The Nitty and Gritty about Paper Drivers Logs

Log it how you do it. If it takes 7 minutes to do a pti and 8 minutes to use the restroom, you would flag the pti & denote 7 minutes on duty, but log the entire 15-minute block of the graph as being off duty.


The days of running outlaw are rapidly coming to a close. More and more states record when you pass through scales & share that information with other states. Patrol cars are increasingly being fitted with plate-readers which can log your position at a given time. To cheat on your logs but still be able to pass an audit requires so much extra time and work it doesn't offer any benefit.

 

I take notes on post it pads during the day, mileage, times and what not, then transfer to my log at the end of the day or the next morning. That way my log book stays nice & neat and easy for a DOT or Highway Patrol officer to read!!

 

It is pretty simple. If you are off duty, you are on line 1. If you are in the sleeper, you are on line 2. If you are behind the wheel, you are on line 3. If you are taking care of any official business anywhere other than behind the wheel, you are on line 4. Any time you change duty status, you need to note the location of that change...even if the change only lasts 30 seconds before changing back to what it was.

As long as you "log it as you do it", you will never NOT be able to defend what you have logged...because it accurately reflects your day's activities.

 

The only problem with that is if you are stopped DURING the day, your log book is not current to your last change of duty status...and there is a fine for that.

 

Yup. But what are you doing after the pretrip? If you are going to be driving, you might want to spend another couple minutes making sure you have everything in order and roll out at 11:23 so that you can move your line to line 3 at 11:30. You only have 11 hours of drive time, so no need to burn the first 10 minutes of your drive time on your pretrip.

 

Within 8 hours of coming on duty, you have to take 30 minutes off duty. To do that, park somewhere other than the fuel island, go to line 1, and walk inside....get something to eat/drink, use the rest room, etc....then go back to your truck refreshed and ready to roll again.

Within 14 hours of coming on duty, and before passing 11 hours of drive time, find a safe place to park. Take a walk around the truck to make sure there aren't any problems that need to be corrected, then log off duty and go get dinner, use the rest room, etc. Go back to your truck and log sleeper berth time until you wake up and are ready to exit the truck. Draw your line up to off duty, exit the truck, and go get breakfast, a shower, or whatever else you need to do in the morning. Return to your truck and if 10 hours has passed since you parked and went up to lines 1 & 2, then you can go ahead and begin your pretrip to start your day on the clock.

When you get up close to 70 hours in 8 consecutive days, you might need to park for an extended "reset". Basically it is 34 hours of time (or longer, since you've got to have 2 consecutive nights with 1 am to 5 am during this restart) spent on lines 1 & 2. If you are in the truck resting, log sleeper berth. When you exit the truck to do anything, you are off duty. DOT knows you didn't spend 34+ consecutive hours inside the sleeper, so if you try to show that they might cite you for falsification.

Most of it is common sense. Log it as you do it, though, and you shouldn't have any problems.

 

Yes and you will get stopped without your log updated to the last change of status and have a nice $250 fine to pay!