What the ELD mandate has taught me so far

What an extremely narrow-minded and limited view.

So for the sake of discussion, let's just pretend for a while that those blinders have been removed.

HOS Reg's are all in the name of ahem Safety. He said "I ran out of hours an hour and a half from home".
Now based on your title position of "Rand McNally Technical Support Engineer III (since 2009)", I am going to assume that you have some Post Secondary education, probably even some form of certificate or degree, correct?
For the sake of this discussion I'm going to assume a "Yes" answer.
So with this "Higher Learning" level of intelligence, you truly don't see the sheer lunacy of the idea, from a purely Safety Standpoint, that "running out of hours an hour and a half from home" makes? This statement alone with your level of intellect and education should automatically preclude you to the camp that the HOS Reg's are in a massive need of being revamped?
Do you honestly believe that after 70hrs of work, being mandated to take a day and a half off, an hour and a half from home makes any modicum of practicality?
Perhaps because you worked an extra 30mins per day this week, you should not be permitted to go home either. You must wait until noon Saturday to go home, and you will not be paid for this time, your hotel room will it be covered, and you will receive no reimbursement for meals for this time as well. The HOS requirement holds just as much validity as the proposal I just made to you.

E-Log mandate should ONLY be a concession allowed iIF the FMCSA also allows the HOS to be overhauled and modernized WITH THE INPUT FROM ACTUAL DRIVERS, recognizing that there are several different segments of the industry that should have different regulations. A One Size Fits All model does not work, nor does it make sense.

 

Well, I have used the brain that God gave me and when I am in a situation where I will run out of hours an hour away from the house, I have several locations all around me where I can drop a trailer and then bobtail home off duty... legally. Then when it is time to go back to work, bobtail off duty back to the trailer, hook up and pre-trip, and take off on the log. But sometimes, I know I will not get home on the hrs I have left and will call the wife to come pick me up. My Chevy pickup is part of the business also and is fully deducted on taxes just like the big truck is. There are solutions if one really thinks things thru. Even a company driver could do the same thing. Just deduct the miles for personal vehicle on the taxes.

Sure, not everyone is going to have an ideal situation, but many are not going to suffer an apocalypse as is being presented in many posts. Most problems are self created.

 

So why not take your 10 hour break, sleep in the truck and arrive home the next day?
But
I doubt your trip home was anywhere as dangerous as you claim it to be.
and maybe you aren't cut out to be a truck driver in this day and age.
I don't see Swift and Werner drivers crying about elogs, if they can handle it ....what's stopping you?

 

I guess it all depends on the situation one has established for themselves. But it isn't like there wasn't a lot of warning this was going to happen. The years of discussion that FMCSA was going down this path and the two years from the mandate being put into place and when it fully goes into effect.

As I have stated before, I didn't play a wait and see game. I figured that some form of this was coming, and from a long way off. I made a concerted effort to get myself into a position where I could make a good living and do it while still moderating my speed to be more relaxed and save money. I have been using Elogs for several years now and I frequently stay in the 62-65 mph range and get everywhere I need to be on time and don't lose any revenue in the process. And usually when I go home, I have at least a few hours left over that didn't get used that week.

I realize that this would take some effort on a lot of folks to get it to work for them, but I really have little sympathy for those that knew darn well it was looming on the horizon and just went about like nothing was going to change waited till it was about to slap them in the butt and then cried "foul". It is really difficult for me to care a lot when folks have been warned time and time again of impending change and they do nothing to prepare for it.