Is this app DOT acceptable?

Ah but you are wrong on this one. It says it must be in the drivers hand writing and it is just like those card swipe machines at the store where you sign on the screen. It is in your own hand writing. It is not typing your name to digitally sign the log sheet. You use your finger to sign on the screen.

 

What about when the highway patrol is revenue hunting and conducting inspections on the shoulder of the interstate, will the app still work for them? The company I'm leaning towards joining has peoplenet elogs, but I was wondering if this app is a better alternative than paper logs as a backup in case peoplenet dies on me.

 

Electronic signatures are fully acceptable. Unfortunately, the Guidance you quoted has not been updated (hey, it has only been eight and-a-half months). The updated Guidance is posted below.

 

We've had this discussion on here before.. here's a breif recap.

Digital logs produced by smartphone, tablet or computer apps no longer have to be printed and signed manually by drivers, according to new guidance on digital logs issued this week by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Digital logs can now be signed with electronic signatures and submitted to carriers to satisfy federal logbook requirements, FMCSA’s guidance says.
Under the new guidance, if a driver can sign the logs electronically, they do not have to print logs each day and do not have to maintain printed and signed logs for the previous seven days.This guidance changes previous agency guidance issued in 2011 that said drivers must print the digital logs and sign them each day, in addition to being able to print the records for the previous 24-hour period and maintain printed and signed copies for the previous seven days and be able to produce seven days’ of logs for enforcers.
From an enforcement standpoint, drivers can display current and records of duty status for the previous seven days on their device’s screen. If an inspector asks for printed copies, drivers must be given the opportunity to print them during the inspection, FMCSA says.
If electronic signatures cannot be used within the app, though, drivers must still print and sign their logs each day and have on them printed and signed records of duty status for the preceding seven days.
According to the agency’s guidance, simple digital logs, like in smartphone apps, do not count as electronic logging devices or automatic onboard recorders, as they do not connect with the truck’s engine or computer to gauge operations like power status, motion status, engine hours, etc.

This essentially removes a rule that had been blocking the more widespread adoption of electronic logging software that required the logs be in the driver’s own handwriting. That rule, written with the intention of preventing log book fraud.
The rule also aims to harmonize guidance issued in 2011 that allowed electronic storage and signature of other records but specifically did not include hours of service logs. The now out-of-date guidance found in 49 CFR Part 395.8 will be removed from the regulations.

 

Just to threw a wrench into the works, the DOT can't accept things that are not allowed by the governing regulations the the feds operate under, there is a regulation (I don't remember where to find it) that defines electronic signatures for all federal regulations.

That said, the feds are not the ones who have to accept any log, it is the states who do and they can say "nope not good enough".

 

The printing requirement is getting tossed. You can't print from a QC unless the logs are faxed/emailed, either.

 

I posted it above.

Not if the driver is engaged in interstate commerce and therefore subject to FMCSA rules.

 

As has been already said, if the tablet/smartphone app does not comply with 395.15 (true AOBR, connected to engine, etc.), then the driver MUST be able to print previous days upon request, even when using electronic signatures.

That is the "driver" must be able to "print." Not FAX, not email, not use the scalehouse printer. The driver must print with his own printer. The printed information must have all the required elements of normal paper logs and be compliant with 395.8.

See the thread below on the subject.

http://www.thetruckersreport.com/tr...smartphone-tablet-logging-apps-no-longer.html

 

I'm not arguing what you posted but when I was with my last company using QC, I NEVER signed a log. I was with them for many many years and it was all done digitally. This was Schneider.