and can keep all your information on a computer, they're great. Especially with extras like IFTA mileage reports, quick access to logs via BOL number, etc etc.