Originally Posted by jlkklj777

This will be a tell all to expose the current "tricks" many drivers use to make more money on the road and "appear" to be legal. If I miss any feel free to chime in!

1.Pattern Logging; A driver will adjust his driving time (especially if he has been delayed due to weather, congestion, accidents, road construction, detours, etc) by dividing his total miles driven into an average speed based upon the legal speed limits he traveled through. This may save him several hours over the course of a week.



Ooppss there is an officer that pulls you over 3 hours after the back up and is fully aware of the traffic issue and you are somewhere you should not be at the time. That's happened to one of my drivers before (maybe not that many or less of hours, however the officer was fully aware of what the driver really did.

2.Shaving miles; Many drivers understand that based upon routing programs such as Rand McNally and Pc Miler they will drive 5 to 10% more miles than they are paid for. To alleviate the burden of showing all driving time for unpaid miles a driver will drop his mileage recorded on his log in conjunction with the above trick and show fewer miles driven as well as less time. Again saving time for the later part of the week and staying as far from the 70 hr/8 day rule as they can.

This is the easiest way to get busted as many companies/officers are doing point to points, meaning they do the miles from point A to B and their system says you can do it in 7 hours, then you better have 7 logged or they will write you up for speeding or false logs and then fine you and shut you down for 10 hours

3. Dropping trips are common especially in areas of the country that have no tolls, or scale houses that are rarely open. For example; A driver works for a company that has preloaded trailers in Chicago Il and Indianapolis In. The driver begins his day in Chicago Il with a trailer loaded for Indianapolis In (About a 181 mile trip). The driver will run the load to Indianapolis In, drop the load, hook up to a trailer that is destined for the Chicago Il area and return to Chicago. The driver will never show the miles for the trip down to Indianapolis nor the miles back up to Chicago. Instead he will show he was off duty or in the sleeper berth for the 6 to 7 hours it took him to make the round trip.

Unfortunately when DOT does an internal DOT audit the officer views all "paid" trips and will then bust the company and or mail you a letter that you owe them $1,000 for a false log and no you don't have to be an active driver to get this letter/fine.

4.Using Multiple logbooks; For drivers working for large companies with several terminals. Drivers have used 2 and sometimes more logbooks to runn over the hos. To keep the books straight he will make a notation on the cover showing which terminal that book represents. For Example; A driver picks up a preloaded trailer from Carlisle Pa going to St Louis Mo (A 781 mile trip) living in Pennsylvania with a terminal in Carlisle Pa would show his original logbook as beginning in Carlisle Pa while his 2nd book he would show starting his trip in Columbus Oh. The trip would be too long to legally run straight under the current hos rules from Carlisle Pa but would be legal if the load began in Columbus Ohio. The driver would use his first logbook to show his transit from Carlisle Pa to Columbus Ohio. Once he arrived in Columbus Ohio he would then begin his 2nd logbook showing he had a fresh 11 hours to drive. Juggling these 2 logbooks could enable a driver to drive cross country in 3 days and "appear" legal to any dot paperwork check.

Soundslike a lot of work on them drivers! But yeap it happens, I know! What happens when the officer ask for the bills and it shows the load was picked up from Carlisle? Seriously, I don't know how this works?

5. Since loose leaf logbooks have become more and more popular the juggling of 2 or more log books is really no longer necessary. When a driver arrives at a certain location he could "re-write" his trip, streamlining it to a more direct route, ommitting stop offs along the way and compressing his transit times. Buy destroying the original log he would then have nothing to dispute his account of things. These strategies work as long as the drivers manifests or bills are nor timed or dated and ideally the load was a repower meaning someone else signed for it in the first place.

Keep in mind if you are in an accident during this transition or any illegal running for the prior 30 days, you can be held accountable for that accident and as he explaine's below could be sent to prison.

6. For drivers that work for companies not allowing the use of loose leaf logbooks the driver would remove the page he was currently working on, open the staples on the back of the book, remove the back cover, and replace the missing page (or pages) with fresh sheets from a clean logbook that had the staples removed thus providing 31 replacement sheets if needed.

7. A simpler form of this is to simply discard the current log book and begin a new logbook showing 7 consecutive days off duty thus satisfying dot's requirement of having the past 7 days on the truck. The driver has a fresh logbook with a fresh 70 hours available.

8. Ghost drivers. For long haul trips a driver would create a fictitious driver, list him as a co-driver and then rework a fresh logbook dividing the miles between his book and the ghost. This takes good notes and a savvy driver to pull off. Drivers that stop along their route will note the time and odometer reading in a notebook so they can rework the details later.

Do they still do this?

9. Many drivers have opted out of driving for companies due to the extra scrutiny from safety departments, and gps tracking through computers such as Qualcomm. Instead they get into a lease purchase or flat out get there own truck and become an o/o. These guys will only lease on with companies that do not have computer tracking and then will burn up the highway to make as much money as possible.

I hope they don't have an accident, because they have much more to lose than a company driver does.

10. Drivers will roll the dice and not keep their logbook current counting on not being inspected. In the event they do get inspected they will claim they lost their logbook or left it at the last truckstop. The fines for not having a logbook are much less than showing a logbook in violation.


Oooppss however the odds of you being pulled over are very high and the first thing they want to see is if you are current. It's just best you keep 2 log books and keep the log dept current

This is why many safety groups are demanding black boxes on trucks and a revision of HOS.

Now is a list of the possible ramifications of using the previously cited tricks or strategies;

1.You get away with it and become complacent.
2.You receive a log violation from your safety department and possibly a loss of bonus.
3.You get pulled over for a minor traffic violation and the officer discovers you are in violation and places you out of service for 10 hours with a hefty ticket.
4. You become involved in an accident through no fault of your own other than the fact "YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE BEEN THERE." Now you may lose your job, in addition to the serious fines and tickets, possibly be sued by the victims, and possibly lose your freedom through being locked up.

So drivers beware. These companies out here love hard runners and will turn a blind eye at the HOS rules and your logs so long as they are making money off of your hard work. Mess up and the company reps will deny any and all knowledge of your behavior effectively throwing you to the wolves to fend for yourself.

Truckers come from all walks of life and despite the stereotype of being uneducated hicks are in facr vary intelligent and creative especially when it comes to making money.

I beleive having a discussion about these "tricks" may help others to realize

Originally Posted by arigo

I'm not a truck driver yet, but I don't understand why the interstate limits for how long you can drive are so low anyway. California's intrastate hours seem much more reasonable with 12 hours driving and 8 hours off. I doubt a lot of the truckers out there would be resorting to breaking the law if the law were reasonable.

Edit: Oh, and what are you talking about. Truckers are intelligent? Right.

Originally Posted by arigo

I'm not a truck driver yet, but I don't understand why the interstate limits for how long you can drive are so low anyway. California's intrastate hours seem much more reasonable with 12 hours driving and 8 hours off. I doubt a lot of the truckers out there would be resorting to breaking the law if the law were reasonable.

Edit: Oh, and what are you talking about. Truckers are intelligent? Right.

Originally Posted by LogsRus

That sounds like a 100 air mile radius regulation without them udpating the "old" 8 hour break to the "new" 10 hour break. I could be wrong, can anyone correct me if I am wrong. Does California allow drivers to log 12 hours of driving within their 14 hour period or what is it exactly?
I do know however DOT overules all the state laws, so be carefull in what the "state" allows.

Originally Posted by arigo

It's actually not a 14 hour period in California. It's a 15 hour period. Also, instead of 60 hours in a 7 day period, you get 80 in a 8 day period.