Driving past midnight...

Think what you want, but I have several family members who are OSP and cross trained as DOT officers, they all tell me they scrutinize elogs far less than paper specifically because elogs cant be fooled with like paper can. Its true, had this particular officer knew the law, the op wouldnt have an issue; however I know for fact that in the 3 inspections Ive had in the past year, 2 level 1s (Troutville Va nb scale, and Ohio I75 New Baltimore sb) and one level 3 (Knoxville tn I40eb ), I have never had the officer go through my logs.

 

I've had two inspections in the past year where officers looked at my elog. Yes they do

 

not saying they dont, ive just never had one look yet.

 

They are only under the misconception that elogs can't be toyed with...but you don't have to look very hard to find folks here discussing the work-arounds...like driving x miles at less than xx speed before it kicks you over to the drive line...or "line 5" driving...or simply not putting yourself on line 4 when you're doing line 4 type activities...not to mention the whole sleeper vs off duty distinction and whether or not the driver is accurately showing his NON-driving time.

Not to mention you'd better have your little instruction card explaining how to work the e-log system in case the officer wants to look at them, and paper log sheets "just in case" there is a malfunction with the e-logs...

Both systems have their flaws, and it's only a matter of time until the DOT starts exploiting the flaws in the elogs. With the FMCSA pushing hard for them, they are treating elogs as if they are the best thing since sliced bread. Once they get their mandate, gloves come off...only then it may be beyond your control what the officer sees. Did your dispatch or someone from the office make a change to your log that contradicts what you're telling the officer? On paper, I'm the ONLY one making the entries, and I can make sure I'm doing it all by the book.

 

They weren't sliced, diced or crucified, but looked at. They were good. No problems..

 

My elogs and the contents of the entire cab was gone through on one inspection. Happened in Texas about this time last year, that was forsy time, didn't ask but I still wonder why, its probably something to expect. Yet its not the norm

 

hahah
I pointed that out to many about people net
hahaha

 

Is it possible for a truck driver to make copies of their e-logs on a daily basis to keep for their own records?

 

The "workarounds" are getting less and less, with the advent of e-logs that are TIED to the truck rather than a Daily Driver type record keeping system a lot of those things will go away.

For the uninformed out there that think they are fooling the system, just because your safety dept. didn't pick it up, or scold you for it, don't think for one minute that in the event of an accident you will not be caught.

Keep a couple of things in mind, (and I an speaking of an integrated E-log system tied to your trucks ECM) NO ONE, not even your E-log office ad min, can change your drive time, period.

Even though you CAN drive at a LOW speed for a SHORT distance and it may not kick your tablet onto "drive time, don't think you are getting away with anything, because two things happen when you click that truck into drive and start moving, first the ECM records the truck going into gear, (also thottle and brake movement) also it records CONSTANTLY your GPS Lon/Lat position, it's really pretty easy to see if the truck has moved, and really, what are you going to gain by driving 10 mph for a mile?

Yes it is true, as far as recording Sleeper, vs. Off-duty, But as far as I can tell, it really makes no difference, UNLESS, you are trying to do a split sleeper break. Truth is, I never log Sleeper, always OFF-duty, that way once I park and log out, I am free to do whatever I want WITHOUT having to touch my logs, IOW's, I go sit down and eat, I may watch some TV or B.S. with other drivers in the lounge, take a shower, go out to the truck and go to bed, wake up in the middle of the night and walk into the TS and use the bathroom, then back out to my truck for the rest of the night, ALL on OFF-DUTY.

For those of you that say you do EVERYTHING by the book on paper I will ask you this, you are logged in Sleeper when you went to bed, in the middle of the night you feel nature calling and visit the bathroom, did you show that you went from sleeper to OFF-duty, and then back to Sleeper???

Be honest, no body does, guess what, you just falsified your logs. This was pointed out to me in Cali, during a very intense in-the-bay Level 1, had shown sleeper for my 10 hour break, was asked if I was ACTUALLY in the sleeper for 10 hours straight, I said no, went to the bathroom, he said, so your logs are wrong!

I will ad, the above happened BEFORE they changed the Off-Duty in Commercial vehicle clause.

 

driving 8/10 mile wait 5 min drive 8/10 mile gets me from the reciver to the truck stop with out going over my 14hr