Do couriers face the same restrictions? Unless I'm missing something Amazon is talking about last-mile delivery - I could see someone setting up their company as a courier service to handle that. I'm not an expert, but from what I can tell HOS restrictions only apply to "commercial" vehicles - and any vehicle with a GVWR of 10,000 pounds or less doesn't require a CDL.I kinda feel that if it was cost effective, they'd just do it themselves, like they did with their planes and trucks.
They're trying to sell that high risk low reward on the people looking to make a change in their life.
My dad runs his own trucking company and he mentioned how many small business truckers he's seen quit this year, all citing the new ELD system.
You see the prior system of manual logs was easily manipulated, but costs were kept down because of it. Drivers could drive way above their hourly allotments and make more money. Now, the ELDs prevent circumvention, they're tied directly to the truck and will report any time allotment violation. If you're 30min from home and run out of hours? You have to stop or get a violation.
The system essentially made trucking more expensive as drivers have to drive less, so they need more per load to make any money. On top of that, the running clock encourages them to cut corners (speed, hurry, etc.), to try and get as much distance in their time allotment as possible.