'E' logs.

[Pat Hasler]

How many of you are using 'E'logs ?

I was worried about the company I work for starting us on them 2 years ago but 2 years has made me very for them in some ways and slightly against them in others. I had heard so many stories and old wives tales about them, most of which are just not true.

I thought I would just point out the good, the bad and the totally untrue.

1) "Elogs shut the truck off when you run out of hours" .....

2) When they had that bad weather in CT last month all the Elog trucks were stuck for hours"

All of these tales are total rubbish ! No way anywhere does an 'E'log shut down any truck, reduce the power of have any effect on the performance of any truck in any way. When you are 1 hour away from your 14 you get a 'BEEP' to warn you, another at 30 minutes, 15 minutes, 5 minutes and every minute counting down. If you run out of hours it just tells you that you are in violation and you still carry on untill you find a suitable parking place, you can then make a note to say why you ran over your time and as long as it is not a daily event nothing is usually reported. If you wanted to you can even log out of the log, carry on without anything happening but the later is ilegal. The main point is that no 'E'log on any truck will shut you down if you go over 14 hours.

Regional drivers will even get 2 extra hours added every 6 days if the log is set at 'short haul'

The bad side....

Once you log on duty you are committed to go and on a count down of 14 hours, you can't set out then change your mind and alter your log and start a new sheet but ! ..... My particular 'E'log is set to not change your mode if you drive less than 9/10th of a mile, if on sleeper or off duty it is infact possible to drive through a city stopping at traffic lights within 9/10ths of a mile without tripping the log to on duty and as you know it can take any amount of time to travel through built up areas and therefore you can actually save all that time (again ilegal) but I know those who do it.

The good side is DOT tend to leave you alone if they know you use 'E'logs, I suspect this is because most of them don't know how they actually work but know they can't be falsified (yeah right).

Another plus is that when you are out of time no matter how pushy your dispatcher is you are off duty and he can't argue with it.

My company insist we run legal even if loads are 10 hours late because you ran out of hours, the first thing any dispatcher or manager asks us is 'Do you have the hours ?' or 'Make sure you take the 10 hours off'

 

Split breaks .... If ever in the past you have used the split 2 and 8 hour rest system and messed up calculating when to have another break there is no worry with 'E'log ! ... it works it all out for you, you can have 2 hours, end the day with 8 hours and when you check your hours (can be done without logging on duty) it tells you how many hours you have before taking another 2 hours and then after that 2 hours your time is extended again.

 

Sorry if I bored you all but I hear so many fools spreading gossip about a really good system. I hope it set a few mind at ease about something that on day we will all have to use.

[Will McKelvie]

http://www.overdriveonline.com/channel19

[mike h]

I have paperless logs using the call com or w.e the company calls it. I love the fact that it tracks my hours for me and makes life so much easier compaired to paper logs. It will put you on the drive line if you go over 15 mph regardless on how far you drive. The only thing I cant stand about the "elogs" or the "call com" is when it goes out. I have to restart my call com atleast once a week. There's been times it froze on me while driving waiting inline at a weight station. They are very handy but they should really work out the bugs as far as the system freezing up on you. Any suggestions on what to do if my call com freezes on me while dealing with DOT?

[Rhett Butler]

Hi Mike ~

Actually it's a Qualcomm (like the football stadium in San Diego).

Keep the phone number for safety programmed in your cell phone or written down and in your wallet. If the e-log freezes while dealing with DOT and they want to see the logs, tell the officer and ask if they need you to contact safety and have copies faxed to them. Most of the time they will just let you go and tell you to notify your company ASAP to get it repaired. There is the 2% chance that they will actually want you to call and have them faxed. It's more a nuisance than an issue, the log keeps recording until you log off the system, off duty or sleeper even when it freezes up so your hours remain current.

DOT requires that you keep paper logs in the truck in the event your Qualcomm goes out and they may require you to begin a paper log prior to leaving, best guessing from the start of your day if you have to. Never begin a log from any point other than midnight, even if you have to in the middle of the day ~ the system will record so you only have to best guess at this point to satisfy the officer and get you moving again.

I've been running e-logs (PeopleNet, Qualcomm or Tripmaster logs) for the better part of the last 8 years and never ran into an issue with DOT, only had a fax request once in that time in New Mexico. I run a lot of west coast including California and there has never been a problem once you tell the officer it's computerized. As long as you know how to pull up the recap of the last 7 days there isn't any argument and you actually get done with any type of stop much faster than with paper logs!

[Will McKelvie]

Well I use DDL, been using it for years. Computer based and runs on laptop. Considering that the ATA prez Bill Graves is now calling them EDL's or whatever the new term, and his quotes, getting an eobr is useless to me. My software cost me 100 bucks, there is no monthly charge nor service fee nor maintenance fee. I just have to supply paper and ink. I already have the laptop and printer. DOT likes the computer program as it is easy to read and understand.

[Colin Cowie]

I use E-Logs but they are different to the regular 'built in' Peoplenet or Qualcom type. Its basically a paper log on a laptop computer with all clocks and timers built in, I can stay 100% legal, print out perfect logs every day and my company approves it... the best $95 I ever spent.

[Rhett Butler]

I know several drivers that use that type of log and say exactly the same thing.

[Pat Hasler]

We got a message from our safety dept yesterday..

One of our drivers had been stopped in Clifton park NY and the DOT officer was an expert on Peoplenet elogs, he went through the elog with a fine tooth comb. The driver recieved a violation for not changing or entering the shipper info or comodity every time the load changed ...... 9 CSA points, so be aware and tell everyone using elogs to note the shipper, BOl #s and comodity each and every time the load changes. Don't forget the trailer #'s also if doing a drop and hook.

[Tami Paulus]

Ya pat, this is is a very great post,,,

E-Logs done tremendous job in recent few years,and  will be mandatory within the next few years also.

its good for me that someone share the output and from my side its really nice to hear input from someone who is actually using this E-Logs.E-logs are very efficient for journey as pet discussed earlier..

[Nancy Long]

In addition, cloud applications also enable truckers to reach information about their business anywhere they have access to the web — from any computer. Hence I think that E-Logs is good at some extance.

[Pat Hasler]

Our 'ELOGS' are not linked to the WWW, just exclusive to 'Peoplenet' it does however provide load and assignment information, it also provides location deatails, if I send a direction request with a customer code and within seconds I get a return message with detailed directions. If during the course of my journey I press the down arrow at the side of the screen it will show me my customer address, time I am expected, the distance to that place and the direction I need to travel.

[Nancy Long]

Hi,

Yeah it is true that E-Logs will be mandatory within the next few years. Yeah some people are using e-logs these days and its very nice. 

[Pat Hasler]

I get more and more used to them and now pretty much prefer them to paper. The recall section on a paper log is so difficult to work out for most people and when you didn't manage to get a reset in and need to know how many hours you have gained is so hard to work out correctly, the elog does it all for you, each day you can check how many hours you have gained. I have also found that if you split your breaks as in 2 and 8 in the sleeper, but do it with the 8 hours taken first, it will give you more hours gained even though you didn't take the full 10 yet.