Letter: Electronic Logging

For months now, I have seen numerous articles both for and against electronic logging devices (“Editorial: Trucking Needs Electronic Logging,” 5-21, p. 8).

A faction out there has slowed the implementation of regulations requiring these devices to be mandatory, based upon the ruse of “driver harassment.”

On the contrary, electronic logs prevent a carrier from attempting to coerce a driver who is running legally to “help me out this time” or “do me a favor.”

Faced with this pressure, a driver on paper logs can only attempt to stand his ground, do the right thing and refuse the dispatch — hoping there will be no attempt to “punish” him or her with future less-than-desirable dispatches.

Ask any driver about this, and they will tell you these conversations only happen over the phone — never over a “harassing” electronic recording device that will document the communication.

With electronic logging devices, the hours are what they are. Drivers either have the hours to run a dispatch or they do not. The pressure shifts from the driver having to be “creative” with the log, to the dispatcher being creative with finding a solution to getting the freight serviced.

The over-the-road lifestyle for the driver is challenging in many ways. Three keys to good health are proper diet, exercise and rest. Drivers who take the full, mandatory 10-hour break give themselves more opportunities to find time to plan meals, take a walk, get out of the seat, be healthier and get their proper rest.

Not only are they making themselves healthier and improving their personal quality of life, but we all benefit from traveling on safer highways.

As I expressed to the drivers at our company many times when we were transitioning to electronic logs, “Fourteen hours is enough time to get a day’s work in. After that, you need your rest.”

Scott Jensen

Safety Manager

Texas Star Express

Rockwall, Texas