Keeping Current on a logbook?

Ok this is a new one on me. Ive always showed 15 min on duty not driving to bump dock or drop or hook. You did mention to be sure to total it all up at the end of the day. If I did this more then once and the total was 15 min or more how do I log it legal? I assume my hrs for each line need to match my graph. I would think dropping down on duty not driving at the end of the day would be fudging my logbook, if that is the correct way to do it what if I run during the night/ early mornings (which is when I like to run if at all possible)?

I will say no matter what I will ALWAYS log atleast 15 min. when hooking up a new trailer. I find it hard to believe ( and sure the DOT would also) that a person can hook to trailer and give it a good look over in under 15 min.. Ive seen the aftermath of drivers not looking them over. Tread all over the highway, bearings locking up due to no oil and not to mention damage that was caused before hooking it but was not reported but the next driver reports it or it gets seen at the term and in turn get blamed for it.

 

Kick the tires and light the fires huh?.. Sorry man I realize you have alot more years holding a steering wheel then me but I would love to see you doing a GOOD pre-trip inspection in under 15 min. Ive never logged 15 min for a post-trip and have never had an issue for not doing so. I do however like to give a truck a good look see at least once a day so I know the 40 ton bullet I am putting on the road is safe. I will lose 2 hrs a week by logging 15 min pre-trip

 

In theory, if you flag three separate stops during your day; one of 8 minutes, one of 12 and one of 10 minutes, your graph grid on paper for on-duty not driving should show 30 minutes less than the total of hours for the day in that duty status. Therefore, when you add the time accumulated on the graph grid plus the flagged stops it will total the number of hours for that duty status for the day.

However, in the real world things are a little different. Everytime you change duty status on paper logs there can be as much as 15 minutes discrepancy. If you start a break at 10:07.5 and end the break at 10:37.5 your break is 30 minutes, but because of rounding rules and the fact that paper gradations are only 15 minutes, it shows as 15 minutes on the log. Conversely, if you had three periods of on-duty driving, your actual driving time could be up to 45 minutes longer than what is legally logged.

Going back to my first paragraph, although an enforcement officer could give you grief because your graph grid plus any flagged status changes is greater than your hourly totals for the day, there is no way to prove you have exceeded legal limits because you are not required to keep paper records to the minute; you are only required to keep records in 15-minute increments.

 

Change of duty status at 7:15 - All change of duty status should indicate city and state. Well it can be assumed it happened in Chicago, IL it does not say so. And it may not have happened in Chicago in some other instance. Draw appropriate lines to notation.

Another change of duty at noon not noted.

The Scalemaster pointed out the obvious no on duty time and is obvious clue as to other violations in your 8 pages of logs. If you didn't label what you were doing at each change of location he couldn't have done that. Of course he could ask, but you left yourself no way out and with a obvious false log page.

So, just today you are each good for three log tickets, the day isn't over and by logging no on duty time you have indicated the nice DOT man that you have other problems on the other 7 logs you posses.

Labels are not needed nor or vertical lines.

If you haven't figured it out your question is moot. If you need to show your log to a DOT officer you need to note the city and state at the correct home terminal time and move off the driving line to the On-duty line. What you put down after a vertical line means nothing until your next change of duty.

As far as splitting up you 15min intervals, that is almost always a waste of time, saves nothing, and makes the mess out of the log. In some cases you would need a magnifying glass and calculator to read a log and in the end saves up nothing. It sounds like a good idea to only those who don't drive. At best you saved minutes which will be rounded away and wasted in the extra time it takes to do the trouble. If DOT can catch it log it in round 15min intervals and be done with it.

 

No one is suggesting "splitting up 15 minute intervals." Paper logs have 15 minute gradations. There is no requirement to mark duty status changes in any increment less than those gradations, nor do I know of anybody who would. "Flagged" stops are any stops less than 15 minutes with the actual time noted in the remarks. If you want to log 15 minutes when it only took five, be my guest, but I'll conserve my time as much as possible. Unless you always change duty status exactly on the :00, :15, :30 or :45 you are again giving up time needlessly; as much as 15 minutes per duty status change. That can add up to a fair amount of time over a week. And it works and sounds just fine to me and I have over 30 years Class 1 driving.

 

hmmm.. Not sure what you said.. My question was if you did more then 1 task in 1 day such as pre-trip, post-trip, bump dock, drop a trailer or hook a trailer and EACH task took less then 15 min to do (if you can do it in under 15 minutes you do NOT have to drop down to on duty not driving for 15 min to show the task but you do have to FLAG the task draw a line down in comments and put were you were and what task you done and time it took) were do you add up the time between all such FLAGGED tasks? Scalemaster said make sure you add them up. Last I knew your hrs on your graph HAVE to match the hrs you list on the right of them. So say you dropped a trailer at Dallas and it took you 8min to do it, then hook a trailer in Denton and it took 9 min. and now your tired because you was Flash Gordon for doing this and you want to sleep in Dallas so you do a speedy post trip that took you 10 min.. You add them up and get 27 min.. Rounded up you have 30 minutes. This is on duty not driving time. Were do you log it on the graph? Okay now say it was 11pm when you hooked the trailer in Denton and you drove to OKC before you called it a night (its the next morning mind you) now you have 17 min of FLAGGED tasks on 1 day and 10min flagged on the next day.

 

Nobody said not to look it over good all im saying is you dont have to log 15 minutes.

 

Sorry a bit of my smartazz but sadly not checking equipment happens a lot.. Granted you do not have to but in my opinion when Mr DOT sees that it would raise a red flag making him want to dig.. I know if I was a DOT it sure would.

In a perfect life DOT wouldnt have to be so involved.. But far to many just have no pride, work ethic of doing a job to their abilities or just dont care that the drive a 40 ton bullet down the highway and something happen that they may have seen in a pre-trip and the hit a family in a car which usually means all dead. Or they dont know their limits and drive within them. A person should know themselves well enuff to know if they are safe and park if not.. If I feel I am unsafe I park no matter what. No matter how hot the load is.. I once slept 4 hrs with a load of fat cows on the trailer.. When dispatcher asked why I wasnt unloaded yet I told him I was tired and took a nap.. "you cant sleep with a load of fat cows on" my reply was the hell I cant I just did, you want me to get them, the truck, everyone else and I there safely or come pick your dead cows out of a ditch because of a rolled truck?.. That and you have the retarded morons out there driving high.. Have no #### business behind the wheel and deserve to be shot