In training and unwilling to falsify logs to help my trainer make $. What to do?

OP,

Lets go with two hypothetical scenarios that are completely feasible:

1) You "do as your told" like some would say, cough cough @G.Anthony . Nothing bad happens. You get your own truck and start running legal.

2) You and your trainer get into an accident. Someone has died as a result of said accident. Teams of layers are getting together and going over your logs and paperwork. Everything is time stamped, GPS pinged, and nothing is adding up correctly. The company you work for throws both you and your trainer under the bus and denies any conversation to run illegal ever took place. You go to jail.

There's companies out there that do run legal. There is also protection from whistleblowers. It's your call. Good luck.

 

What the hey ..

Some people enjoy volunteer work.

So be it ..

 

We will never be rid of the insane hos, thats the only reason were having this conversation. Nobody wants to work for free, (fight for better pay!? Yeah right) its a at will work world, dont like it? Go be a lawyer. I hear so much #####ing about the the. "Stupid 30 min rule" or the inabillity to turn off the 14 hour clock, even when it would be. "Safer, or smarter to do so" but now so many people are saying "you will die, or get herpees if you dont follow the rules" ive said it before, this is a bipolor site.

 

You are supposed to change duty status...or draw the line in to the duty status when it changes. Thus pumping gas should be in on duty not driving. What if an officer would check your log book at that instant and see you were in the off duty???

 

I haven't put gas in my truck yet..

 

Logging is one of the favorite topics here. Every member has his/her own approach.

One of the member said this, which I thought was strong: "If my wheels aren't rolling, I'm off duty." Max rolling miles in the 70. If he gets a hard log check, he might have to explain how his rig is running on air, or how the freight gets on and off his trailer, but only if that DOT check happens.

You're a trainee, right? Just do what you're told, pay attention to the learning curve, get in your own truck and log that perfectly compliant method. (you'll get a very short 70, so we'll see how you adjust to 50 drive hours, if you do get rolling on your own)

One thing: if your trainer wants you to do something actually illegal, refuse to do it and move on. Try to document all these items, if you're concerned. I recommend, don't ever do anything that will jeapordize your CDL, not for anybody. Fudge your logs? Everybody does that. Once in a while, because "they forgot."

 

Refuse to do it, and call HR, I mean. HR is on your side, because they have to deal with legal employee churn issues.

 

So many people, on here especially, seem to live in absolute fear of DOT or having a wreck. They seem to think DOT hires magical wizards who are going to call every shipper and receiver and get details about what you were doing. Extremely unlikely but even if they did what could they possibly tell them? You were just one of many trucks, they don't remember. "Oh but what if they log you in and out?" "Well once I dropped my trailer I went in and took a crap. That's why I'm not on duty the entire time." See how easy that was?

As to the event of killing someone. You'll be screwed regardless. How many talk and drive. I know some will say "oh me, never!", and that is a very, very easy claim to make on the internet. So why worry so much about your incredibly hard to prove off duty time and so cavalierly talk on your phone, or mess with your GPS or all the other ways you get "distracted"? "But talking on a headset is legal". Sure is and we are talking about a fatality wreck here, they'll twist that if they want.

Most if not all of drivers who get jailed were way over their legal daily limit. They were 16 hours into the day or 13 hours straight driving.

There are roughly what 3 million commercial drivers in America? Can anyone find me just 10 stories, just ten and an incredibly small percentage, of drivers who were under their 14 and 11 but when they went back through their logs they discovered that really 3 days ago a driver logged 2 hours off duty that should have been on and then......Sent him to jail?
I'm not advocating driving over your 11 or 14. But why in God's name would you log something on duty when there is virtually no way anyone would ever find out?

But again, your truck drive the way you like.

 

Ok, I've only made it through the first 2 pages, but the replies thus far have me wondering WTF so many are thinking giving such bad advice.

Wrong. There is no "required minimum time" to be logged for any activity, other than the ACTUAL time it took to perform that activity. If it takes 15 minutes to drop & hook, then show 15 minutes. If it took an hour and 15, the log book ought to reflect that. You are recording how you SPENT your time, NOT how you WISH your time had been spent.

As for waiting at a dock, you have always been allowed to go into the sleeper and rest, logging that time on line 2 so that it does not count against your 70.

As for the company, if they are instructing the driver to falsify his/her activities in the log book, THEY ARE doing something illegal, and if caught, will lead to steep fines and potential criminal charges (depending upon the incident which brought the illegal acts to light).

The regulations tell you how you are supposed to log, and the OP sounds inclined to do so. It is the "trainer" (and I use that term loosely) and company who are choosing to "do it their own way"...which is fine, until they get caught.

EXACTLY!!! Until you know the consequences of being caught, and are familiar with ALL of the various ways in which you might be caught, it doesn't make much sense to attempt to bend rules which you aren't all that familiar with yet anyway. After you've been around a while and know the rules, which exemptions or exceptions apply to your situation, what avenues companies and investigators have to verify your logs, etc...and understand the consequences of being caught...it is impossible to make an informed decision when to "fudge" and when it would be best to keep it "by the book". In most cases, you're better off staying as close to "by the book" as possible...at least giving the impression of a good faith effort to keep an honest log book.

BS. The only thing difficult to cheat is drive time...but even that has work-arounds. YOU have to tell it whether you're on line 1, 2, or 4...and so if you are FALSELY noting that you are on line 1 when you are actually performing line 4 activities, then you are "illegally lying to the elog software". It doesn't matter if you are on paper or elog, falsifying your duty status is just as illegal. Just because it "allows" you to do something doesn't mean it is "legal". It doesn't know anything other than whether the truck is rolling down the road or sitting still with the parking brakes applied, and falsifying your non-driving time is still log falsification.

 

Skimming things to the minimum is just as much falsifying a federal document as outright lying. You either log things exactly as you do them or you falsify your logs. There's no middle ground.

This industry does not reward honesty. It rewards not getting caught.

As others have pointed out... come back in a year and be honest about how much fudging you're willing to do then.

I have yet to meet a by-the-book truck driver who doesn't rationalize their own log fudging.