Gremmie

29 years ago when Tacho first hit the UK we all moaned and groaned, we all tried to cheat them with rubber bands, cigaret butts bending the needles and god only knows what else. We all said it wont last , that its like having the 'cops" in the cab etc. but we survived he freight got delivered and we earnt our daily bread. It wont be any different here either, adjustments will have to be made, but we will all survive and eat our daily bread

wire

But i prefer cake. Both having it and eating it.

coritani

So what, just because we can adjust, it doesn't mean its a good thing. Tachos in Europe make you a prisoner in the cab and digital tachos are worse again. The stresses of the job back home are a major reason why driving over here is so desirable to most and now they want to make it even worse here. I say worse because the whole system here is and always has been set up in such a way that it can only work with very flexible enterpriations of log book rules and it allows drivers move themselves to safe parking (which is very important in many parts of the US) and somewhere with facilties. At current I work up and down the eastern seaboard in the US and unless the whole industry is revolutionised, which it wont be, I will never be able to comply with an electronic log book because there just isn't the parking available in the area and you get held hostage at the majority of places, only to be deposited on to the street after your 14 hours are up or with very little time left. In England you can just park on the side of the road in an industrial estate in most places, here you'll either be robbed or ticketed/impounded. I was threatened with having my truck impounded just last week in Woodbridge, NJ because I wasn't allowed into the gate of a warehouse until half an hour before my booking time, I was told to be there at 4:30am which I was, my booking time then turned out to be 8am and they actually called me in at 11am. All well and good with a paper log book but I'll be a criminal in a few years time if I did the same, and earning $400 a week. No thanks! EOBR's are just more sh*t dropping from the cuckoo in the clouds.

Gremmie

I did say adjustments would be needed I would for see a pay system of miles & hours for example. Shippers would have to be more efficiant with loading and appointments. But at the end of the day i see it being a good thing.

spockil

well it would not be a bad idea if the whole industry did it shippers and recievers were to have things organised and dispatch had things planned out down to the last second then it may work. but in my experience it would take alot of work and effort and $$$$$$$$$

ukkie

tachos were tamperproof for about a week and the digi tachos were tamperproof for about a week and a half so these electronic logbooks won't last much longer.

If its electronic and someone can switch it on then it won't be long before somebody finds out how to switch them of.

The system would only stand a chance if the trucking companies played hardball with shippers and receivers and if the DOT would start putting some responsibility with shippers and receivers which will never happen as there is always some weasel that gives in thinking he can make a fast buck and ruin any progress made.

wages won't change instead they will just put 2 chinese / indian drivers on for less cost than 1 north american (european) driver.

Over in europe you'll have difficulties to find any non eastern european long haul drivers nowadays. Even the polish are to expensive for this and bulgarians, rumanians or russians are now coming in.

The idea is good and it would be good if you were able to run completely legal only it's a shame it doesn't work like that in the real world.

rivit

On our system it stays on 'on duty time' till you go over 15 mph so maybe you could creep down to that truck stop very very slowly

My problem was getting used to pushing the buttons as i'm doing it, you can't wait and catch it up later like a paper log. A couple of times i've stopped for the night, had supper then flopped in the sleeper and woke up in the morning to find i'd been on duty the whole time. Then i have to call the office and they will edit the log to what it should be but then i have sign a form saying i was a bad boy, and they call this paperless

coritani

This is just it though, its all totally pointless and does nothing but restricts our freedom and treats us like machines. If they would build in some safe guards against stranding drivers in unsafe and totally unsuitable locations such as the ferry movement allowance in the EU where by you can interpupt your daily rest period by up to a certain time period then fine, I havent got a problem with it but the idea of being stuck, totally stationary without exception is just an unbearable thought, the freedom to move and park my truck when and where I want is something I have come to really appreciate after driving back home and not being able to do a thing. At the end of the day this is just using drivers as scapegoats and will only punish the symptoms of the problem and not the causes. Bad management/dispatching is one major cause but beyond all else is the way we get detained at shippers and receivers for several hours or more. All I want is the freedom to be able to then park somewhere proper and not have to stay in an unsafe industrial area in Linden, NJ for example while all the shippers, dispatchers, DOT officers and politicians who think of these things have gone home to their homes with showers, food and the security of not having their diesel stolen, prostitutes knocking on the door, their load getting stolen or even getting held up at gun point for the $60 in your wallet. Even getting paid by the hour wouldn't prevent drivers being made criminals for tiny log book violations that will flag up on an EOBR but arent recorded on paper. It would seem that the north American trucker will soon have two choices, carry on as now and drive to a proper parking area when you've been detained beyond your HOS totally against your will and risk running up a massive list of offences on your record or embrace the European way of living like a tramp, a third class citizen parked on the hard shoulder, wasteground or loading dock and having to go to the toilet in the bushes like an animal....what next, all wear tracksuits and sandals, speak Bulgarian hope Willi Betz expands over here?
EOBR's without safeguards built in to protect us all from the scenarios I've mentioned are a very dubious and unwelcome addition to our industry and more importantly our whole way of life.

Chicken lights and chrome

+1

bobthedog

+2

If it happens then I will find a new type of job. Gremmie, your point of view is office bound now. You don't like having to try to decipher them so you would prefer it was on a computer..

remember your roots, man!!!

Manc

I've worked for Werner.

didn't like the company or the electric logbooks.

you can cheat them a twee, but can't obviously take the piss.

Gremmie

Not true Bob, and I resent the implication. Electronic Logs for all would make this whole industry far more efficient, the 2-3-4 hour waits would drop down to 1 hour loading times, simply because the whole trip would have to be calculated better. If a customer wants his freight to move from A to B in X hours, then both dispatch & the shipper are going to have to work closer together to solve the problem, not like now where the transit time can be fudged by all concerned.
If your dispatcher even with todays system gives you loads that only are do able by cheeting then more fool you both.

hughes3005

you mean turn 8-10-12 hours waityou Clown
You must have despatched your Loyalty some where as well

Gremmie

Dont judge every one else by your own pathetic and miss guided views and experiences. Your knowledge of the North American trucking industry could be writen on the back of a postage stamp.

hughes3005

Well gremmie. i do have a large stamp collection