Can you cheat an eLog?

Yeah, I know a guy who ran a dedicated 48 state route for 6 weeks while his wife was in Northern Idaho recuperating from a light back injury.... nobody saw nuthin... know what I mean?

 

Coming from a driver who probably shuts it down at 5PM. It's not poor planning!!! It's called there is no place to park because you had to drive past midnight in order to make sure the load gets there on time due to being held up at the shipper.


These drivers who always think they can plan everything are the ones who drive from 9 to 5.

 

Oh this guy runs his own hours. Well we drivers sometimes have to drive past 10PM and we cannot just shut down a few hours early. So your poor planning rule has just been shot to hell with the average driver.

 

What's to elaborate? The tracking data can be altered, whereas a driver could drive on line one. Heck, it's currently being done by one of the big boys...

Folk's it's about control...and they want all of it.

 

Again, do you care to quote the regulation where not being able to find a parking is stop is an excuse to drive past your 11.


You imply that I am an exceptional driver, thank you... and I dont belong in your group of "average" drivers.

I dont have to play "loose" with the regulations... I can plan, and park legally and deliver my loads on time without running over my 11... Even past 10pm at night


Im sorry you "average" driver's have it so tough.

 

Back on topic. On our system, yes you can cheat... it isnt easy, you wont get very far in a quick manner and it isnt fool proof. A close inspection of the elogs by a DOT officer will reveal the cheating.

On our system you can go two miles without the computer changing the duty status to On Duty Driving... You can stop for 5 minutes with the brakes set, turn off the engine, and then drive another 2 miles... repeat... however the GPS in the system is still tracking you, and records the location on the elog at every duty status change.

So for example, I could pull over at 11 hours. set brakes, turn off the engine, and place myself on duty for a post trip... the log will record my duty status change and record 10 miles S of Chicago (as an example)... 5 minutes later I can move just under 2 miles, park, wait 5 minutes repeat... I can do this all day on any duty status... the moment I change the status (let say sleeper birth) it will record my location 1 mile N of Chicago (a new example)

Any DOT officer on close inspection can read that I traveled 11 miles between duty statuses. Having gone from 10 miles south of Chicago to 1 mile N of Chicago.

There are smaller ways to cheat... you can take yourself off the drive line at the end of an off ramp, and buy yourself a few minutes getting into a truckstop and parked... again, as long as its under 2 miles... again, the GPS can trip you up if you cross that milage and compass line from wherever the System is logging your location...

As an example, you could change duty status at the off ramp and it will log 10 miles S of Chicago. you go .25 miles into the truckstop and park, change duty to sleeper and it can log 10 miles SSW of Chicago (compass direction change)... or you may cross that mile line and it may say 9 miles S of Chicago

BTW you arent going to get very far, very fast at 2 miles a stretch with a 5 minute stop in between.

 

I said it in the "other" thread of a similar nature, IMHO I don't think enforcement is completely up to speed on EOBRs/E-logs... yet. Example: I only ever had one enforcement officer (RCMP in rural B.C.) ever want to have a look at my logs when I was running E-logs and that was because he was going to write me a ticket for not having 14-days of paper logs available. Even at scales, when they found out it was E-logs, they passed on a closer look. When enforcement gets a good handle on it though, i.e., understanding all the ways to cheat and the tell-tales, they will be thrilled because they will be able to vastly increase their ability to write fines... virtually automating the process.

 

I don't think the DOT is scared of e-logs so-to-speak. E-logs are a fail-safe. Even the DOT knows that if you're running e-logs, 99% of the time, you won't be in violation as most violations on paper are the result of driver error.

 

I think there is currently a big gap in the comfort/competence level in dealing with E-logs between auditors and field personnel (scalehouse, troopers, etc.). There are also a lot of (generally, small) errors made on E-logs that get corrected in the carrier's office, which if the E-logs were inspected at a scale would result in a violation. I don't think a lot of the field people are aware of the number of those violations.

Example (some, probably not all, E-logs): A driver forgets to put himself in the sleeper at a shipper and although that is where he truly was, he burns up a bunch of hours/doesn't have his 8 for a split. He's finished loading and realizes his mistake, but can't correct himself and all the people in the office who can are gone for the day/weekend. He's not going to just sit until the next morning/Monday so he tells dispatch and they tell him to just go and they'll get it corrected. He gets pulled in at a scale, logs inspected and according to the machine he's way out of hours. Simple mistake, no different than a simple mistake on paper, but it's still a violation.

 

Yup. Most of those violations are small things like forgetting to sign/approve logs, or forgetting to send in a DVI, or not logging enough time for a VI/PTI.