Elogs vs paper logs

Some companies are going to have to rethink that position I believe. Example, took a load to Family Dollar in Ashley, IN the other day. Between driving there all day and getting unloaded, ate up my 14. No overnight parking allowed there. So, I did the OFF DUTY DRIVING on my e-log and headed out to find a place to camp out and finish a break. No big deal. Legal. Was not under a dispatch. Was empty. Personal conveyance. Would be legal on paper or e-log.

 

North Dakota DOT considers being hooked to a trailer, either empty or loaded, under load which means you can not log line 5.

 

That's when I would say I dropped the trailer at the customer and then picked it up after my 10. IF the place you went to is a short distance then you'd be able to get away with it.

 

I'm thinking they wont, like Drty's company will say I don't care if you're out of your 14 you can either ask again to stay there or drive and restart your break. Odds are you can just do a split break. Some companies care more about being legal than they do about the next load.

 

At my company all you would have to do is drive to the nearest safe haven because there was no parking and then send a message to safety explaining why you went over hours.

DOT is more concerned about the doing 1,000 mile over night trips not the driver who ran out of hours and can't park at the receiver or shipper and needs a safe place to park. Yes you could get a ticket but I'm sure a decent officer would just give you a warning or you probably could get it dismissed in court.

 

If the officer looked at my log book and found I was in violation even though its because the shipper or reciever didn't allow overnight parking I would still get "points" on my csa. There should be no way an officer should be able to type in the system that he inspected logs if the driver is just trying to find a safe haven. Otherwise the points the driver recieves should be thrown away off his record.

 

I run a Looseleaf logbook and my logbook always "looks" legal to dot and that's all I care about

 

dot loves my logbook it is always 100% air tight even in the case of the strictest audit that doesnt mean it aint flubber though gotta love the computer log software but if ur gonna do it PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD HAVE SOME COMMON SENSE PEOPLE IF YOUR TIRED PULL THE FLOP OVER!!!

 

cant beat paper ..run when you feel good sleep when tired,makes sense to me

 

I agree that this is how it should be. But, we all have to deal with realities.

The DOT or e-logs are not really the main problem here. In the event of something going wrong, it is a lawyer you better be worried about. A qualcomm or other little device is just one tool to burn you. Video of you leaving a location when you said you were there. Video showing you not being there when you said you were. A video from any number of locations along the route you took at the times your log says you were running (either showing you going by there when you said you were taking a break or not going by there when you said you were running). Cell phone tower pinging. ECM showing the truck was operated. And a host of other little ways the a good lawyer will make you and your ancestors scream for mercy. And it is not all about what is provable.... it is about what a good lawyer can make a judge or jury believe.

So with what we have to work with, I guess playing Russian Roulette is fine. As long as nothing happens to have you looked at, then it works. All it takes is just one thing going wrong to really wreck your life. We have all done goofy things with a paper log. We have all weighed the odds and played it out. If we are writing and reading this thread, then we haven't been burned by a good lawyer or prosecutor. But with all the ways that folks love to sue over, and the aggresiveness of local prosecutors, it just seems so stupid nowadays to play these little games we played in the past. CSA points and fines for violations are kids stuff compared to what a good lawyer can do to someone.

An e-log just helps to cross all the "T's" and dot all the "i's". It takes a tool away from some lawyer that wants to ruin your life. It may be a hassle, it may require re-thinking the way we do things, but that is better than losing everything you have in a lawsuit, maybe even your freedom.

It may not be what we want. It may not be the best solution to some problem. But it may not be such the bad thing that it is played out to be. And the more I have read why companies have chosen to use them, it seems the primary motivator is so that they can cover their back side. Not so much from government, but also from a law suit crazy public.

To only worry about what the DOT or an LEO can do is pretty myopic.