Anyone got any info or experience using the Peoplenet Blu2 E-Log… is it good or bad?
contractdriver:
Anyone got any info or experience using the Peoplenet Blu2 E-Log… is it good or bad?
I used PeopleNet (old version) for a year, it was great to be legal, and useful to quickly and accurately access available and spent hours information.
For the last month over the pond I used the later version, which looked much prettier, but was way too slow to boot up, and had a few other quirks.
The system is very useful for logging on on-line and checking and printing all the info, particularly for tax records.
You can shove the paper log system which makes it way too easy for employers to ‘encourage’ drivers to sit all day waiting for loads, then drive all night when you eventually get the promised trailer (my experience at H&R Transport).
Yeah, its really great to be legal isn’t it. Maybe it is out west but for those of us who earn most of their bread and butter east of the Mississippi the only thing that means is parking on industrial estates and slip roads with no foods, toilets and showers. Just like the bloody UK. You can shove your flaming elog and all the stresses and problems it brings drivers down the road when all the unpredictable time consuming variables that are out of his control go against him. Anyone can run legal in Wyoming, Montana or Utah unless the weather goes against them. Have you ever tried running to your elog on long distance trips down the eastern seaboard Mick, and I dont mean coming in from the west on the 80 or 90 but running the whole thing down the 95 from top to bottom. It can’t be done with any certainty at all unless you stop after 8 hours driving per day. Maybe we should be focusing more on getting rid of milleage pay before we’re talking about castrating our freedom of movement with something akin to the digital tacho. Another example would be running up the 81 from TN north, anything past 5 or 6pm and the few truckstops in Virginia are all full. You can’t even get in them to have a look because they’re clogged up with trucks trying to get out after finding no space. The other week I ran two hours over my time, this wasn’t intentional, I was tired and didn’t want to do it, but other than parking on a noisy and dangerous slip road like all of the Americans with big e-log sticksers on the cabs, I had no choice but to carry on. If I were down there every week, it’d happen every week. Getting paid by the mile we can not afford to do half a days work, just in case. So elogs, F off.
robinhood_1984:
Yeah, its really great to be legal isn’t it. Maybe it is out west but for those of us who earn most of their bread and butter east of the Mississippi the only thing that means is parking on industrial estates and slip roads with no foods, toilets and showers. Just like the bloody UK. You can shove your flaming elog and all the stresses and problems it brings drivers down the road when all the unpredictable time consuming variables that are out of his control go against him. Anyone can run legal in Wyoming, Montana or Utah unless the weather goes against them. Have you ever tried running to your elog on long distance trips down the eastern seaboard Mick, and I dont mean coming in from the west on the 80 or 90 but running the whole thing down the 95 from top to bottom. It can’t be done with any certainty at all unless you stop after 8 hours driving per day. Maybe we should be focusing more on getting rid of milleage pay before we’re talking about castrating our freedom of movement with something akin to the digital tacho. Another example would be running up the 81 from TN north, anything past 5 or 6pm and the few truckstops in Virginia are all full. You can’t even get in them to have a look because they’re clogged up with trucks trying to get out after finding no space. The other week I ran two hours over my time, this wasn’t intentional, I was tired and didn’t want to do it, but other than parking on a noisy and dangerous slip road like all of the Americans with big e-log sticksers on the cabs, I had no choice but to carry on. If I were down there every week, it’d happen every week. Getting paid by the mile we can not afford to do half a days work, just in case. So elogs, F off.
Well said that man.
Agree with Robinhood 100 %.
I don’t really have a choice about using the e-logs because the company already has them fitted to their trucks, they just told me the brand and model name and i posted the question here. I have since found a video which gives me a bit more info about it!.
I think the demo guy need’s some ‘Veet for Men Hair Removal Gel Creme’ from one of my other postings!!Thank god i'm still a 'Hairy Arsed' Trucker - BULLY'S TRUCKSTOP BAR (INTERACTIVE) - Trucknet UK 
contractdriver:
I don’t really have a choice about using the e-logs because the company already has them fitted to their trucks, they just told me the brand and model name and i posted the question here.
You have my sympathy! I’m sure they’re fine when everything goes well but who needs the added worry and panic of being apprehended like a criminal days/weeks/months after the event when you couldn’t park safely. Its a sad state of affairs when the place we have come to is trying to emulate the bad bits about the place we’ve left behind. Electronic devices controling a persons movements dont show any humanity, they’re simply black and white and life on the road is not like that. No one should be in the position of parking in an unsuitable place purely because a piece of programmed software declears its so.
I ran up through Connecticut in the early hours one day last week on the 84 towards Hartford and just about every slip road had trucks crammed on to it with their curtains closed, side lights on and engines running etc. This would never of happened a year or two ago and its a sad sign of the times that drivers who are placed between a rock and a hard place are having to yield not to their own personal safety or human needs (toilet, shower, food) but to bureaucracy and 1984 style control of freedom. Paper log books were good enough for the USA from 1938 until now, this isnt about safety, its purely about central governments ever increasing desire for control.
robinhood_1984:
Yeah, its really great to be legal isn’t it. Maybe it is out west but for those of us who earn most of their bread and butter east of the Mississippi the only thing that means is parking on industrial estates and slip roads with no foods, toilets and showers. Just like the bloody UK. You can shove your flaming elog and all the stresses and problems it brings drivers down the road when all the unpredictable time consuming variables that are out of his control go against him. Anyone can run legal in Wyoming, Montana or Utah unless the weather goes against them. Have you ever tried running to your elog on long distance trips down the eastern seaboard Mick, and I dont mean coming in from the west on the 80 or 90 but running the whole thing down the 95 from top to bottom. It can’t be done with any certainty at all unless you stop after 8 hours driving per day. Maybe we should be focusing more on getting rid of milleage pay before we’re talking about castrating our freedom of movement with something akin to the digital tacho. Another example would be running up the 81 from TN north, anything past 5 or 6pm and the few truckstops in Virginia are all full. You can’t even get in them to have a look because they’re clogged up with trucks trying to get out after finding no space. The other week I ran two hours over my time, this wasn’t intentional, I was tired and didn’t want to do it, but other than parking on a noisy and dangerous slip road like all of the Americans with big e-log sticksers on the cabs, I had no choice but to carry on. If I were down there every week, it’d happen every week. Getting paid by the mile we can not afford to do half a days work, just in case. So elogs, F off.
You were tired and didn’t want to do it, BUT you still ran 2hrs over whilst tired? That is why the E-logs have been introduced, not Government control as such!
Whilst I understand the crap parking on the dirty side of the country, I wouldn’t choose to run there and if you are unable to stay legal and safe, maybe it’s time to try a different Province as a base. There were at least two Canadian drivers from the East working for Watt and Stewart in AB as they couldn’t earn good rates over there, and were sick of the same kind of driving/parking which you describe.
The mileage pay is a problem.
If you were paid by the hour you would have to be managed differently by your dispatcher, which would HAVE TO include rest periods and legal shutdowns, in safe places, you would also be able to manage your own time better, without worrying about losing money.
Unfortunately, if you were paid by the hour you might just work a lot less than the legal 70/8 or 70/7, which would break a lot of companies who love to see drivers kill themselves trying to make a buck.
mickfly:
You were tired and didn’t want to do it, BUT you still ran 2hrs over whilst tired? That is why the E-logs have been introduced, not Government control as such!
Whilst I understand the crap parking on the dirty side of the country, I wouldn’t choose to run there and if you are unable to stay legal and safe, maybe it’s time to try a different Province as a base. There were at least two Canadian drivers from the East working for Watt and Stewart in AB as they couldn’t earn good rates over there, and were sick of the same kind of driving/parking which you describe.The mileage pay is a problem.
If you were paid by the hour you would have to be managed differently by your dispatcher, which would HAVE TO include rest periods and legal shutdowns, in safe places, you would also be able to manage your own time better, without worrying about losing money.
Unfortunately, if you were paid by the hour you might just work a lot less than the legal 70/8 or 70/7, which would break a lot of companies who love to see drivers kill themselves trying to make a buck.
Yes Mick, I carried on so that I could park up in a safe place, which i did in the end and not somewhere where my truck was getting rocked around all night by passing traffic, not to mention the noise. People in the UK get killed while sleeping in laybys, or running in to the back of trucks parked in them, I’m not about to start playing that stupid game here. I consider it to be safer for myself to run 2 hours over a 14 in the US and then take 10 hours proper rest, than to play gypsy camp site on the slip road and have 10 hours of constant noise, waking up, worrying about being crashed in to and expecting the knock on the door at any minute by a state trooper ordering me on to one of the many parking places that dont exist. As for not choosing to run there, I just go where I’m sent, I’m a company employee not a director. If they have a load to Vigrinia then I go to Virginia. They never expect or want me to run bent, but theres no avoiding the fact that Virginia is on the main I81 trunk route and has nowhere near enough parking as everything running from the NE down to Texas passes through there. Ultimately if our Fuhrers want us to park up without exception within 11hrs driving or 14hrs duty then we can only do so if there’s actually somewhere for us to park. Refusing to go to half the continent isn’t solving the problem, its just going to get me sacked for being a useless entity to the company.
Paper log books didn’t make your job crap at H&R, H&R are just a reefer company and thats how they behave, many of them here in NB are now on elogs doing reefers and they still sit around all day and then either earn no money, or bow to pressure from the office as they’ve already had 8 hours on the bay and are ordered to sit tight for two more hours and then drive all night, totally legally and then once they’ve started the clock they have to crack on because time is ticking, unlike on a paper log where you can sleep wheen you feel you need it and adjust accordingly. In my opinion your last job on the flatbeds/low loaders was only good because it was a good oraganised job anyway, that would have been the case even if you were on paper logs. I love the current job I’m in and I’m on paper logs, yet I dont run day and night like on reefers to make a wage, now and then I get caught out at places but most days stop well within my time as I’m covering such good ground legally but have the freedom and liberty to move off card if the situation dictates. Ie for a quieter nights sleep further down the rest area when some prick in an old Columbia parks next to you at 2am on high idle with every panel on his truck lose and vibrating causing you to wake up with no chance of getting any proper sleep from that point onwards. There is absolutely nothing wrong with anyone wishing to move because of that, its safer and its common sense. This fixation with controlling our every move and making us be a prisoner to the truck for 10 hours is nonsense best left in Europe.
On this subject I agree with Robinhood completly.
No point in being here governed by that old bollox, ya may as well keep your digicard & all the ■■■■ that goes with. The job here wouldnt be worth a rub with elogs.
Im not pushed or pressured in anyway, I do what I want when I please most days, I dont need strangling by a computer thanks all the same, im here because I was tired of all that ■■■■.
fly sheet:
No point in being here governed by that old bollox, ya may as well keep your digicard & all the [zb] that goes with. The job here wouldnt be worth a rub with elogs.Im not pushed or pressured in anyway, I do what I want when I please most days, I dont need strangling by a computer thanks all the same, im here because I was tired of all that [zb].
Well said. It makes me cringe every time I hear about the Canadians/Americans trying to emulate our marvellous rules in Europe.
But surely it is inevitable that they will introduce some form of electronic logging system…now they’ve started down that road they aren’t going to suddenly stop and get rid ,are they?
DonutUK:
But surely it is inevitable that they will introduce some form of electronic logging system…now they’ve started down that road they aren’t going to suddenly stop and get rid ,are they?
Probably not, but it can be delayed indefinetely in the US courts when the owner operators association objects to it, like they are doing. All the companies who have them now, have chosen to have them to save on administration costs and analysis, they are not a legal requirement. The very reason they havent introduced an electronic system until the now is because they know it wont work in the north American trucking industry, otherwise they’d of had tachos and such from the early 80s. Everything here is reliant on a huge degree of flexibility and has to be that way due to the huge distances between towns and between parking places. You cant run things to the minute when parking opertunities are often an hour or more apart before 6pm, let alone after that. Its not the prevention of running bent that I object to, its the physical banning of the truck moving an inch for the rest period like in Europe. I came here because I was sick of playing gypsy campsite in dirty stinking layby’s and being forced to live in conditions in my stationary cab worse than a convicted criminal has to put up with. At the very least they have washing facilities, a toilet and guarunteed food. I object to any legislation and electronic logging device that denies us that simple neccesity of life when things dont go according to plan. You cant plan trucking, what takes 10 hours on day can take 15 hours the next and 8 hours the day after. I personally dont think we as drivers should be punished for that fact when everybody else involved in our running and regulating goes home every night and enjoys all of the basics which will often potentially be denied us if we chose to stick to the law because we’re too affraid of having infringements logged that could later be punished by unsympathetic DOT officers hundreds or thousands of miles away from said offence. Anyhow, sorry for the rant, its just something I feel exceptionally passionate about.
It seems like I opened a ‘whole can of worms’ here 
I agree with everything you say about digicard’s also Robinhood… they are antiquated 20 year old, ‘self incrimination devices’ with a potential conviction looming for the next 12 months with nowhere to write anything within the system to explain why you ran over hours, moved the truck or missed a break etc… I personally hate them also.
The E-Log system seems a bit more ‘driver friendly’ than the Digicard with and at least you can defend yourself write notes and info on there if a balls-up is made…
I’m not keen on the GPS tracking and location bit though…
It’s back to when ‘Dynafleet’ became popular … with ‘George Orwell’ asking why have you stopped?.. gone that way?.. gone off route… and the best one I ever had… ‘Why are you in Iceland?’ (the Country) when i was in Greece?.. and the Planner was being serious! FFS… 
I just remembered, that ‘Planner’ ended up becoming a ‘manager’ and gave me a reference for my Canadian job, so he will probably read this… don’t worry Lee, i wont mention your name.
The problem is that its a one way road and all of us from Europe know it. When the first e-logs came out a few years back, you could drive “off card” for x amount of miles before it interupted your daily rest, this was for common sense and practical reasons. Pulling off a loading dock, moving to a quieter part of the truckstop, something like that. It wasn’t enough to find somewhere else to park but it avoided the worst of what the digital tacho is. Now most companies have done away with this leeway and there is zero tollerance to any movement at all unless you completely log out of the system, thus making your ‘crime’ blatently obvious.
As for being tracked, we all are anyway, most trucks here communicate with the office with a satellite computer using qualcomm or peoplenet. I have peoplenet in my truck, its not an elog though. Even though they know where we are, they’re so busy in the office with their 30 other trucks that nothing you do is ever questioned. Granted I do work for a small company and they let us do the job our own way, so long as we do it properly, they dont care how it gets done. If you’re going to a smaller company, it’ll probably be the same.
robinhood_1984:
As for being tracked, we all are anyway, most trucks here communicate with the office with a satellite computer using qualcomm or peoplenet. I have peoplenet in my truck, its not an elog though. Even though they know where we are, they’re so busy in the office with their 30 other trucks that nothing you do is ever questioned. Granted I do work for a small company and they let us do the job our own way, so long as we do it properly, they dont care how it gets done. If you’re going to a smaller company, it’ll probably be the same.
It is a smaller company with about 20 company trucks and about 10 O/Drivers.
They told me that my truck will rarely go back to ‘base’ and I can use it on my reset days and other days off as my own ‘personal car’. It’s also gonna be my home for a few months until I work out where i am going to settle (somewhere on route) then bring my family over.
I’m gonna be on a dedicated, repetitive run… Edmonton to Texas i think (which suits me fine!) but I will probably rent a motel room every now and again to avoid ‘Cab Fever’ and have a bit of pampering luxury 
.
I’m guessing I will have to drop trailer and ‘log off’ the system to use it as a car?
You’ll sort your haunts out lots of motels etc next to the interstate with rig parking & ammenities close by, you’ll probably get away with not even looking at the motor on your resets, My good mate Toetapper does this for His resets & if your on dedicated traffic you’ll be sorted in no-time.
We use the regular Peoplenet E logs, I love them (unless it prevents me for getting home when I had planned on it). We have asked for ‘E Log’ stickers but to no avail. I hear such BS from drivers who say they “just ain’t gonna work if they have to use them” … yeah right ! they will use them because they will have no choice. I know of some companies that have switched over and the drivers are loosing money due to the fact they before the change they ran as bent as nine bob notes 
With regard to running logged off, I will log off when in Yonkers on a 10 hour break and log out to drive to a diner or some other place. If I bring a trailer home and drop it at a truck stop I will log out and drive home, we are told if needed we can log out and drive home provided we are bobtail up to 60 miles radius, one of our drivers was repremanded this week for logging out and driving 400 miles to get home
The distance you can drive logged off duty but still logged into the truck depends on your company settings, they controll the distance, when we first got the e logs we could go 1 mile before it tripped the log and if we came to a full stop for a second the mile restarted, then they set it at half a mile but we complained because it was a mile to get food, so the changed the distance to 2 miles but you had to stop before the 2 miles was travelled and stop for at least 5 minutes to stop the log tripping back on duty… I can’t be bothered so I just log off duty then log out, that way I don’t get tripped back on duty.