DOT Using prepass for Log Falsification

Bobc, there is a rule ( I don't know the number) called supporting documents. That lists all the paper work that the DOT can use during an audit. I'm 90% sure that they can not use your personell cell phone records, company issued phone they can. DOT can not use your bank information (ATM or Credit Cards) on an audit. If you are crazy and purchase fuel with your own money then you must turn in the receipt. DOT will get the date and time from the fuel stop. By the supporting documents rule there is a lot of information that a company can hide. DOT can ask for extra information, but a good company will say no.

DOT can not access your personal information with out warrant.

Your company may give DOT more information then required, many large companies do. I know for a fact JB Hunt will give DOT access to all there Q-Comm records. Normally Q-comm records require a warrant to be issued, they are listed under the supporting documents rule.

Mark

 

Got a link?

 

Fozzy, I don't have a link. My father has been in corrections for a long time and talks about this guy, he has been in jail for more than 8 years now.

The DA in any case is going to throw the book at you weather you cheat 15 minutes or 4 hours. All he is going to see is that you broke the rules; HOS rules are black and white. Even if the DA doesn't charge you, a civil attorney will tear your logbook up. Just a question, how many times a month do you just fudge your logs? If you kill or really hurt some one, they will use that to show a pattern. You can not hide a fudge from a criminal investigation, they find everything.

Look, I'm not trying to get into a fight with you. I just believe every driver needs to know what can happen if they adjust the books. The driver needs to make the informed decision; he needs to understand how a logbook is reconstructed from all the information sources. I've heard all the stories at the truck stop and the CB about what they can and can not use. 99% of the driver have not clue about what information is going to be used.

In the last year or year and half, there is driver is western PA being sued civilly. DA decided not to file criminal charges, family members hired a civil attorney. Driver drove 2 hours past is 14 hours to get home, gets home about 8PM. Driver parks his truck and trail in his drive way and goes in the house. At around 3AM a drunk driver runs his car off the road and into the side of the trailer, killing him self. The case comes down to the driver not legally being able to have parked the truck at home at this time. If the driver was running legal with HOS the truck and trailer wouldn't have been there to kill the drunk.

I will try to find a link to the above story.



Mark

 

I have a sticky thread I just added regarding the supporting documents and copied and pasted the regulation and also included the link to the FMSCA so you can verify it. So please go review that for a little more detail/clarification.

 

Didnt know how far they could go to get into your company's deep pockets as well as to put the driver in jail!! I try to run 'as legal as possible,' but as any driver has experienced, over-driving 30 mins to make a delivery vs. being 1-day late (which is unacceptable to both your company and the customer!) is a fact of life in this industry!! The problem is, even tho you may be a safe driver and not cause an accident, someone can hit 'you' and sue your pants off for all kinds of DOT violations!! This type of stuff ruins many drivers lives as I've heard....sad

 

It's the "###### if you do,###### if you don't"

 

I ws told by our head safety officer that they cannot use tolls/Ipass etc for logs violations. Not sure on prepass.

 

MYTH 10: PREPASS DATA IS USED TO CATCH SPEEDERS.
PrePass would work well as a law enforcement device. But PrePass, operated by Affiliated Computer Services and administered by Heavy Vehicle Electronic License Plate Inc., says that’s not going to happen.

“Enforcement officials frequently ask for PrePass data that could be used for speed, log book and tax enforcement,” says HELP President Richard Landis. “Our answer is always the same: ‘Sorry, but we can’t.’”

Landis explains that more than 10 years ago, HELP’s half-industry/half-government board of directors agreed that “PrePass data would be used only for the purpose of complying with state requirements at the time of the by-pass.”

“We have never backed away from this formal policy,” Landis says.

 

I still own a "Hot Shot" truck, which is a Dually Dodge with a 53 foot car trailer, and the DOT Drove me nuts when I drove that thing.

I have NO sleeper, and therefore cannot sleep in the truck, Hotels ONLY, and the always asked for my Hotel reciept.... but still follow the Log book rules just as the Big Trucks do.
When driving along, and finding that I only had 30 minutes to drive, and being in the middle of nowhere...... What was I supposed to do ?? Or better yet during the summer when there's not a Hotel to be had within 200 miles, or the unexpected "Big Event" somewhere, and there again All Hotels are booked solid.
I honestly really try and run a tight logbook, and still there's been the occasional time where Hotels just weren't an option.