Hours of service

I started in 1984. Made 17 cents a mile in a cabover binder. Made 900 bucks a week. Now, equipment is better in some ways, roads better in some areas, but truck drivers are becoming extinct being replaced with seat meat. Road are more crowded, 4 wheelers are worse, truckstops are gone along with the men of the brotherhood. Regulations in our unregulated industry is strangling O/O and small companies. I with you, my 99 Starcar is my final ride. When it dies, I do too out here.

So you ran 5300 miles a week??

Yes. Left Dakota City NE Sunday, drop Hunts Point Monday morning, load ice cream in Newark NJ drop in Buena Park CA, load back to Omaha Ne. Dedicated run. I was 24, healthy, greedy, and stupid. Made money but never seen the kids.

Just for the record I messed this post up on the new format and posted it by accident... The old forum format is easier to use.

My question is how many of those complaining about ELD actually run one? I didn't know how to feel about an ELD at first but it's actually nicer than messing with a paper log... Art I hauled livestock because I loved doing it. In that line of work the truck driving is the easiest part. The long hours without sleep were taking a toll on my health so I moved on to something different. The comment about being 67 and not being able to learn an ELD is a bit much if you can navigate a forum on bulk loads, it's literally a screen on your phone that looks like a paper log....

talking about betraying a friend , this is one of the reason I dont sell my 1992 Pet379 is sitting at my the yard asking me every morning when we go back to the road have 3,731,223 miles, is ready to run but Im planing sell my 2012 W900 too much confot for this end dum job Im getting lazy lol

if you like eld you will love being an hour away from home and run out of hours. my personal experience to landing at a truck stop when i was a passenger.... .87 minutes drive time remaining

The new driver relies on all the new technology such as gps, elds, and smart phones. They are taught that by other newbies who think technology is the best and easiest way to get the job done. I myself use gps and smart phones but I also still use a road map and and a cb radio. I run an 94 Peterbilt 379 that has been retooled as needed (engine, trans,etc..). I don't run this truck because I don't want to run elds (which I don't), I run it because I like the older reliable trucks. Its cheaper, if you have the know how, to retool a truck than to buy a new one anymore. With that being said I run a paper log, always have and will. Does that make me a cheat? Isn't switiching to PC mode while under a load cheating?

I read this forum all the time but rarely do I get involved because everybody is entitled to there opinion. So here's my opinion on all the new technology: Use it if you want! But for some of us that have been in the industry, before this new technolgy, we still remember stopping and calling on the phone for directions to a receiver or shipper, which I still do. Gps sometimes put you where you don't wanna be. The use of CB radios use to prevent bad pile ups because you got advanced warning before you got there, sad to say not anymore. And now onto ELDs..my thoughts are if you need a computer to tell you when your tired and need a break maybe you should try a different profession. They do not stop accidents, they create the perfect storm for an accident! Drivers with little to no experience driving on winter roads for example, instead of pulling over and letting the weather settle, they push through at normal speed because the ELD clock is ticking and there gps says the speed limit is 75! Oh wait I got held up do to a jack-knifed truck, well I'll just throw my ELD into PC mode so I can continue to work even though it says I need to go to bed. Sounds like cheating to me. Anyway enough of my 2 cents worth! Have nice day!

Dale, how is being empty, not working, and going back to home base not personal conveyance? "For those of us that live over the road" ....Give me a break, I usually live on the road 4 days 3 nights a week. During harvest with an ag exemption I spend more time on the road.

Dale, I assumed to know your business just like you assumed to know mine. Saying that bulk and livestock hauling is entry level work is a slap in the face to many people in this industry. I prefer ag related work because there's always demand, it's less fickle than other work. As for why I prefer work away from busy cities, simple, people make me nervous, I did a tour for Uncle Sam in the Stan and would rather work long hauls.

Now, getting back to the subject of HOS. HOS was/is meant to protect truck drivers from abusive companies, and other drivers from sleepy truckers. I don't have a problem with HOS and ELDs because I've seen the extreme opposite. I'm not bragging about running cattle around the clock, it was part of the job. Like I said before, every single truck driver I hauled livestock with had fallen asleep and wrecked at one time in their careers, one of those crashes resulted in a fatality. Where does one draw the line when it comes to HOS?

" A mans got to know his limitations". Every man has different ability and every day has different challenges. Racing the "sands is the hour glass" is foolish. I too am a grown man with commonsense.

I'm not sure I understand the question. I get everything I want within my limitations.

To Art's original comment, I made an effort of contacting the "powers that be" during the lead up to the ELD and later felt that I was wasting my time.

Dale, I'm on this forum for networking purposes. Your comments don't offend me nor are my comments meant to offend anyone else. Do not take it easy on me for being a vet. It's my opinion that the current HOS are not that bad. I have known great drivers with years of experience that had one bad day and fall asleep at the wheel because they took an extra load of cattle or hogs when they should have been taking a nap. Now imagine if every pajama-shower shoes wearing individual you see at truck stops could run whenever hours they wanted... They don't make em like they used to.

I just read in Landline magazine (OOIDA) that only 2 truck accidents happened during the HOS exemption. Both were single truck accidents not involving anyone else. The increase in accidents reported was from 4 wheelers going even more crazy with less cars on the road.

Maybe it's not that they are going broke running legal. Maybe some people just want more. Maybe it's running a little extra to get a new set of golf clubs for when the good loads are done and we all go play golf and make fun of the guys running that cheap freight. Or maybe it's running a little extra so that he can give his daughter some more allowance so she doesn't have to work that extra shift at the boobie bar this week so she can concentrate on her studies. Maybe he wants to get his wife a new set of tits like his girlfriend got. Lots of reasons other than going broke running legal!

Ran my own truck and trailers for 3 years. My last trailer was a 2022 Wilson pot. If I lived out west I would still be running cattle but the wife refuses to relocate. The dairy cattle runs from Kansas to Michigan were killing me. I sold my pot in June and bought a belt.

The whole point is why is it okay to think it's okay to let the government tell us when to work and when to sleep and wear a mask while you are doing it and you can't smoke in your truck if you are a smoker and you have to park in this area but not at your house and you can only drive the speed that we can stay in front of your truck with our electric vehicle and you are going to pay to maintain the roadway for all of the electric cars to travel on. It's all about rolling over and doing what they want you to do. Not enough people pushed back against the masks a couple years ago and we all had to wear them when we were in public. Or in the bathroom at home if you had a leftist kid too report you to the mask Nazis. We used to be able to do whatever we wanted as long as it didn't infringe on your neighbor. Now your neighbor invites you to infringe on him and then cry's to the lawyers so he can take what is yours and then rule that no one can ever have anything like that again ever in this land. The government is run by lawyers and the lawyers look at ways to get around laws, it's a law abiding citizen that gets screwed out of his own beliefs and freedom of choice by a bunch of sick minded lazy asses that think you shouldn't work 25 hrs a day if you want to. Don't mind that you didn't ask the neighbor if he wanted to work also, he's just aggravated since you were willing and wanted to and he was waiting for someone to tell him when he could work.

Some will get this. Some won't. "Who is John Galt?"

Art, I was strong enough to stand up for people like you on the battlefield once upon a time. I don't appreciate being called weak because I choose to fallow the laws of my chosen profession.

If you run legal an ELD is easier than paper, it even tracks IFTA so you don't have to write your mileage down while driving.... Oh wait, a guy like you is probably so tough that you don't need to report IFTA miles or have your truck plated.... Forget the yearly DOT inspection and medical card, you aren't a slave to anyone..