Loose leaf logs

I've never had any comment on my loose leaf log book other than they appreciate the neatness.

 

One time right before i started using loose leaf logbook, i had a scalemaster in utah making copies of my logbook, and commented "I like those loose leaf logs so much more! you just take the page out and copy it and put it back in! these are a pain in the ***".

i immediately switched. HAHAHAHA.

 

Not really...If I couldn't make a good living out here I wouldn't do this anymore. Don't misunderstand me, I love this business and I love life on the road and always have..But if there wasn't any money to be made at it I'd just go drive for someone and get rid of all of the responsibility.

I usually run about 10 hours driving and log my load and unload time exactly as I do it...I don't like to run my clock out every day so running out of hours before I get where I need to be isn't an issue with me.

If I have a day where I burn most of my clock out loading or unloading I just park it and take my ten and then go...No problem!

You might think you know that...Because you can't or won't run legal but there are those of us that figured out a long time ago how to manage our time and bid our freight so that we don't have the headaches of trying to live a lie everyday.

Not in the last 20 years or so....

I don't seem to have a lot of problems finding parking most of the time...And, No...I have NEVER run out of hours looking for a parking spot.

Never....

You don't consider that illegal???

I do.

Yes you can...It takes a little planning if you like to park in truckstops all the time but it can be accomplished.

I don't park in truckstops all the time...In fact I only park in them when I can't avoid it for some reason or to fuel, shower or do other business there.

Everybody knows that there will not be parking at midnight so why would you go in there and expect to find parking?
Why would you not park somwhere outside of the area and get up early enough to get to the customer on time?

I could make more money cooking meth...But that's illegal too!
So you're saying that breaking the law is acceptable as long as you;re making money at it?

Not trying to be a jerk here but it sounds like you might need to get your act together and get a little more organized.

How did that work out for him in the long run?

That explains your attitude about breaking laws to make money.

It's there and the prices are posted...But I don't buy things in truckstops too often.

Why? You wanna work 20 hours a day?

I don't!

Up until the modern day hair splittin' DOT cops arrived on the scene line 1 and 2 were interchangeable and there is a lot of confusion among DOT cops from state to state regarding their interchangeability...

In the last few months I've had scale monkeys tell me that I had to log all hours on a reset away from home on line 1 (Idaho) Line 2 ( Idaho, Montana) Line two and line 1 depending on what I was doing (Montana, Wyoming) Line 1 (Georgia) Line 2(Georgia...Same scale, Different cop)

The truth is....They don't even know!

 

Anybody that says they run 100% legal 100% of the time is a liar and totally full of ####.

When was the last time you pulled into a rest area for 10 minutes, and didnt log it? That ain't legal.

Or fudging by 7.5 minutes at a fuel island because you took an extra 10 minutes to use the restroom, and grab a sandwich at the SubWay.

Or did a full 15 minute PTI EVERY single time you show it on your log book. If you're like me you know every nut and bolt on your truck, but you didnt learn what was what on there from PTI's showing on your logbook.

Or or or or or, there are a million ways to fudge a log book just a little bit, and they are all illegal.

You may run down the being mostly legal, or even with the intention of being totally legal. But, I guarantee you if a DOT officer followed you for a couple days, he could find a stack of tickets to write you.

 

You got that right.

 

I disagree....

Never...I flag'em...Always!

I log it as I do it....If it's 15 minutes that's what I log, If it's 30 minutes, That's what I log.

What's so difficult about that?

I spend about 15 or 20 minutes every morning doing a pretrip, Hood comes up every morning and fluids and belts get looked at as well as other visual checks...and I log it accordingly. When I stop at the end of the day I check the truck over again to make shure that I won't have an unexpected problem in the morning...And I log it accordingly.
Do you mean to tell me that you don't check your vehicle every day?
There's a lot of stuff that can go wrong.
I know every nut and bolt on my truck too but that doesn't mean that one of them can't fail.

If you log it exactly as you do it...you'll NEVER have a problem.

I would gladly accept that challenge...And I would prove you wrong.
Because if you log it as you do it and don't fudge...There are no violations to write tickets for!

 

Look, i run 100% legal. I was just stating a lot of facts on there. You can make more money running illegal. Doesnt mean its a good idea. The incentive is there.

It's illegal to drive over your hours for anything, but its not...running illegal to do it just to get to a truckstop. I guess I speak another language sometimes. Sorry. But if something happens and i have to go over my hours to park then it happens. It's an extremely rare occurence that hasnt happened in several months for me.

And you're an owner operator. You can make it work better than most company drivers. You have more power than we do. I might have my hours running for my preferred shift (4pm to 4am, truckstops are usually emptying out by 4am), and the morons i work for might take a couple days to find a load, and then find one that picks up at a time where im going to run out of hours at 10pm, etc. and i better be on time and not early! See where i'm going?

However, I play it smart. I've run paperless logs for the last 7 months. Most of the complaints i have about the system are because it doesnt log very accurately. I just have to let it imagine the hours of service as it does sometimes. It cheats me out of my legal hours sometimse. One time it wouldnt let me log a level 3 dot inspection because it was too fast. That's illegal.

Anyway, like, if I had a hot load where i have to run all my hours out no matter what, blah blah, and i have to shut down at midnight? I start looking for parking at 9pm. If i still have 3 hours to spare i can find parking even if i'm in jersey. I tell the company i'm shutting down early and the reason, and they're OK with that.

But that one time in Kansas, like I knew they were going to be full at 6pm?

Another time, I had half an hour to go on my 14, dispatch told me to pick a load up 5 miles away and that the shipper would let me park there. I like parking at shippers. Welll....the shipper said otherwise. I got into a rush and ended up overshooting the fifth wheel for my first time ever. Oops, but atleast i'm not so stupid that i just slam it into the back of the cab like some people do. And that trailer was heavy and just barely high enough to overshoot the fifth wheel like that. Took me forever to crank it back down... However, there was a mall i parked at within 2 miles. They didn't care, but a store manager for penneys woke me up cause he thought i was delivering there. Hahahaha.

And I don't always park in truckstops. However, I have listings of truckstops and rest areas/service plazas, and about 3/4 of my shippers/consignees do not allow me to park there. And if I have the hours to make it to a truckstop after dropping in a dirt drop yard.....I'll go to the truckstop...well, unless the truckstop has a dirt yard too LOL. I hate gettin my floor nasty.

 

OK...I agree that there are companies that CREATE a situation where you are forced to run illegal but legally as the driver you have the power to say no. Now for many years drivers have just gone ahead and run the load and "fixed" the book to match up with whatever had to be done.
That has created an environment in which companies now expect you to "do whatever it takes" to get the load there on time.
Until these companies are FORCED to comply there will continue to be a problem...

That's what CSA 2010 is supposed to do but as usual the government got it wrong and tossed the responsibility right back at the hapless drivers for these bottom feeder companies!

I will not accept under any circumstances the tired old line that "Nobody can run a 100% legal logbook" as in "log it as you run it"
That is simply not the case!

If you are too lazy to pick up your book and draw a line....That's on YOU!
If you haul "cheap freight" and have to run illegal to make money....That's on YOU!
If you fudge because you can't or won't manage your time properl;y...That's on YOU!
If you fudge or outright lie just because you want to run the way you want to run....That's on YOU!

There are no legitamate reasons for lying on a logbook..There are BS reasons that have become common practice in the industry over the years.
But that does not lend them any sort of legitamacy.


I went back a couple of pages in this thread and got some quotes to illustrate the point that drivers will justify this crap with the same tired old lines of BS that drivers have been using for years to justify this stuff...

Because of our willingness to let companies push us to run illegal over the years we have once again in the form of CSA2010....Brought this on ourselves!

 

I would really like to know what you haul & where you haul it to be able to live like this. It doesn't sound like any kind of trucking I've ever done & it doesn't sound like any kind of trucking I could make any money at.

Are you prepared to tell me that you never violate any law in the course of your life?

 

I'm shure I do but not intentionally for the most part...I run a couple miles an hour over the posted speed limit most of the time but that's about it.

I don't fill out my census forms and I have a pretty loud exhaust system on my motorcycle...Let's see, That's about it!
In years past I have done some pretty interesting illegal stuff but I have been pretty straight laced the last few years and am better off for the change...I no longer have to look over my shoulder all the time, It's way less stressful!

As far as what I haul and where I haul it...I'm in Denver today with a load of steel and I run all 48 states with whatever we find that pays. We have a couple of direct hauls and we broker what we don't haul ourseves.
I have no problem running legal and making a living at it...

I get more rest these days than I ever have in all the years I've been out here and I'm much less stressed than I've ever been as well.
I don't really go home all that much and I just follow the freight and go wherever it pays me the best to go.
I've made as little as $1.50 a mile and as much as $4.00 a mile this year....Last year it was pretty flat and I was taking quite a few loads at $1.50 a mile just to keep the wheels turning but I will simply not move the truck for less that $1.50 a mile.