Need a good reason not to falsify your log book?

Well let's see here.. I would like to think that most company drivers run a legal log book. OH Ok so I'm in dream land... Hey I have a personal problem with giving my hard earned money away to any State or Federal agency that want's to check my Log book status at any Inspection site.

I'm sitting today, because I choose not to falsify my log book after getting loaded Monday night. BOL's where time stamped with my time into plant and out of the plant. Looking down the road at the start of a nation wide 72 hr. safety/ inspection check I choose to run down the road as my book allowed me to. So the customer got his stuff a half a day later, so be it.

Freight has been slow as we all know. I ask you, Is it worth the chance to be put out of service and the load being even later? I do not have the funds or the desire to loose my job, if this happens. Yep I probly have lost a load today, but I also got to keep the money I made on that run in my pocket. The people I work for are smart enough not to ask us to do things we will or could get in trouble for. BTW the companies Safe sat score was 31 Monday, this means we are not likley to get pulled around back, but why take the chance, It is that way for a reason. Do I want to be the dunce to screw that up and help become a target?

 

Well let's see here.. I would like to think that most company drivers run a legal log book. OH Ok so I'm in dream land... Hey I have a personal problem with giving my hard earned money away to any State or Federal agency that want's to check my Log book status at any Inspection site.

I'm sitting today, because I choose not to falsify my log book after getting loaded Monday night. BOL's where time stamped with my time into plant and out of the plant. Looking down the road at the start of a nation wide 72 hr. safety/ inspection check I choose to run down the road as my book allowed me to. So the customer got his stuff a half a day later, so be it.

Freight has been slow as we all know. I ask you, Is it worth the chance to be put out of service and the load being even later? I do not have the funds or the desire to loose my job, if this happens. Yep I probly have lost a load today, but I also got to keep the money I made on that run in my pocket. The people I work for are smart enough not to ask us to do things we will or could get in trouble for. BTW the companies Safe sat score was 31 Monday, this means we are not likely to get pulled around back, but why take the chance, It is that way for a reason. Do I want to be the dunce to screw that up and help become a target?

This is just one of the reasons I work where I do. I would like to stay here for a while longer.

 

I haul gasoline so it's a little different than general freight. I got paid (retired) for every minute I was there but it was not a drivers incentive but a company's self protection. Just about all the big oil companies learned years ago that the public looks at them with deep pockets and they will sue for just about anything. We do have big bosses that don't know what a compartment is from a tank but they are not involved in the daliy operations. They deal with much bigger items than distribution. The people that direct the daily workings of distribution came up from the ranks. So we're lucky there.

Some years ago a company driver (which company I don't know) was getting off of I-5 in Seattle when the pintel hook broke from the truck and the trailer went down the hill flipped over and spilled it's load at the intersection. Right at the same time a young girl drove through the gasoline setting the product on fire and killed her. That driver was investigated and found to be legal in all aspects of his job. But that was only the start. The civil courts had him tied up for months while her family lawyers investigated everything you could think of. They even went and did metal tests on the pintel hook just to show you how detailed they went. The driver was lucky because the company stood behind him throughout all the proceedings and even paid him because he couldn't drive until all was settled. The case is on the net somewhere but I haven't seen it in some time. If I do run across it I'll post the reference so drivers can see how some proceedings can be.

Nobody needs to break the law to make a living and if you think you do it's time to look for another job. It's just not worth it, you can be raked across the coals even if it's not you fault. It's CYOA.

 

I disagree, drivers paid hourly falsify their logs to hide available hours so they can work more hours to earn more pay. When the logs are compared to payroll records the falsifications appear.

I do not believe that hourly pay will increase gross revenue. Federal minimum wage is $6.55 an hour. What a driver earns is an indivdual accomplishment. There is no guarantee that switching to hourly pay will fix driver pay woes.

Be safe.

 

Since going to work for hourly pay I no longer work for free. I've seen hourly pay for some years now and have never seen a driver hide hours to work more. But again I haul gasoline and I think you'll find most tanker drivers pulling hazmat that do get hourly wages get paid fairly decent and there's a better chance to find good companies that pay great. I got overtime for anything over 40 hours a week so I'd work 60 hours a week, that's 5 days at 12 hours a day. My company and a few others have realized that when you pay a driver a good wage it's cheaper for the company in the long run.

 

I once wqrked for a company that paid hourly and worked a 5 day week so we were limited to 60 hours in 7 days . They kept having a problem with drivers going slightly over the 60 . To put it simply there was about a 55 hour workload in the week . That's the amount of hours it took most drivers . Some drivers would hustle and only work 50 hours . Other drivers , some intentionaly , took 60 hours or slightly more to do the work . So management decided to pay by the mile . This was under the old HOS and drivers could fit in off duty time to stay legal . To determine the rate per mile they took the miles driven in the week , added stop pay , and figured a rate that would pay the same as a 55 hour week . This kept pay the same for most drivers . For drivers that had been working 50 hours a week it was like a 10% raise . For drivers that had been working 60 or more hours it was a drop in pay . Not surprisingly they started managing to accomplish the work in 55 hours .

 

I get paid by the hour, unless I'm running OTR. Either way, I like to earn what I get paid. Don't like to jack around or get stuck in line, but to keep moving. I do know some that like to drag it out as long as they can. They are retired union workers that tend to be that way, and they only help during fieldwork. They can bust a hump when they want to, but more often than not, they loaf, unless I or the boss start b******* at them.

Unless the company figures out a lazy driver isn't pulling their weight as well as a hard worker, the hourly wage may or may not be an incentive, til they get fired.

Personally, I think the HOS and logbooks are a joke. As others have mentioned, they can do more harm to a driver than good, at times. Being forced to run tired, if they typically don't run at night. Letting a driver run when they are rested, vs the way the DOT has things set up isn't a good idea.

Not to mention, a farm boy like me is used to running farm equipment for up to ~20hrs a day, for weeks on end, and being forced into the DOT HOS regs suck. I'm still ready to roll, but they make you sit, if are out of hours for the day/wk, and want to run legal. Pi$$e$ me off. I'd rather drive than sit a rat hole truckstop.

 

There is only one way to insure that drives do there job right a run legal. If they get busted at a scale house they lose there license on the spot and the company loses the load. This will get the companies attention and they WILL insure that there drivers are running legal.

Ok so we all know that this will never happen. So it is up to the drivers to decide that no ones life is worth the extra miles you might get. No amount of pay or regs or anything else will stop some drivers from running illegal. only swift and server punishment, such as loss of license the 1st time you are caught, will stop this. Run it legal or don't run it. If you can't do this then you ARE the problem. Please find a new Carrier.

 

There is one nagging question that remains.

What's the differance between a man who sleeps 7 hours, then falsifies his logs for 3 more.

And a man who sleeps for 6 hours, and plays video games for 4. While he waits for the "legal" break to finish.

Answer: $$$$

 

$$$ all right if he's involved in an accident and a lawyer gets hold of all documentation or DOT catches the falsification and he gets put OOS for 10 hours .