Back Logging your Book

You aren't allowed to adjust brakes but you are required to do a pretrip and not operate the vehicle until any deficiencies are corrected .

 

It is illegal for employers to deduct fines like this from an employees paycheck unless the employee signed an agreement to it when hired . Who in their right mind would agree to this . Please advise wannabes what carrier this is .

 

Oh.. Sorry my misunderstanding, I appoligize. May drivers believe they can't stop for the 2 hr break first (lets clarify for the other drivers the 2 hr does not EXTEND the 14 hr clock) so that's all I was really clarifying, glad you understand split breaking

 

CDweb, check your employers SafeStat score here http://ai.fmcsa.dot.gov/SafeStat/safestatmain.asp

 

As long as time stamped material matches your log book, then log it any way you see fit.

I don't cross many scales and usually fuel up at our shop every other day so there is no reciept to deal with. Sometimes I have to contend with international border crossings. Other wise I log the best I can to save time at the end of the week. Sometimes it is the difference between camping out or getting to go home for the night. Sometimes it saves me from having to take a restart which puts me down for 34 hours and lost pay.

Just saying that it is your log book and you can do what ever you want.

 

If you run into Canada be aware the require a 36 hour restart . A 34 hour restart will be a violation . I saw driver cited for that at Sarnia a couple of weeks ago . They will also fine you if you do not have truck and trailer license plate numbers and location of inspection on your DVIR . I use Canadian DVIR forms when in Canada.

 

It is illegal for employers to deduct fines like this from an employees paycheck unless the employee signed an agreement to it when hired . Who in their right mind would agree to this . Please advise wannabes what carrier this is .

They have three different dot # that I know of. They have you sign a boiler plate lease when you hire in. They pay 30 cmp and have work comp but don't make tax withdrawals (1099.) Halo Transportation LLC, A&S Lines, A&S Logistics are the three co. names I know of. Grand Rapids, MI. Adi and Sado Jelovac prop.

 

I haul produce so needless to say it is next to impossible for me to log 100% legal and make any decent money. We don't have Prepass or EZ pass. The only things I must match are fuel stops and time stamped bills of lading.

I run legal when I can, but those times are few and far between. I at least make them look "believable."

For example, If you drive across California the Truck speed limit is 55. We do loads from Minnesota to California a lot, and with a 75MPH truck you can just barely do a Legal turn and burn out to Los Angeles without going over 70 hours. our Max top logging speed is 70 MPH.

To do it legal everything has to work like clockwork. To make it believable is not too hard as long as I reload in the Los Angeles area. Its when I have to run up the coast to Salinas or something like that and horse around with long deadheads across California that really starts to eat up hours.

This is how I almost ran out of hours (over 70) one time. Ironically the only thing that saved me was the common hell of waiting a day and a half to pick up my multi-stop load of veggies in Salinas. This slowed down my 70 hour/8-day clock, but I still ended up with 4 bills of lading, all with timestamps so i couldn't get a 34-hour restart in.

I informed my Boss and dispatcher the whole trip back that hey, my hours are low, my hours are iffy, might not be able to do it. Needless to say he was furious and tried to force me to log 70. My backhaul went over Donner pass, and I ended up coming through Montana to dodge a snowstorm that turned I-80 into a disaster. Montana has an idiotic truck speed limit of I think 65. I made it just by a hair, but my boss wanted answers as to why everyone else has no problem and I did.

Long story short, some of our drivers and my boss and dispatchers included seem to have this mentality that beacuse our top logging speed is 70 that we can always log 70. WRONG! WRONG! WRONG! The truck speed limit in CA is 55. 55.

Let's say you buy fuel in San Bernadino and deliver in Los Angelos. Your log book speed between these two cities needs to be BELOW 55. 55 is the speed limit, but remember your truck takes time to accelerate, climb hills, stop lights, etc. So even showing 55 on the dot is pushing your luck, since in order to Average 55 you need to be driving close to 60. 52,53 is at least believable and no DOT cop will bother you.

And yes, when you get pulled into a scale, some cops WILL check average speed between actual cities to catch you in a big lie. It's a lot easier to explain going unusually slow between 2 cities than going unusually, impossibly fast. And yes, some will go as far as Checking the ACTUAL ADDRESS of shippers/receivers/truck stops to catch you in a lie.

Now for example, if you start your day in Phoenix and drive to Los Angeles, you can cheat pretty good by averaging 75 acorss AZ and 55 across CA and combining the two.

But any fool who averages over 55 between two points in California or 70 for that matter is a moron just asking for a speeding or falsification ticket.

Same thing goes for most 2-lane 55MPH roads between cities. If your out in East Jesus, Wyoming where the speed limit is 65+ on the two lanes and towns are 50 miles apart that's one thing. But someone tell me how you can log 45 minutes of 60 or so miles driving between downtown Winona, MN and Downtown Red Wing, MN? Some guys I used to work with thought they could.

So we have a few drivers where I work now that have driven almost as long as I've been alive. I tried to explain this log speed to them and they still don't seem to get it. Because I have no experience compare to them the plain and simple facts mean nothing. I told them go ahead and log your 70 in California and get in a wreck, I bet you won't call me crazy then. I know my Boss gets it, he just didn't like the fact or being told.

Also, If you hurt or kill someone out on the road your cellphone tracks where you're at, at any given time to within about a mile when you talk on it. I'm sure those lovely GPS's all you truck drivers love work the same way. Stuff like this can be subpenad by lawyers when you get into a wreck, just food for thought.

So bottom line myself and millions of other professional drivers have been dancing on thin ice for a long time, but the sad thing is its the only way to make money in this industry unless you're paid by the hour hour or drive for Wal-Mart. And sadly, if you won't run illegal and get the job done no matter what it takes, your Boss can and will eventually find someone who will.

 

So bottom line myself and millions of other professional drivers have been dancing on thin ice for a long time, but the sad thing is its the only way to make money in this industry unless you're paid by the hour hour or drive for Wal-Mart. And sadly, if you won't run illegal and get the job done no matter what it takes, your Boss can and will eventually find someone who will.

This paragraph right here puts it about as succinctly and accurately as I've ever seen.

 

Some learn the hard way FMCSA auditors don't accept the average daily speed . They use Promiles to calculate average speeds between locations in change of duty status . That is considerably below the speed limit . That is how USX ended up cited for document falsification and a poor safety management rating as a result of a December 2006 audit . Best part was at the time Pat Quinn was the ATA chairman harping safety pushing for speed limiters .