Profile: grldbarnes
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It sounds like you agree with pfifreight and new creation transport that other key players involved in the shipping process (like dispatchers and receivers) should be held more accountable for their roles. What should the FMCSA do to address this problem? Could EOBRs help? If you think the best solution would be to change the hours of service rule you can tell the DOT that here.
Thank you for returning to Regulation Room grldbarnes. As an experienced EOBR user, could you explain what you feel the benefits of using an EOBR are? Besides your argument that loading and unloading time issues need to be addressed by the DOT, do you see any other downsides to using an EOBR?
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I drive for Wal Mart and use EOBR it is a wonderful tool for the type of driving I do. However I think it will put a lot of hard working drivers out of business. Unless some rules are changed and enforced, The wait time loading and unloading will kill them. Also the time waiting for dispatch to give them thier next load will be a problem. You can not help with the latter but the loading and unloading is a major problem for drivers. I have sat a grocery store wharhouse for up to ten hours waiting to get unloaded, when I was on time and did my part. With EOBR this would kill my driving hours. Rules need to be put into force regulating the time they can hold the driver while loading and unloading. Thanks for listening to my 2cents, Gerald
I have been using EOBR for 5 years now, it took a little time to get use to. But now that I have gotten use to it, it’s like a lot of new technology you can’t live with out it. There is a very major down side to it though, in oder to make money you have to keep moving. You need to address the drivers time lost to loading and unloading. It is not right that a company holds a driver for hours at a time. Now this is illegal but trust me all drivers due it, they falsify thier log books to not show the time they sit doing these things. With EOBR you can not do this which is good, but it will cost drivers thousands of dollars in lost driving time. DOT needs to some how set max. loading and unloading times and go after companies who violate it.
Like I said love using it and could not be without it now. The simple fact that everytime you change status you are not reaching for a log book. It figures your hours automaticaly, you just have to look at it and you know where you are on your 11 and 70. Ours is set so once you start your day any time you shut off the truck you go on duty, and once the truck starts moving again you go back to driving. You do have to manuelly change to off duty but that is no big deal. The only real down side is at the end of the day, last driving hour we have a count down timer. You want to drive as far as you can each day, but you can not go over so you need to start looking for a place to park. Many nights I have shut down with 40 or 50 min. of drive time left because I was 1 or 2 min. short of making the… more »
I agree with everything in your over view. The part I liked the most was refering to the shippers and recievers. They present the greatest obstacle to drivers being both safe and obeying HOS rules. As a driver it is comforting to know that the reg. board so fully understands the day to day problems the drivers face. Thank you for allowing us to have a view on this web site of how you work.