PRIME PSD Instructors....

Dang it SE, where were you when I need an Professional Instructor?

I appreciate Chuck's input as well, even though he gives me hard time. I understand his intentions are good.

I should clarify why something was fishy with the E-logs. What happened that morning, was we got up and drove down to the Shipper which was probably about 5 or 6 min away. Our trailer was examined by the receiver and she rejected the empty trailer because it only had 1/2 tank of reefer fuel. So, we then drove another 5 min or so down the road and fueled the reefer. We then drove back and dropped our trailer. It took us over 30 min cause this trailer yard was a mess and there was 6" of snow as well. We then searched for 30 min looking for our loaded trailer. I hooked it up and worked with my trainer to move the tandems for California standard. It wouldn't move, tandems just slid on the ice. We had to drive back to Prime Yard about 6 min drive where we found a way to move the tandem. We then found a CAT scale about a 10 min drive away. I give you all these details for a reason. That whole mess took half the morning. We finally get on the road and I look over to see him logging into the Qualcomm as primary driver and on duty. I look down at my trainer's DOT time and it says 11 hours! I ask him what my status is and he says "off duty". I don't care what anyone says, that's not legal! It's not whining, it's called "it's my CDL I'm protecting and if we get into a major accident, all these little details will come out in the investigation. Oh....oddly enough...we DID get into an accident. Now luckily for my Instructor, Colorado Highway Patrol was busy with a ton of accidents on the freeway from all the snow we had overnight, so there were no official body at the scene of the accident and we just exchanged information and went on our way. But you see my point here right? Do it by the book or don't be an Instructor. I will tell you this, there isn't one person in management back at Prime who wouldn't back me on this. Unfortunately there are just one too many instructors out there who feel the rules don't apply to them.

 

Sorry...awbro, I meant to make a note about your comments. I have that PDF right here on my ipad. I've read it and believe I have a clear understanding as to how my logs should be run. What I don't understand is why this isn't accomplished before ever leaving Orientation. If it's the students responsibility to make sure our logs are run correctly, then there should be some kind of beginners class prior to leaving the yard at Prime. I shouldn't have to have a major conflict with my trainer, call into logs to get something clarified before things get done correctly.

I meant to mention earlier as well a good comment that Dan had made..... "Secondly if you never log off duty when you aren't off the truck then you will quickly run out of hours and be whining and complaining about not making money".

You are so right on the money Dan. That is exactly what happened the very next trip when I started logging all this "on duty" time for doing such things as tandem adjustments, trailer searching, unhooking, hook up, fueling, route planning. We finally get on the road and my trainer started complaining because he couldn't get enough hours in on my logs because I had recorded things they way they are supposed to be. It seems what his normal course of action is, is to log everything "off duty", everything! Until the very last second he goes to get on the freeway, then he logs in as primary driver "on duty" and starts his day. Well, that is just fine for him, but it's not legal in my eyes. I won't be running my logs that way.

I kinda liken it to my flying days. I couldn't just arrive at the plane and say "well, I think I'll log my pre-flight, my taxi and my run up as "Off duty" because if I log it correctly I won't have time to make that flight to upstate NY. No, that's not how it's done. It's called proper flight planning so that if you know ahead of time that you won't make that entire route on one go, that you need to accommodate for a stay over somewhere along the way.

I'm not a HUGE proponent of FMCSA, or the FAA for that matter...hehehe, but now I have a clear understanding why they had to create such laws. Because there is always some mojo out there who thinks they can ignore common sense safe practices and do things their own way. The way I understand it, Prime books their loads at 50mph during the summer, 45mph during the winter. They allow plenty of time to run your logs legally and get there in time. So why all the issues with people fudging their logs? Just do it right and you'll have nothing to worry about!