Originally published at: Trucking groups clash over logging driver work hours - FreightWaves
The U.S. Department of Transportation is getting conflicting advice from trucking’s biggest lobbying groups over whether ELDs should remain a requirement for tracking driver hours.
Drivers are now having BEAT THE CLOCK which has reduced any safety feature ATA is claiming. ELD’s have little to do with safety and more of CONTROL of a driver by a company.
I’m with you on this; however, I do believe the roads are safer by limiting drive-hours. We all know how it is to be driving while you’re tired and it’s never a good idea, even if you’re chasing profits.
Keeping “logs” is good. If a driver has an accident the drivers logs can be reviewed to determine if they were “pushing their limit”. A real professional truck driver will know When it’s time to shut it down. Nobody want to get into any sort of an accident. If the truck driver was not being professional and did get into an accident, it has to be dealt with with fines or pulling of the drivers CDL.
There are other parts of the EDL’s that need attending. Who sleeps for 10 hours every night? Waiting for that clock to strike 10, is many days a bunch of wasted time.
They say we have to take a 30 minute break in the 11 hour driving day. Don’t tell me when I have to poop. I will stop for bathroom breaks as needed, and it usually does not take 30 minutes. More wasted time waiting for the clock to strike 30.
Some days we feel strong and we have the power to drive more than 11 hours, but I guess someone thinks we turn into a pumpkin when the clock strikes violation.
Some days finding that “safe spot” to park is a real challenge. I myself refuse to park on the shoulder for 10 hours.
Minister of Transportation, Mr Sean Duffy, we need you to please recognize the importance of the trucking industry and meet with Owner Operators and the owners of the “smaller trucking companies” who are struggling to survive.
We need leaders of the FMCSA who are not big companies or individuals who in their past know trucking by handing out citations.
We need to see this industry grow and be profitable. Without truckers store shelves and home delivers will cease to happen. Please Recognize Us.
ELDs streamline hours of service tracking and minimize violations, but pushes the costs the government saves on enforcement onto the truck owners who are having difficulty staying afloat. I realize some probably have visions of trucking past where if you were lucky you got a lax DOT officer who would let falsified logs slide. But, most just can’t afford an ELD that is acceptable to DOT.
Reminds me of school always tryin to tell me when and where I can go to the bathroom
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So, what some of you appear to be saying is that you want to become criminals. Not my personal choice, but hey, you do you.
The ELD is simply an electronic method of tracking a driver’s RODS. Nothing more. Nothing less. The rules are still the rules whether a driver uses an electronic tracker, or a paper log sheet.
There’s nothing in the rules that says a driver has to drive when s/he is tired. In fact, a carrier cannot make a driver drive when s/he is tired. The carrier also cannot fire a driver that refuses to drive tired. Yea, those are in the rules too. To a professional, law-abiding driver it would make no difference at all whether they used an ELD or a paper log.
With the ELD the driver has recorded, tamper proof, evidence of what is occurring between the driver and the carrier. With paper logs a driver does not get that evidence. And remember, the driver always gets the last say when there are proposed changes to the RODS. Again, that’s recorded evidence with an ELD. I can’t say that would be necessarily be true with a paper log.
It seems to me that those who oppose the ELD want to go back to the old days when they could falsify their paper logs with little fear of being caught. Really, they just want to be criminals. I guess everyone has the right to do their own thing. Be the Super-Trucker you always wanted to be. Pass everything on the road but a truck stop.
I would expect carriers would love to go back to the days of paper logs. That way they can browbeat drivers into driving more miles for less pay. Make them sit for hours here, there, and everywhere, for no pay. Really, who’s going to argue with them? The driver that falsifies his paper log book all the time? Everybody knows that’s not going to pass the smell test.
It should be easy enough to go back to paper, right? A driver just has to make sure their fuel stops and toll receipts match, right? Oh, almost forgot, there’s that GPS that’s on the truck’s engine, and the one in the reefer, and the one in the trailer tracker, and the one in the driver’s phone, and the MacroPoint, Project44, 4-Kites, and TruckerPath tracking apps, and the one in the dash cam.
Probably just be easier to use the ELD than it would be to try and make all that match as well wouldn’t it?
I challenge anyone to give me one good, valid, legal reason to go back to a paper log, and “I want to practice my penmanship” doesn’t count as a reason.
For starters just because someone wants to use paper logs doesn’t mean they want to “be criminals”. In fact most people want to be able to do their job correctly and professionally. ELD hinders that no matter what you think.
Take for example you have an hour left to drive and the truck stop is 15 min ahead. You come upon an accident that has the interstate shut down for 2 hours. Now you are in violation and in order to not be a criminal, you are supposed to log driving as you are on the highway and ready to move. Yeah sure let’s start doing the dance to use the additional time allowed for special circumstances.
With paper logs you could pencil in the remaining drive to the truck stop without the 2 hour downtime on the interstate and without the need for the extra steps involved and not be in violation of you HOS.
And who do you think DOT will do an audit of the logs on? Probably the one that’s showing a violation. What’s that? It’s legal so no worries. How about while you are sitting at the scale house being audited, I’m rolling down the road.
Eld’s do not work for everyone. Some trucks are not equipped to hook them up. Most companies use it for control and if you think you have the final say, let me know how well dispatch loads you after you tell them no a few times.
I get your argument, and yes as a driver you have total control as long as you are not dependent on someone else assigning you a load. Otherwise if you bite the hand that feeds you, it’s not going to end well.
Finally, you think because it’s elogs that people cannot run more than one log book? Double check those facts out. In fact the check this year is cracking down on falsifying logs from ghost driver to multiple elogs. Just because it’s electronic doesn’t mean it’s any safer or unable to falsify.
So for one good reason to go back to paper logs. Driver’s that cannot control their companies, and are forced to drive while tired, would no have their logs on display for the company to see what it is at the touch of a key and use any drive time left against them.
On your side thought it’s just easier to deal with paperless logs.
Lets not talk about the amounts of accidents since 2017.??. As it double!..eld should be canceled.drivers should have all the time they need to drive their 11hrs…hwy would be busy again.24hrs a day parking for all…less congestion. And more .come on this is ridiculous
I’ve gone allover the country for three years, and have never seeing the used of an ELD. A responsible person in whatever we do, we haves to be responsible and know when to stop without having others to tell you to stop. I have seen truck drivers that do not know how to drive a truck. That should be more detailed looked into.
I think that it’s always better to follow common sense against dead stone 11/14/10 system. Especially with lack of parking spots available when if you arrive at 8 or 9 pm on truck stops and everything is occupied… so, the only chance you have to park it’s T 4 or 5 pm,so, at this point you didn’t use your 11 hours limit but you don’t want to be stranded when your clock is over and you parked. 4:40 pm or so, how can you sleep at that time of the day? We are not robots to sleep whenever we want,so. You just hang around, doing nothing but your 10 hours rest time ticking, it’s a time that you have use with efficiency… and you don’t sleep, because it’s crazy time to sleep…… so, 10 hours break is over at 2-2:30 am and finally you got asleep somewhere at 10 pm and you need to get up at 2 am because you have an appointment,right? So, are this driver is going to be rested,more safe on the road? Who has to resume driving at 2 am and by sleeping only 3-4 hours…… why? Because logbook mandated him to forcefully take a10 hours break when his body didn’t need it…… it’s just a one example of many many scenarios when logbook makes things worse…… next scenario is weather… let’s pretend that you rested, you slept for 6-7 hours and you don’t need it anymore you just feel it…… and you know that area where you in going snowstorm or anything severe or maybe even tornado, you need to get away from here ASAP but you can’t because you have to wait another 3-4 hours when you can resume legally driving, so, logbook basically makes situation dangerous potentially for your life……, scenario scenarios scenario, could give you whole list of such situations…… isn’t it better to get rest when you really need it but not when Washington pencil pushers ordered you? Isn’t it better to use just simple COMMON SENCE???