mercer transportation

I appreciate that

 

Agreed. I'm editing it. That was unnecessary of me.

 

so this eld you cant edit the on and off duty line at all, the ones I used in the past the driving line could not be changed but you could edit the off , on duty if you forgot to log off

 

Just a question to cement it: it states that only 30 minutes is required for a load, unload, but no less. How is it illegal if you only log 30 minutes and put the rest on sleeper, or off duty? I'm just asking, cause that's how my company told me to log it.

 

only the log department can edit at this time. That may change as the final regulation may allow certain edits by the driver. The original information will still be saved though and the final log will show as having been edited. But that is not yet possible at this time.

 

off duty is when you have no responsibility, i have been a lucky man, in 35 years of this it has never taken me over 30 minutes to load or unload.

 

the current regulations allow for the on ,off duty sleeper to be edited by the driver, the unit must be lacking. you edit, give a reason for the edit , and its done on other elogs, they need to get with the program

 

....says my log book

 

i always carried a copy of dot regs in the truck... you can buy the desk top version in some of the truck stops..... but any time spent on duty is clearly defined in the section on hos... i had the split break section, and other areas dealing with tankers and general rules i tended to push to the limit highlighted so i could defend my position... my line when i new i was right was to get the book and politely ask to be shown the pertinent section... i haven't had a log violation 8 or 9 years.. and probably made $300 in good road side safety bonuses... and i'm not a saint .. i used to bend that logbook real hard.... and i could run it 100% legal when dispatch needed to be reminded i was not going to do anything i couldn't get on paper... end of rant ... sorry not a fan of eld's... obr's are going to be more invasive

 

regulations simply state that the amount of time spent in any duty status is what is logged. There is nothing that says 30 minutes is required to load or unload just as there is nothing that says it takes 15 min to do a pre or post trip. Many companies have told drivers a lot of things that are wrong over the years, whether it is company policy or not.

for the second part of your question... if you take 2 hours to load or unload, dealing with tarps and securement and observing the loaders, then that is 2 hours on duty not driving. if you log 30 min then into the sleeper you did not log what you actually did. I'm not saying this is not common practice, just answering why it is in fact illegal.