logging question

Define the word "they". "They" as in a state officer or "they" as in a federal DOT officer?

A state inspector will investigate todays' RDS, plus the previous 7-days for a total of 8-days to ensure the driver is in compliance with the 70-hour rule assuming the carrier operates every day of the week. If the carrier does not operate every day of the week the state officer will investigate today plus the previous 6-days for a total of 7-days because if the carrier does not operate every day of the week the driver and carrier are required to use the 60-hour rule. A federal inspector, such as I was, has the legal right to look at 6-months worth of RDS's when investigating a company and their drivers while performing a compliance review (commonly referred to as an audit) at the carriers' corporate headquarters.

 

Carriers are only required to keep logs 6 months . But an attorney involved with a serious truck accident will ask for all shipping papers , scale tickets , toll receipts , fuel receipts , etc. for the past 5 years or more . If for , example they find a toll or fuel receipt 15 hours after a truck scaled out at the shipper they have what they want . They will also look for receipts that don't have a 10 hour gap needed for the required break .

 

You are correct to the extent of discovery motions; attorneys will demand anything and everything. The problem with this however is if the carrier doesn't maintain the information the discovery demand is/becomes moot. Federal rules, as you clearly stated, only mandate the carrier to keep an RDS (log) for 6-months. An attorney cannot receive what doesn't exist. In addition, you must also remember that the attorney wants to look really good for their client. Discovery motions such as you suggest are sometimes just for that, assuming the attorney has some knowledge of the 49CFR rules. If the case goes to trial, which most don't, the defense only needs to point out that the rules of the United States Government only require the data to be maintained for "X" period of time. This essentially deflates a contention by the plaintiff of discarding them to hide something.

However if the carrier maintains the data for longer than the 6-month period (which some carriers do for income tax purposes) they are legally bound to provide all the data in their possession.

Many of the documents you mention are also kept for longer periods for income tax and other purposes but become a moot point if there is nothing to which that attorney can match such as an RDS.