Opinion: Bring on the ELDs
We started with the e-log system back in 2013. We weren’t having any problems with compliance, but we realized that one day it would become mandatory and we wanted to start it early to get everybody adjusted prior to two months before it becomes mandatory.
It has been working out very well.
No drivers left the company because of this. Some of the older drivers were a bit hesitant just because of the technology but we mentored them, showed them how little hassle is involved because they are no longer doing paper logs and they all became very good with it.
We have two US owner/operators and they don’t want to be on the e-log system as of yet. They will have to be, eventually, but they’re perfect drivers and we’ve had no incidents with them so I don’t want to get rid of them just because they don’t want to be on it right away. I have an outside consultant who monitors their logs and there are no issues with them.
We have 18 trucks and the main benefit I see, even though we’re paying a monthly fee for the e-logs, is that I can spend less time going and reviewing every single log that a driver does every day. That’s mandatory – you have to do that – and with the e-log system if a driver goes over by one minute, it pops up automatically on our computer screen. So that has been quite the benefit.
Our drivers are very good at not going outside the regulations. We have a very good record.
We haven’t had any issues at all with enforcement accepting the
e-logs. We will never go back to paper logs. I’m all for it. It works great, it’s less work and you know more about what’s going on with every driver. You can see how many hours a driver has left. Our dispatcher is good, too. He will never ask them to go over their hours.
We had a customer once who always wanted us to go over. We said ‘We’re sorry’ and we let the customer go. We can’t be involved in that. It’s not right.
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So the trucking industry & companies are so inept at hiring and monitoring their own employees, they want to government to circumvent the rights of Canadian citizens and “Electronically Monitor” Those Canadians 24 hrs a day on the behalf of industry, and Canadians are willing to accept this? Criminals apparently have more rights than truck drivers. The Soviet Union & Communist China maybe watch their people like this, but I thought our grandfathers fought for us to be free…instead drivers are willing to sign up for this monitoring and willing to be fined for things they do during a day …?
And the same industry that is asking for our citizens to be monitored worse than criminals bemoans the fact that they can’t find anyone wanting to drive a truck any more … hmmm
Abysmal pay, forced time a way from home & family with 24 hr monitoring of when you eat, when you sleep, when you pee, & where you do so, … no overtime, no benefits, no pension, treated like garbage from society& your employers industry, and by public “servants”, sleep in a tin box on the side of the road, … sounds like a great career choice kids….
How about these trucking industry executives take some responsibility in who they hire, and better than that, how about Gov’t and the police impose rules on the freight industry and not individuals within it, similar to all other industries. And the fines for rule infractions should be imposed on the industry / companies and not its workers. Lets electronically monitor David Bradley and all these company & association executives and see what they are doing during their days, see how willing they accept being treated like criminals.
Lastly, with all this GPS and satellite tracking, they can already track hrs of service for every truck & piece of equipt without a driver incriminating themselves …so start paying every driver by the hr from the moment they show up for work til the moment they go home, and overtime after 40 hrs per week … that will eliminate the need for drivers to work 18 hrs days in a rolling sweatshop just to pay rent and groceries.
Wake up people, your fathers & grandfathers never would have accepted this ! If drivers accept this onboard recording of themselves, then they will have allowed the government control of our lives without ever having to fire a shot.
Any customer out there who requests a company to demand a driver do illegal running should be dropped by the company Drivers face heavy fines and other penalties if caught and now companies will face the same repercussions but bottom line it is the driver who is behind the wheel at the time who knows he is out of hours and if he takes that risk it is up to him but the dispatcher knows when a driver is running over his hours and should not allow this to happen because a customer says so.There are still a lot of companies and drivers out there who think it is cool to run until you can hardly stand up thinking they will be praised by there company when all it amounts to is they are being used.