You would hope so... but when I was solo with Covenant, a young man from Atlanta came into the cafeteria... he asked for some help on his logs, I said sure - I was waiting for my wife to get out of a class. He had TWENTY NINE log violations in 42 days... he'd been with a trainer. Most of it was just bad math when figuring driving time vs miles, got him speeding violations... we went through and corrected everything. This young guy was with a TRAINER for 42 days... last time I checked, you check your trainee's logs and other paperwork BEFORE it goes into the Tripak envelope.
Try this, lay the last 7 days log sheets you've ran in one pile on your bunk. Oldest day on the bottom. Add the driving/on duty hours for all 7 days together. Now take that stack and flip it over so the oldest day is on top face down. Now take the oldest day which is now on top and flip it over so you can read it. Subtract that number from your total. That's new total is now how many hours you have left to run. Hopefully what I just typed makes sense to you, as it would take about two seconds to show you in person. Just keep after, in a couple months it will become second nature, and there are lots of guys sitting around the truck stop that would be happy to help you just because you asked nicely.
Yes I am a student, and yes, my instructor has been trying to explain it to me for the past 2 days. What I'm asking is there an easier way for me to understand it. I can get the first 70 hours, it's trying to understand where that first day drops off and I get those hours and so on I'm having trouble with
It does to a degree. I can start to understand it, then when I go to try it again, my mind goes blank on what I'm supposed to subtract and add
Not all of them. We spent a full day on logs and we are required to run a log for each day we are in school. We turn it in each morning for the previous day and log all the driving we do.
1st, work carefully with your instructor. If you still have problems and have a laptop, Drivers Daily Log is a good tool. You can find it on Google and I believe they offer a 30 day trial for free (non-printable). You can use this to verify your math and keep you legal. The program is small enough to put on a zipstick. I couldn't get a printer for my truck, so I carried DDL on my laptop. I used it to maintain my log and hand printed the logbook itself. It also will run a flawless split-sleeper. I had 2 logbook violations before I put it on truck and zero after that. It did help me to understand logging a lot better.
our logs have a schedule on the right side to keep track of your day totals. It is not part of the official log area. you can make all the notes you want. It shows your past seven days, a line under that for their total, the next line is for your available hours, and the next is for hours worked today. It is very helpful for beginners, in a week or so it will just be tedious repetition... Sorry for the large photo. Just tried to make it big enough to see... Mikeeee
Hi guys, New to this, so just trying to "do it right" as best I can. I'm new at the wonderful log book details.....Not doin too bad, but do have some basic learning tips I'm picking up as I go. The area near the bottom of the log book I'm using, is a "FRom___________ To ____________. I think someone told me wrong, but wanna make sure.... I was told the "From" is where your TRIP started,,, and the "TO" is where your final destination or location is..... Is that wrong? I'm swaying towards thinkin, the From and TO on each page, is where your day starts from,,, and where you ended up at the end of your day, for that page.. Which is right? Thanks for the help, Glider7
Use that recap! Real quick just read the next few lines! That's where you will take the last day off! Look at the page. Now write the last seven days on your recap. take yesterdays log and set it next to todays. See where the days are and day seven is yesterdays day 6 correct? Then add these hours up and you have your "last seven days" and it's not a mystery. You're trying to do something in your mind which unless you are a math wiz it's not going to work! The recap is self explanatory just by looking at the numbers and the word yesterday under that day 7! Start like this, on a seperate piece of paper put numbers 1-10 just like your log page. now start at the top and put these numbers in the lines 1=9, 2=7, 3=8, 4=10, 5=10,6=11,7=8, 8=5, 9=11, 10=11 This is just some hours for you and don't worry how they total out. YET! the extra days are just BS and don't worry about them. Now take a log book (hopefully it's free!) put these numbers on the top page in the same numbered slot 1-7. The recap day in the top right corner is day 7 (ooops your logs doesn't have the day so todays date for this exercise id 4/7/2020. If and when you have a log that has a recap day use the date as it's easier!) Now see the number 8 ? Shows 5 hours? That should not be on your page yet Draw those lines on the log you have to total out to todays hours of 8. you'll need at least .5 for 2 PTIs (another argument!) driving and maybe a .15 for fueling and lets not forget sleeper! Total the mess out to 24. NOW flip the page to tomorrow. I hope you learn to do your paperwork the same way every day. This means if DOT were to come and wake your arse up and your log shows you still unloading or off duty but you're in the sleeper you have as Rickey would say "Some splaning to do!" Have that book up to the last change of duty status! BUT there is nothing that says you can't have the next day ready for when you wake up. Sign nothing until you have all 24 hours in lines drawn! Anyway that's still another argument! You are now on day 8 correct? Tear off the white copy of the log and lay it next to the new page BUT slide it so day 7 is next to day 6 and look down at that 3rd line down from day 7 where it says "hours worked today" and put that number in day 7 and move the numbers across from page 1 to todays log. Do you see where you did NOT move day 1 over as it has no place to go, or did it? Yes it did. Where day eight hours go to die! Some place in FMCSA limbo! Before you do ANYTHING else take the white copy and put it in your trip pack or in your notebook. Do NOT just lay it somewhere that it can walk away from! Keep all your paper work in ONE location as soon as your butt hits the truck! An envelope is the best. The floor, dash, over head pocket, pants or shirt pocket or the passenger seat is NOT where anything that can mean money to you should be put! it can and will disappear when it's put where it can blow away from! Murphys Law says it will happen! There you have just dropped day 8 off and you now have the last 7 days and add them up and put the total on to the line just above it where it says 7 day total. Now on your calculator put in 70 and subtract the total you just put on that line and write it in the box that says 70 hours less total hours equals available hours today. There is your answer. What did you come out with? You get a short driving day today don't you? I have 7 but my math sucks too! Now do the day out and log 5 hours on duty time and all the off duty and sleeper and tear out the days white copy and do the exercise again. lay it on tomorrows page write down yesterdays total hours on duty on line 7 and bring the rest over put the page where it belongs with yesterdays log total the days up and then subtract that number from 70. write it down and you should have how to lose that last day down pat. you are doing as many rookies do and are making something easy hard in your mind. It's not a mind thing but a paper trick which you now know how to do. Hmmm, there is still a day left on your piece of paper. DO IT NOW!!!! I know that most of you have a laptop. My advice to you and everyone else is buy a logging program. Drivers Daily Log is the best one I had. Yes everyone is going to EBOR or wiull be but having a logging program will do several things for you. Will keep your log current with the automatic time setting has it current with the click of the mouse keeps you in top of your hours on the fly can be used to schedule your run down to the 1/2 hour (no one is so good that they can predict the road closure or weather or wreck! It will help you predict that cutoff at 14 hours or when you run out of your 11 or when those 8 hours you had for today die and you're sitting waiting for 12 midnight or when you finally get hours back! A logging program will keep you from getting a ticket! It's tax deductible. It will keep your logs for the past year in a file that the IRS can access when you get audited and you do the per diem deduction! Just think no paper logs to have to keep in the attic at home in the tax returns box! If this program keeps you from getting one ticket then it's paid for it's self! I have been using DDL since it was free with the old 8/10 rule but with the new 11/14 it's saved my bacon and helped me do my scheduling which saved me many hours that I spent sleeping or playing or working! Well worth the money I paid for it. There are a few others and I did try one called eclipse or something but still get one! When these companies finally go to the on board crapola you'll have to be sure that the company gives you copies of your logs for your per diem and paper copies are a PITA! Having the program will make that part of life simpler!
Nope it's the trip information. From is where the load picks up and to is where it ends. Don't worry about where you are at when you get the load information as it's already on that day! From and to if you flipped through your book is continuous from day one to day 31. If you start a load at hour 5 do not worry about it until the next day IF it goes into the day. If not then on the "to" line just put a dash behind the town you have and add the next town and if you did the delivery on that day then do it again behind that one. NOW don't hold me to this but if you do multiple drops in a day then the "from" is where the load starts and then "to" will be the last drop. When I did NYC multi drops on my dedicated and had up to 8 drops in all 5 boroughs I started with Rogers, AR where the load picked up and the last drop on the trip which could have been 2 Brooklyn, a Bronx or 2 a few out on long island but I would just put the last town dropped in. BUT do what your company tells you to do. The DOT really doesn't expect you to put all that crapola on the log as long as they are flagged and shown on the graph.
