Electronic Logbooks.... revisited

[dobry4u]

Looks like Swifties are going to give a go.

Trucking firms flip on digital logbooks - JSOnline

[cdswans]

It must be true what they say about brilliant minds . .

Csa 2010

[geeshock]

they were testing it out 2 years ago, thought they abandoned to idea

[GMAN]

Perhaps this is a way to circumvent having to install those black boxes. Swift has taken a few hard hits with major accidents recently. I would expect that may have played a part in their decision.

[Brown67]

They are nice. We've got them in our trucks and its easy to pull up and see where you are on hours. Big no no to violate hours. Which is also nice, because no one will push you to fudge your logs. Can't get around the electronic logs, so when you are out of hours you won't drive.

[VPIDarkAngel]

Originally Posted by Brown67

They are nice. We've got them in our trucks and its easy to pull up and see where you are on hours. Big no no to violate hours. Which is also nice, because no one will push you to fudge your logs. Can't get around the electronic logs, so when you are out of hours you won't drive.

Agreed. Y'all might use something different than what We[rner] have, but it's still nice to have it there on the computer and not have to draw a comic strip every day. However, that's a double-edged sword. If you're stuck somewhere, out of hours, with nowhere to go, you can't just sneak up the truck stop which is 10 miles away while you're on line 1 or 2.

[Malaki86]

It'd be weird to not having the dispatchers asking you to go ahead and push on through.

[Brown67]

Originally Posted by VPIDarkAngel

Agreed. Y'all might use something different than what We[rner] have, but it's still nice to have it there on the computer and not have to draw a comic strip every day. However, that's a double-edged sword. If you're stuck somewhere, out of hours, with nowhere to go, you can't just sneak up the truck stop which is 10 miles away while you're on line 1 or 2.

Everything is the same everyday, so that's not a problem.

[ohio rob]

looks like my company mcs is going eletric in 2010 also. this is going to suck.

[geeshock]

hope some of that govt. money makes room for more truck stops, lol. I also thing you'll see loads being re planned. Might have a few companies upset when you shut down 30 min away. Might have an up side though, companies might realize they need to make adjustments to the pay scale, lol. I just crack myself up.

[shadowdrak]

After running with elec. logs for a year, it has it's ups and downs for sure. I've had to sit at a receiver for 5 hours once and had a pick up just 6 hours in time, a truck stop 1 mile down the road, thought I could get a 10 hour break and make a good run. That didn't happen at all! The thing put me on line 3 (regardless of the tricks I tried to keep it on line 1 or 4) but also kept me on driving time for 30 minutes after shutting down, when it was only a few minutes to do it. Couldn't get safety to even take that 28 minutes off.

They also are very easy to use when your used to them and DOT doesn't really like messing with them. Takes alot of proper trip planning to be able to run them with loads. The company has a lot of drivers having to get repowered (or worse, disconnecting the QC to make p/u or deliver).

All in all, I'm just old school and like the flexibility of paper logs. Can still run legal, but if you need to make a little adjustment, you can.

[Jackrabbit379]

I wished we would run completely paperless. We have both. Logs and Computers. Stupid.

[VPIDarkAngel]

Originally Posted by Jackrabbit379

I wished we would run completely paperless. We have both. Logs and Computers. Stupid.

That's PRECISELY what I've been thinking for a long time about these companies who use Qualcomm's, but also use paper logbooks. While the paperless logs don't keep the company 100% honest, I'd reckon it's a lot better than having guys who fudge paper logs all the time and getting away with it.

[Jackrabbit379]

Originally Posted by VPIDarkAngel

That's PRECISELY what I've been thinking for a long time about these companies who use Qualcomm's, but also use paper logbooks. While the paperless logs don't keep the company 100% honest, I'd reckon it's a lot better than having guys who fudge paper logs all the time and getting away with it.

We don't have Qualcomm, but we have Symbol hand-held computers. They put them in our trucks, 3 or 4 years ago, and they told us, (at that time) that we will soon go paperless. How soon?