It’s looming large.
December 18, 2017 is the date the e-log rule goes in to effect for more or less everyone driving a truck of model year 2000 or later. The only other exception will be for those who keep logs for fewer than 8 days out of 30, or drivers willing to install a magic windshield monkey that wards off evil spirits with a special anti-demon whistle.
As the date draws closer, I’ve noticed a lot more people deciding to protest the rule. I appreciate the feelings: I’m the first one to say, “Stand up to the gubmint,” but I’ve got one question: Where were y’all all those years ago when we were begging people to make comments? Where were you when we had a chance to actually sway some thinking by sheer force of numbers? You weren’t in the office with me, furiously scribbling emails and making calls to my representatives, because the number of comments on e-logs was pitiful. You’d think something that affects almost two million people would have gotten at least a half a million comments, wouldn’t you? Yeah, not even close.
So here we are, six months before the implementation, and suddenly everyone realizes they really are going to do this crap. In true trucker fashion, Facebook groups are born, a lot of people state the same ideas within the groups, and they blow off a lot of steam on Facebook about how everyone involved is going to walk off the job December 18, unless “someone” steps in and does “something” about these e-logs. And again, I love the sentiment, I am fully in support of getting together to change something for the better, but we needed it years ago, not six months before implementation of the law.
These rules have a process, and that process is fully public, and there are very few ways to delay or impede them once they’re set in motion. OOIDA has about the only shot at keeping the e-law off the books, and they did so by using the process and filing a (multiple) lawsuit(s) regarding the issue, because guess what? The people making the rules don’t generally consult Facebook before making decisions. They engage the process, and if the public doesn’t care to have input in the proper forums when it’s asked for, then they go about the process of making a rule a law, and law must be combated with the law – hence lawsuits, and lawyers, and all sorts of messy, expensive things that could have been avoided completely.
No one is going to swoop in and “save” us from the evil e-logs. Even if everyone did walk off the job December 18, there would still be a process to remove the rule, because that’s how a governing body works – it absolutely has to have set-in-stone procedures. If you want to be a part of those procedures, then get involved while they’re happening, not after the fact.
