paper log or electronic logs?

The FMCSA can do whatever they want. Anything can be fudged, you can cheat on elogs/ELDs, it's all a matter of whether the driver is going to be motivated to do so. If you can hack a computer and rob banks of millions of $$$ then EOBRs are a piece of cake.

 

Companies have ability to alter elogs. FFE has called friend that works there and said knowing he was out of hours, "you take care of load, well take care of the hours", and they did. I was surprised at how many violations people in elogs have been getting, I thought it was the cure.

 

Well, the new ELD's would document whenever the truck is started, true, but what, if anything, is that data good for? If the truck doesn't move, who cares if it is started or not. Doesn't affect duty status. Not really sure why that was made part of any regulation, but it sure has caught the eye of the conspiracy crowd. Probably why they did it just to get some folk's panties in a wad.

And it is true that companies can play fast and loose with Elog editing, but the new rule is going to require that the actual vehicle event be retained in the data stream along with the edit. Editing needs to be done sometimes, for solid reasons. For instance, I may have done my pre-trip while OFF DUTY, now I need to go in and edit the time to show an ON DUTY because I forgot to change the status. No big deal. Likewise, I may have forgotten to go from ON DUTY to OFF DUTY and the time clicked away, like when I have gone home. I can edit the log to show the actual time I went to OFF DUTY. Notations are made when I do this so everyone knows the reasons it was done. Editing by carrier or driver is not always a bad thing. Granted, the new ELD rule will stop some carrier from playing little undercover editing games, but editing is clearly allowed in the new ELD rule.

 

I know your right

 

This could be solved by eliminating the hos. Allow drivers to decide for themselves whether they are rested enough to drive. The government should not even be involved in how many hours anyone works. Every time you turn around the fmcsa thinks that they need to change the hos. Each time they "tweak" the hos, it costs the trucking industry billions of dollars. Getting rid of the hos would get the government out of dictating how many hours drivers should work and how many hours drivers need to sleep. Carriers spend a lot of money complying with the hos. Eliminating the hos would get rid of the need or desire for elogs and we would no longer need to pay others to check logs. It would also be one less thing thing drivers would need to think about. The dot would then need to find a real reason to pull drivers around and to do an inspection.

 

There's hundreds of 4 wheeler crashes a day but once a truck gets involved everybody makes a big deal. They should get rid of hos and give us drivers some protection from company pushing us pass our limits. After my 14 is up I sometimes feel I can drive atleast 2 more. Watching the clock tick down just makes me nervous and rush things. I wish they would enforce inspection on 4wheelers too

 

E-logs make your day easier.
I do not have much experience, but now I'm running on Bigroad and it is easy and fast. You must have printer.
Just imaging when you short on few hours at the end of week and you must rewrite 7days paper log book.

I played with Bigroad a lot before I started using it, now I'm happy I found this app.

 

I agree, 2 things that I can think of that are a carryover from the '50's, are tube tires and paper logs. Years ago, I used to fold log books in half and slam them in the door to keep the door from rattling. To answer pats question, keep the log current, just when you don't someone will ask for it.( note my signature) It's easy to cheat on paper logs, but with tolls and fuel being logged, it's a lot harder. I drove for a company that had e-logs, and I liked it. At that company, I had nothing to hide, turned in my chip at the end of the week, and signed my name the next week. When I was an O/O, different story, as I was constantly in trouble with our safety dept. concerning logs.

 

There is no need to have to rewrite 7 days of logs. There is also no reason to constantly be in trouble with safety due to having paper logs. Use a calculator and that should solve more problems with logs. I usually keep track of my hours and how many I have left in the day. I usually don't run that hard, anyway. If you plan your trips you should not have a lot of problems making your logs work. I would not want an electronic nanny constantly telling me how many hours I have left. I also don't want to spend that much more money on something that I can do for a fraction of the cost of electronic logs. Even when I drove for someone else, I kept my logs up and rarely had problem with safety. Most mistakes on logs occur from making basic arithmetic errors. Having a calculator can solve that issue.

 

I run elogs. Trust me when I tell you they can be cheated.