Need some insight on Unidentified Driving Events

You are apparently looking at something that I consider a structural problem creating a wide highway for abuse by trucking companies.

In my time, once I sign that paper log and closed it at midnight each day current to last duty status that is a sworn document legally binding and certified as true and correct by me as the driver. IF problems are found at inspection scales the Law provides that I GET ONE opportunity to sit down and fix the problem last 7 days only. And my work will be checked by the Lawman for speed average violations and other signs of deceit. If violations are found then tickets will be written. And even OOS if flagrant on the spot.

The trucking company cannot do anything until I submit those logs every 12 days I think it was on a regular basis the company is required me to send them the logs at least last 8 days so they can store the same and have it on hand for 6 months against a potential audit or check at any time by DOT to see that they are in compliance. OR if in taxes personally, I store the logs by law at home or in bank vault 8 years against a IRS audit.

Once the company recieves the logs IF they think they spot a violation, then they document it punish me in some way and store the whole thing in the trailer for 6 months to show that DOT agent that yes the system is working.

Now...

IGNORING for the moment the old style cartoon jokes about running two logs, three paper logs or any logs at all and all that... consider this..

Electronic logs. They are beautiful accurate to the minute.

And that is the problem.

11:00 hours and minutes and seconds you are finished driving. Computer says so. and there you sit in the sleeper or hotel or home or whatever long enough to satisfy the time off and get moving again on the new 11 hour day or night.

If it's 11 hours 1 miunute and 10 seconds becuause the parking is difficult at the truckstop due to 10000 trucks looking for 400 spots then its a VIOLATION. Log it store it and DOT will know that the system works. Just like paper logs.

Now...

The Company that is dishonest think they suddenly acquired a form of "State" power to take the electronic logs of a driver in violation or UNABLE to get to the shipper to load becuase hes simply out of hours for a time until rested etc... they DIDDLE with the logs in the company office editing until the problem goes away and the driver suddenly gained 4 more hours to roll all night to paraphrase.

NExt thing we understand is that companies dedicate a staff to edit logs all day long to make sure that the hours of service limitations go away as much as possible. The driver does not know this until he is told that his previous day is edited and now he has 4 more hours to drive why is he sitting around in sleeper? Get moving. Yer late.

Back to sweatshop conditions. Paying lipservice to the DOT agent on one hand while diddling with the system to keep the trucks and drivers moving, even when they are tired.

Finally but not last...

Me, My uncle and everyone before us going back to 1934 ICC Rules regulating trucking has operated under the small verbal comment from company boss or dispatcher....

"Dont get caught"

The implication can be taken two ways.

1- Be virtious and Mary Poppins adhere to the legal law of the road and hours and do not get caught ever. There is nothing to be caught on because your driver is behaving as a middle school virgin at the school dance waiting on the wall for his dance card that will never be filled.

2- Run hard. If the lawman at the scales are asleep on their doughnuts and coffee (Paraphrasing and slight teasing with respect...) then your driver and truck essentially was never at that particular scale therefore any violations in progress did not happen.

ROLL COAL.

Just don't get caught.

The problems begin when scales network and say Roanoke logs your particular lawbreaking roller passing by and 15 hours later logs I guess Fort Smith Scales straight through without stopping.

Suddenly there is a violation. The next scale anywhere that sees that truck, transponder, camera etc will stop that one and inspect to the top.

If the driver says to them that you told him to violate eveyrthing then DOT is coming through your front trucking company doors and there is nothing you can do about that.

 

Tell the drivers to take 3 minutes and look through the events and accept/reject what does/doesn't belong to them.

If they are too lazy or incompetent to do this, then assign the time to them.

They'll find the time to do it when those events mess up their break.

Might seem harsh, but it's truth.

The only other way is to set up a shop account and have the garage log in to the system to move it and log back out when they are finished. That will eliminate it and it will be assigned correctly. They'll balk, because it takes time to power up the units and they'll have to wait.

Unplugging it is not advisable because there will still be a gap shown in mileage and engine hours from the ECM when it's reconnected.
That will have to be explained as well.

I'm just a dumb truck driver.
But, option #1 is the easiest solution.

 

1) If you are using a "pairing" method and not one that is built onto the dash, then yes, it will result in lots of unassigned time for someone in the office to adjudicate later.

2) Minimizing any unassigned events altogether is the key to this one.

3) Only in an actual company audit and not at the roadside. In a company audit they may or may not find the unassigned events. (see # 2)

4) Firstly, no one should have the chance to be changing or reviewing anything from a month ago. I can see how an edit that old could jam up the subsequent days badly. Edits should be acknowledged the next day and the log-jam possibility will reduce to almost zero. I can assure you that having worked with some "megas" that they have a person (or even a team of people) that are hired just to do compliance work (logs, renewals, drug/alcohol screening, IFTA, etc.) The fines and lawsuit payouts can be enormous for them if a driver gets into an injury crash and they get audited as a result. Much more enormous than the cost of a compliance employee full-time. (ask Walmart how $60 million to Tracy Morgan felt.)

5) The driver should be aware enough to claim what he or she did yesterday. Another reason to do the edits as quickly as possible. I don't know what ELD you have but it should not let the driver move on without either accepting or rejecting edits at the the beginning of the next work shift/day.

6) You should never have to disconnect it. If you are big enough to have your own in-house shop then have your mechanics log in a "shop" as step one. If you do not have control over the shop to do that and trust the drivers, then have the driver log in as "shop" when they drop it off. If you have neither of those two options then have the driver log out and you assign any movements later to the "shop" account. Unplugging it will result in unassigned moves or odometer "jumps" that can be dragged up in a company audit.

One thing that helps a lot is a real-time alert system. Have the ELD alert your text messages or email when a truck begins to move with no one logged in. This way you can call the driver and remind him to log in right away. Or if it is a shop then you can maybe get the mechanic to log in as "shop."

Finally, yes - I hear your frustration and understand that this sounds like it is either your full-time job (or worse that is is a side duty that you are doing on top of other spinning plates.) But doing a couple of small changes talked about here in this thread can result is a large return in terms of hassle time spent recovering it all on the back end all the time. Hope that the replies are helping...

 

Hmmm. Ok, I see the challenge there then.

What about alerts. Like, can you have it alert you in real time if a truck starts to move with no driver logged into it? Or is there a report you can run once per day? I can see how it could accumulate and become very tedious after just a few days if you have many drivers for sure. Also, what about the generic mechanic/shop account? Did you create one of those too assign all those movements to?