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As you may have heard, Panelite, a supplier of truck lights, recently suspended operations. Having 96 Panelite marker lights (a/k/a chicken lights) on our truck, this was not good news. I found a replacement as described in my blog entry today. I am asking readers here for any additional...

The blank line thing is important but easily resolved. Find out what the number should be and fill it in yourself before sending both copies in. That way, the copy they sign and return to you will include no surprises.

I'll ask the same question here that I asked in the FedEx forum, asking it about Panther's 30 minutes instead of FedEx's 7/10 of a mile. I see no benefit whatsoever to the company in saddling its drivers with mobility disincentives that have no safety impact, undermine driver freedom and...

The company answers questions all the time. I have asked many over the years. No one at FedEx Custom Critical has ever said they cannot respond because it would open them up to questions of legal liability. Our corporate critters of choice may wish to check with their in-house legal department...

These are legitimate and well-informed questions coming from capable and loyal contractors. I sincerely hope the questions will be seriously considered, and that the answers will be more respectful and informative than "the new rules are in place and you can take it or leave it."

There was a time when FedEx Custom Critical required White Glove HAZMAT drivers to come to company headquarters for HAZMAT training every two years, while the legal requirement was every three years. That changed so the carrier requirement and legal requirement now match. There was a time when...

While it is vital for contractors to actually read and understand the lease agreements they sign, I did not mean to sound undue alarms. Regardless of the reasons a carrier gives for requiring a new lease agreement, it is the agreement itself that is important. Anytime you enter into a new...

Diane and I received our new lease agreement in the mail a day or so ago. We have skimmed it and determined that a careful, line-by-line review is in order. There are changes buried in the language that give us pause. I'm not going into specifics here. With some of the questions Diane (an...

Diane and I do not have a problem with this but I understand how solo drivers could. Teams have two 14 hour clocks to work with and two people to do the driving. Solo drivers have only one. We have never worried much about starting a 14 hour clock since the other driver can drive if the first...

Our current Qualcomm unit is not mounted. A flexible cord leads from it to a place under our dash where it attaches to the rest of the wiring. When not in use, it is nicely stored out of sight and out of the way on a shelf Volvo builds above the trash bin and below the dash. The flexible cord...

I'm glad you consider it a discussion, as do I. Dreamer used the figure of speech "dog in the fight." I'm not fighting with anyone, just exploring out loud the issues. That may be the solution as I do not like losing detailed data that I am now able to have. Granted, I keep more detailed...

We're doing great, thank you. Business has picked up. We are healthy. Life is good!

I had an additional thought about the motivations of a carrier on this. While it may very well be true that electronic logging may be more convenient, once they get it working right and can supply our historical data, consider too the costs. With paper logs, our carrier pays one or more people...

We have been reading in the industry press for years that EOBRs are coming. While they may be more convenient for drivers to use, that is not the reason they came into being. They came into being because congress people, senators, regulators and citizen action groups cried out for them for...

How interested will the DOT be to know that you are keeping two sets of log books? While your intentions may be good and reasons understandable, I would be very careful about keeping two sets of log books in the truck. The carrier will only recognize one set, will it not? Is it even possible...

I know Panther has been using electronic logs for a while now. If a Panther contractor or driver needs to access log book information from say six months or six weeks ago, how is it done? See this post and this one for what prompts this question.

The inability to provide contractors with copies of their logs in either printed or electronic form is a serious, major and perhaps fatal flaw (explained here). I am e-mailing my contractor coordinator the strong suggestion that the ability be added immediately. This is important. A driver's...

Perhaps someone with electronic logging experience or knowledge can answer this. One of the things Diane and I use our paper log books for is long-term data storage and reference. In other words, we keep our old log books on file at home. Two examples of how the old log books come into use...

I see no change there. When we once loaded the camping gear and drove our own truck on our own time to park it at an outfitter's store and camp for a week, we logged the drive time (two hours up, two hours back) as we normally would log any driving time. It would not be any different with...

Your are correct. My mistake. It's $5 a week extra, not $5 a month. I edited the original post to correct the error.