ELD's require payroll documentation

Where are you reading this?

 

My logs will no longer show time spent wrenching on my truck. They wanted this electronic contraption to automatically record my HOS, so I'm not going out of my way to "edit" it in order to accurately reflect my time working on line 4. It knows what it knows, and what it doesn't know only proves it was pushed out before it was ready for prime time. The log book is STILL only as accurate as the one making the entries. They wanted a computer to automatically record the changes in duty status, so I say let the computer do so. If they want ME to log my changes in duty status while the truck is not running, it needs to be a system that doesn't require power.

 

Pulled up a random website: 5 Things You Need to Know About ELDs

Para. 2 reads something about the supporting docs:

2. The required supporting documents.
This requirement could prove to be a burden to some carriers because it takes us back to the retention of paper, or it will require the manual conversion of a paper receipt to some form of digital image. Drivers are required to retain all related documentation for a period of eight days, but receipts must be submitted to the carrier no later than 13 days after the document comes into the driver's possession. The final rule states this requirement is to verify on-duty not driving time.

The rule says carriers must retain each supporting document generated or received in the normal course of business, and goes on to say that carriers need not retain more than eight supporting documents. Among them must be the earliest and the latest time indications of all the documentation.

Supporting documentation can include dispatch records, trip records, expense receipts related to on-duty not driving time, payroll records, settlement sheets, etc. They must include appropriate data to link the record to a driver and a date and trip as well as the time, location, etc. Such documents must be retained for six months.


I think all it's saying is that your getting paid for all time spent in or around the truck. So yes if your in the shop then you should get paid for it. As a company driver I'm either in the sleeper, if it's a PM or short fix, or off duty if it's longer. We have macros (premade messages, basically) that I send in over my qualcomm, that let's my FM know that I am broke down and not able to drive. From the driver stand point I don't need my pay stub to show DOT as long as I am logged onto the computer, and that has my last 8 days on it. I think that sentence is showing a general meaning of what is "needed" for documentation.

I'm just a company steering wheel holder though, so that's just my take on it. I'm sure people with a brain will chime in when they have some time.

 

I received a similar list of supporting documents for my new entrant carrier audit. The pretty common practice by (I'm sure that many) carriers has been to allow a driver to have a reset by removing his moves or even the entire 8 days from his logbook. No trace can be found other than odometer discrepancies or paychecks. The Illinois DOT also included in the list of supporting documents ....the phone records!!!!!!

 

I don't get why the FMCSA wants to be able to verify "on duty not driving time". Why would anyone log a lot of On Duty time just for the hell if it? And I thought a compliant ELD was sure to not miss any Driving time. So. WTH?

I guess you have to think like a bureaucrat to get it.

Or does this apply to those seeking an exemption from ELD's?

 

You've always had to have payroll info during a compliance review if asked for. Easy for them to catch you paying a driver or O/O and no logs matching it. Same as tolls, scales, ect. Have that on a payroll re-imbursement, O/O settlement, then it better be in the records for that trip/load and match. Have someone who works a dock and drives, better have all those dock hours on a log.

It isn't some new regulation.

 

So to me it reads like this is something more in line with O/O's and small business types? Cause I've never (knock on wood) been asked for info like that. I would also assume that a compliance review would be the bean counter types at corporate? (Corporate being whomever does the books)

 

Oh. I thought this was somehow related to the ELD mandate in the pipeline.

Or I wonder if this is partially being reinforced to deal with all the "driver contractors" on the road today.

 

A compliance review is when the FMCSA shows up at a carrier for an audit. Far more detailed than a new entrant audit or roadside DOT inspection.