post trip rules

Well, legally. Let's say you are start up at 6AM and drive until Noon. Deliver and head to a truck stop to park. You're sitting at 1PM. You have 7 hours left on your clock. Your company tells you they'll give you a load but no assignment ever comes across. So, you've still yet to do a post-trip. You've been awake the whole time. At 5PM you still haven't heard squat and figure you're going to reload tomorrow. So, you still have yet to legally do the post-trip, let alone sign the report.

So, you do your post trip at 5PM. You know you won't get a load until at least 7AM. Do your post-trip at 5-5:15pm. Big deal if you've been Line 1/2 for the past four hours. You're still going to sit for at least 10 before your next day.

If you backlogged your post-trip to when you last stopped driving but didn't actually do it then, you are technically lying on your log.

 

At the very least a quick visual at end of shift is prudent.
Why wait for morning when you are trying to leave to discover a problem that needed a repair?

 

Regulations require a written inspection at the end of the day. Part of the pretrip is reviewing the posttrip DVIR to assure any noted defects were repaired and signed off. The intent of this seems to be for trailers that will not be used by the same driver the next day.

 

And how many folks do you see who really do anything like that? Inspect the vehicle while the fuel is being pumped? How about a "real" pretrip - not just a look at one tire, kick a second and fire it up?

Yup, its prudent. Especially if the maintenance is on your dime!

I suspect they were written with an operation that involves slip-seating, or being assigned a random tractor at the beginning of the work day.

I've heard that FMCSA auditors really are expecting something to be written on those inspections now. Hmm...

 

If you are driving through midnight, you have to do a Pre Trip inspection when you stop.

If you will not be driving again until after midnight of that day, it is considered a pre and post trip inspection.

If you will be driving more after your initial stop, you do the post trip when you are done driving for the day.

Doing a post trip before you are done driving that day is falsifying your log.

Surely, you aren't actually doing that are you? Having 2 different logs for the same day is falsifying.

 

but you still do this on e logs right

 

I just had an audit 2 days ago, and he wanted to see pre-trip reports. He asked to see everything, along with the kitchen sink, but he did NOT ask to see post-trip reports.

 

Another DOT inspector that didn't understand the regulations because.......

 

Yep ELOGS has both Pre and post trip inspection