Logbook with occasional driving

I have two books.

A time sheet book for my local stuff and then when I go trucking over 100 miles air radius I use a log book.
This way an officer has a CLEAR understanding of what I did without any arguing.

 

Read the title, it is a 100 air mile radius exemption....stick a pin in your location on a map and draw a circle out 116.43 miles.

You are exempt from a log if you stay within that circle AND return to your starting point within 12 consecutive hours and are relieved from duty.

If you are out over 12 hours, you need to draw a log 'from memory' and finish that day on the book.

Now if you work 22 days in the shop and drive 2 or 3 days, you meet the exemption.

Anytime you drive outside the 100 air mile radius circle, you are required to draw a log for the trip.

You do not need to have any previous 7 days, just be smart enough to tell the trooper that you are an exempt driver...

With the electric log rules if you break the 100 air miles more than 5 times a month, your truck need to get the onboard setup; otherwise [and I think it applies here to the OP] you just keep a paper log for those few days.

 

8 times in 30 days and you can run paper. 9th time is what triggers the ELD mandate for a local driver.

 

The way I have always done it in California, when I was working in the shop or some local runs most of the time, then an occasional jaunt down i5, was to start on the first blank page of the logbook and I would rough in my On Duty time (basically when I checked in and when I checked out, not details of local runs if any) for the day prior to my OTR run, with the shop city listed, showing my 10+ hour reset, and then in the open space I would write "No Driving Last 7 Days" or "Local Driving Only Last 7 Days".

If I was going to be close to the 70 hour limit, I would go ahead and calculate out my hours since last 34 hour reset, and how many hours I had left.

Then on the next page I would start my normal OTR logging.

So basically I would start (rough) logging the day before, and include a signed statement as to my last 7 days, so any HOS questions were on the paper when I passed the 100 mile radius.

If they wanted to push it, it would only be on the 70 hours, and they would have to see my time card for that, but for most things I was covered, and at the cost of one page, and a minute of time.

Yes, may be more than actually required, but it gave me peace of mind!

(when I was doing nightly local runs for a while, within the limit, but middle of the night, I went ahead and kept a log, just so if anybody asked, I didn't have to try to convince an officer that I still met local, and my "day" was just messed up!)

 

Create a log page that shows you off-duty until you clocked in, then on duty not driving until you clock out. Then off duty for the rest of the day. In the comments (bottom of page) write Local Work, town name, state.

 

I only go beyond the 100 miles maybe once or twice every quarter. What I do is fill out the log for the day I'm past 100 miles. Then when I go out again past 100 miles, I'll take a page and put off duty from the time I made my last 100+ mile trip until my current 100+ mile trip.

Now by the letter of the law, you are supposed to start a new log book if more than a month has passed between trips. That's very wasteful as most log books wouldn't have over a day's logs listed in a month. I have been questioned about it every time I've been checked and the officer has been ok with it after I explained the situation.

 

There is no requirement (nor is there a need) to start a new log book before all of the pages have been used up. What may get you in trouble some day is the "off duty" page. You cannot show days from more than one month on a single page...each separate month requires a separate log page for the days from that month. The other problem you might run into is "falsification". Unless you are retired and ONLY work on the days you exceed the 100 air-mile radius, you were NOT "off duty". You'd actually be better off tearing those "off duty" logs out and just explaining that you are typically local operating under the 100 air-mile exemption, and only are required to log the days you are ineligible to claim the exemption...and that those days are here in this book.

Just because you don't have to log it doesn't mean you weren't on duty...you just didn't have to fill out a record of duty status. You are still subject to the same HOS (minus the 30 minute break) as you would be if you were OTR...they just figure it's next to impossible to drive more than 11 hours inside of a 100 air-mile radius, making all of your pickups and deliveries, fueling, etc., and make it back to your point of origin to be released from duty inside of 12 hours...so you don't have to spend half the day keeping current with your duty status.

 

Letter of which law? Can you cite the statute please?