Can you cheat an eLog?

The only problem I foresee is running out of time at customers that don't allow parking. There is lots of this in the reefer world. I make good money on overnight 600 mile runs where this happens often. The shipper ships at night at the receiver only receives before noon. A 10 hour break would be more like a 20 hour break and if they want that same overnight service only a company with the equipment to repower every load could do it. Which would hurt the army of independents like myself that do it now. For the long stuff/not time sensitive stuff I don't see it being an issue.

 

Well, part of what I did to make it all work is to restructure who I haul for. I don't fiddle with customers who want to play such head games. UPS doesn't wait around for me when they deliver something to my house, why should what I do be any different? Of those rare instances where I get delayed, they pay for the time and I have arraingements in place for parking if the clock runs out. If I am delivering and am unloaded when done and clock out of time, then I do a personal conveyance move off duty legally to a safe parking area. Simple.

 

Here is a question. Are the new rules written so tightly that the elog will record any movement above 30 feet? Think I remember reading that somewhere. How will that work for the situation where you arrive at a receiver, they have overnight parking, and when they show up they wake you up you back it into whatever door and they do their thing. Technically that is on-duty. I might use a half hour between checking in and putting the truck in the door then going back to sleep. They wake me up when they are done (usually at least 3 hours). Legally that ruins my 8 or 10 hour break. Is there an exemption for these situations?

 

That one guy was saying he could legally drive in circles for 10 hours off duty on private property and legally log a 10 hour break.

 

Nope, gokiddogo, no exemptions. But all is not lost.

While the system may "record" any movement over 30 ft, that doesn't necessarily mean that it goes to the driving line. The Qualcomm Elog I use does that now, but if I stop for a few minutes, it never shows any driving time. If I start moving around a lot, and then go on down the road, it will show all the time driving from the time I started moving around the lot. But it doesn't trigger driving line until distance or speed triggers are reached. It just picks up the time I was driving around before hitting those thresholds. But again, if I were to stop for a few minutes after driving around a lot, it never shows that lot time on driving when I actually do head on down the road.

Similar thing when at a truck stop. I can leave the fuel pumps and go park and no time shown on driving. but if I were to leave the pumps, go thru the truck stop, and then hit the road, all the time from the time I left the pump would go on driving line when the system threshold kicks it onto driving line. In that situation, it backs up the driving line start from the time I left the pump.

Definitely tricky to some degree, but once one figures it out, then it really means nothing. Qualcomm updated my system to more closely match the coming ELD mandate, so I am able to get a handle on how things are done under the mandate and figure how to make it all work. Nothing that cannot be dealt with. Hasn't affected anything I do.

So, gokiddogo, using your analogy, the system would not trip to show driving time for a move in the customer lot to a dock. If you were in sleeper prior to the move and didn't change the status, you would still be in the sleeper on the system.

 

That sounds reasonable. Is it up to the carrier to set the thresholds of distance or speed to trip it to line 3? Are these thresholds going to be very tight in the new mandate? I wonder if an inspector would even be able to see what the system is set up to record what.

 

For a general inspection, doubt anyone would pick up on anything. It would take a detailed in depth look at all data recorded and stored in system. That would probably require an major audit of logs. Even those are rare and random. I suppose if one is involved in something that a lawyer needs to look at things, they could probably get something from the system to hang you on. Lawyers can just about find out the last time you wiped your arse and what TP brand you were using if they really want to.

 

Beat QC with a hammer. Problem solved.

 

soon we will get from mods about not posting e-log cheating just like the emission deletion.