E-log mandate and livestock haulers

Probably need teams.

 

Yup, the megas will bring in teams to run livestock. But the deliveries will still take twice as long. Thus causing meat prices to soar way higher than they are now due to shortages at the processing plants.

 

I see relays being setup. They are going to be the hardest hit from this, say what you want but elogs are going to hurt that side the most.

 

I also want to point out, how many cattle haulers do you see in a ditch ? Compared to lets say FedEx. Ya elogs really helped out on the wrecks dident they.

 

I haul livestock and I'll be honest, most guys are not legal in either hours or weight. I usually only run one load a day, which is light compared to most and I couldn't continue to do the same amount of loads I currently do. The problem I have is some days I will do a late afternoon load(say 2-4p.m. load), get to the packer between 6-8p.m., sit in line for anywhere from 1-3hrs, spend another hour washing the trailer, then have to make a three hour drive back so I can reload at 6 or 7 a.m. the next morning. I can't legally do this and e logs will force me to turn one of the loads away.

There are a lot of variables in the livestock industry that make it hard to plan trips accurately, plus you have to coordinate the schedules of the driver, livestock owner, and the packer in order to make everything work. The packers decide when they want the animals and the owners and drivers have to accommodate them. If you can't legally do the load the packer will just say "too bad we're not going to change the dock time to accommodate your schedule" and they will find another truck to haul the load. The larger livestock fleets will be in better shape then the guys like me with only one or two trucks because they will have more options to shift trucks around.

I know there are some guys that say they will just run legal and up the shipping rates to make up for the lost revenue. Other guys will buy older trucks so they can continue to run paper logs, but even this won't end their troubles because as soon as the DOT sees you have a paper log they will figure you have something to hide and will harass you.

In order to move the same amount of product that is being moved today while having everyone stay legal will require either a lot more trucks(which is hard to do because not everyone is cut out to haul live cargo)or you will have a logistics nightmare trying to coordinate everyone where they need to be to get the loads hauled. It could be done but it's not going to be fun or easy.

I've been driving for almost 15yrs and said I'd never go back to a factory job but I think I'm more than likely going to sell my truck and go back to a factory job. I'll make less money but if I'm going to basically have a set in stone record of every minute of my day it might as well be at a job that has set hours where I can be home at a decent time everyday. Plus when I punch out at the end of the day I don't have to worry about fixing trucks, or other things related to being an O/O.

I've thought about just selling my truck and going back to one that is a '99 or older, but I really don't love the job enough to take advantage of loopholes to keep doing it. Also, whose to say the pre '00 exemption will always be there. I really think the guys that take advantage of the exemptions just to run paper logs will open themselves up to being harassed by the DOT.

A couple of years ago I was pretty much offered a job working for the county taking care of the secondary roads(which is a gravy job around here)and now I wish I would've pursued it. Hopefully they have another retirement caused opening before Dec '17 like the county foreman thinks they will.


ETA. once the animals are loaded there should be no stopping, especially in the summer. The really long cattle hauls where the driver will run out of hours usually requires off loading at a salebarn so the animals can get some water and rest while the driver sleeps. For hogs loads it's really not an option to unload so you either team drive or lie on the log book to keep going. Most of my destinations are within 5hrs of where I loaded so having to stop isn't an issues most of the time. I have done a couple of longer hauls where the loading and unloading sites were 7-10hrs apart and I would make the appropriate changes to my log to give me time.

 

I see your in Ia. What about the hog haulers that used to run out to Farmer John's in La.. ?? I know most ran solo out there and ran hard.. So what now, go to teams or relay the trk and ld. halfway out? that would be interesting...

 

I'm from Iowa but I would assume that they will have to run teams or run old trucks that don't require e logs. Swapping trucks/loads is kind of a touchy issue due to bio security reasons and tractors that can be owned by a different person than the trailer owner. Livestock trailers can be unhooked loaded but they aren't really designed to do that and without crank operated landing gear it can be tough if the two trucks dont' have 5th wheel heights that are similar. Another thing is that unloading a load of hogs then reloading them to another persons trailer can cause more stress related problems with the hogs. Something that might become popular would to use locations just to offload animals and hold them until the relay can pick them up. It might create a new income source for all these old buying stations or sale barns that don't see much use since a lot of livestock operations have gotten big enough to cut out the middle man.

 

The reality is all the ELD does is force you to work with an unrealistic hours of service. Whether it's paper or electronic the HOS has always been the real problem. ELD's are just the latest distraction from the real problem.