Electronic Log And 34 Hour Reset

Hi Tim,

I know it sounds scary how much the trucking industry has changed, but rest assured, it's not as bad as it sounds. I too am an o/o, so let me shed some light for you. The eld's track when you start your engine, the latitude and longitude of the vehicle, your location to the closest town, the mileage, when the vehicle is moving, and how far you've driven from your last location. Obviously, if your just idling your truck it's not going to record drive time.

You can not cheat on the elogs because if you unplug it it will record "unidentified drive time". You or someone has to claim that time and it's easily visible on your eld.

Now, as an o/o i will tell you that technology also has a positive impact. In the past few years brokers are going electronic. What that means is you can pull up an app, look at loads, click a button and they'll send you the rate con electronically. You don't have to talk to anyone, you just click and go. Payments are also electronic. You don't have to wait for 30 days to get paid anymore, payments come in two days directly into your accounts. Lumper fees are paid with pressing a button also. You don't have to worry about brokers cancelling loads on you because they found a cheaper carrier and all that garbage.

As far as the 34 hour break, the way i see it, it is mainly for mega carriers to limit the amount of drive time of their drivers because company drivers work on quantity of miles vs the owners that work on mainly the quality of the trip. The 70 hour clock has never been an issue for me, sometimes i don't even remember it's even there. I myself drive around 1500-2000 miles per week and that's if i want to run that much and i'm doing quite well out here.

Also, Thank you for your service and have a nice day.

Hi Tim,

I know it sounds scary how much the trucking industry has changed, but rest assured, it's not as bad as it sounds. I too am an o/o, so let me shed some light for you. The eld's track when you start your engine, the latitude and longitude of the vehicle, your location to the closest town, the mileage, when the vehicle is moving, and how far you've driven from your last location. Obviously, if your just idling your truck it's not going to record drive time.

You can not cheat on the elogs because if you unplug it it will record "unidentified drive time". You or someone has to claim that time and it's easily visible on your eld.

Now, as an o/o i will tell you that technology also has a positive impact. In the past few years brokers are going electronic. What that means is you can pull up an app, look at loads, click a button and they'll send you the rate con electronically. You don't have to talk to anyone, you just click and go. Payments are also electronic. You don't have to wait for 30 days to get paid anymore, payments come in two days directly into your accounts. Lumper fees are paid with pressing a button also. You don't have to worry about brokers cancelling loads on you because they found a cheaper carrier and all that garbage.

As far as the 34 hour break, the way i see it, it is mainly for mega carriers to limit the amount of drive time of their drivers because company drivers work on quantity of miles vs the owners that work on mainly the quality of the trip. The 70 hour clock has never been an issue for me, sometimes i don't even remember it's even there. I myself drive around 1500-2000 miles per week and that's if i want to run that much and i'm doing quite well out here.

Also, Thank you for your service and have a nice day.

Great post

Miss Kearsey. No hostility between me and G. Like I said,"me and him just come from 2 different graduating classes". I ran my driving the way I had to back then ( and I wasn't the only one who did it that way). Since I got your attention I got a question. I read some of the posts on here. Found one about a gentleman going to work for Roehl. Wanted more info on them. I looked up their site. They talked about how they pay mileage. Hey when I ran The Alaska Pipeline when I was leased to Hill and Hill,we were told this is how much the freight pays. Roehl had this on their site. They talked about what is,"short route,address to address and practical miles route",mean? They explained what they were,but it just seems to me with them throwing all these things out there,they got the trucking version of "3 card Monte ". I finished my driving career leased to Ace Doran. That's where I first encountered mileage pay. They just didn't throw all this other crap in there about mileage. They were like,"here's what you make per mile". So Roehl bring up all these different ways to calculate miles. Seems like slight of hand to me. Thanks. Keep her between the ditches and have a great day.

Rob. What does,"your allowed to go up to 5 MPH while on duty. Anything over that,it kicks you into driving ". Does this have to do with how fast your driving? You mentioned miles per hour. That's what's confusing me.

Rob. What does,"your allowed to go up to 5 MPH while on duty. Anything over that,it kicks you into driving ". Does this have to do with how fast your driving? You mentioned miles per hour. That's what's confusing me.

It means when you start the truck and move, as long as you are creeping below 5mph the E logs won't start your drive clock. If you move 6mph, your clock starts ticking down. We do this to move to the fuel lane or perhaps getting into a door. Technically that is not legal. If you are 14 hours past the start of your clock you will be violated even under 5mph. I violated just sliding my tandems moving backwards

Roehl doesn't pay all three. Roehl was showing you how different companies pay. And they showed their pay scale is better

There are 3 ways of calculating miles and some people will shout "we need to get paid for every mile driven" but drivers could steal that way. If i drive in circles should I get paid for it? If I went 60 miles out of route cause I got lost, should I get paid?

If you calculate air miles, it doesn't account for twists and turns of the roads. So that can cheat drivers

From my own observation...you get paid less per mile the more exact the miles are.

When you get paid by the load not by the mile, you want to deadhead as little as possible. So that basically means if you deadhead 500 miles to the pickup you get paid the same as if you drove 5 miles to the pickup. I get paid for empty and loaded.

During COVID my longest deadhead was 1200 miles. If I got paid by the load, I wouldn't get paid for that. Getting paid by the mile works better for me.

This is all about what works best for people. Some drivers get paid by the hour....some by the number cases they unload in local deliveries, some lease ops get paid by the mile and some by a percentage of the load.

We agree to work for what works best for us.

Tim wrote:

Okay G. You want "goofy " crap? Here you go. No I don't find it goofy I can't lie. I don't care. I retired . Remember? The 34 hour reset. It said its "voluntary",why even bring it up. ELDs . I love this one. It said,"with old paper logs,drivers would have to round up to 15 minutes". What? I never rounded up to anything. I'd lie like a dog. Every driver I knew was like me. We ran actual and a dummy log. Maybe company drivers didn't . I don't know. I was O/O. I had bills to pay. Hell it even said something about ELDs keeping track of when your engine is running. WTF! I would've been screwed if ELDs were around back then. I kept engine running so I could keep the A/C or heat going. We may not understand each other . We come from 2 different time periods. I started driving in '70 a couple months after I got back from Nam. I got a job with pops friend. He was leased to Paul Arpin Van Lines. I was basically his lumper. I gradually got into the drivers seat. Ford cabover with a 5x4 (how many people today remember those). We're just from 2 different graduating classes.The only thing that still applies now as back then,keep the wheels spinning and the Beavers grinning. Deliver the freight in a safe and timely fashion . Okay G. Is that what you want to hear?

I asked you to basically quantify your assessment. How is that a problem?

And Rainy...there was nothing un-nice about my request.

Tim using one word to describe your opinion on e-logs doesn’t help anyone. Thank you for providing the meat...and do not assume I am trying to be contentious.

Thanks for the spelling lesson...your 10 posts to my 8000+, I’m entitled to an occasional type-o.

I thought I’d jump in and clarify Roehl’s address to address pay. We used to be paid for city center to city center, which I believe is how most companies calculate their mileage. We’re now paid address to address which more accurately represents the miles driven. We are still paid for all miles loaded or empty. If I drove 400 miles empty got loaded and another 750 loaded miles to the consignee. My pay for that run would be; my CPM x 1150 miles.

In the old city to city plan I would frequently drive more miles than what was listed for the job -like north side of Chicago to south side of Indy. Now the miles I’m paid are nearly identical to what my Co-pilot navigation shows for the route. It might occasionally be off by a few miles here or there from avoiding a toll road or something, but honestly not more than a few miles.

We’re still also compensated for detention, short haul, layover and all the other small things that help smooth out the occasional bad load.

Hope that all makes sense.

G. I'm not looking to help anyone. Like I said,"we come from 2 graduating classes ". I said before,"I ran a dummy and actual log back then". I dont expect you to understand that. You run elogs. I never did. I didn't have internet back then. I couldn't shoot a email back home. I had to depend on Ma Bell ( that's what it was called before it was broken up into smaller companies) and her pay phone rates ( no talk as long as you want on the cellphone). Ease up on me correcting you on your spelling. Jesus Harold Christ. Ease up on me ribbing you about your errors. Us drivers back then,would've laughed about it. I'm glad you've had 8,000 posts. As a driver,I don't see how you keep up with all that. I was too worried about navigating the Dalton. Our trucks weren't comfortable as yours . I thought I was King George with my Pete. You wanna a real fun truck? Take my White Freightliner......please (that was a punch at Henny Youngman when he'd say,"take my wife....please ") . We come from 2 different eras. I talk about the ICC,I don't expect you to understand what a pain they were (having to put 5 billion numbers on the side of your truck,per their regs,was the least stupidest crap they pulled). I'm sorry you can't relate to where I'm coming from. I just ask you respect it. I'll go you another one here . Has nothing to do with driving at all. You ever been in a war? If you haven't ,I'm not gonna dog you,about your opinions of war,or how one is fought. Go back and read your comments. Talking about how my "one word comment helps no one". I'm just making a comment what we did back then . Juxtaposing it with today. You were probably still in school when I started driving. Don't come down on me with a condescending attitude. My comments I make,are purely for purposes of juxtaposition . I'm not insulting anyone with my comments ( okay . Except for the ICC,but who cares about them. They're dead and gone). Here's my best proverbial,"case in point". I mentioned the person I learned to drive from,served with pop in the South Pacific in WW2. They were life long friends and that's how pop got him to "take me under his wing",and teach me to drive when I got back from Nam. He was leased to Paul Arpin at the time . After I got out on my own,we still talked quite a bit. I'd complain about what was going on. He'd tell me I didn't know what rough was and he'd remind me of trucking in the 40's,50's and 60's. I never made the comment,"how is that supposed to help anybody." When I make my comments.thats what they are. My comments. It's like the adage goes,"if you weren't there,you wouldn't understand". Nothing wrong with it,that's just how it goes.

Tim wrote:

G. I'm not looking to help anyone.

I know. It’s obvious.

The whole point of Trucking Truth is to help people get a solid start in this business and survive the difficulties of their first year. That is why the majority of us invest a portion of their free time contributing content and advice. You my friend are one of the very few with experience who has no interest in that.

If that’s not for you...fine. And as far as how I conduct myself on here? Your opinions on my comments and reactions are irrelevant.