Off duty, driving Tractor ONLY home, DOT Reg??????

That is one extra benefit of paper logs...the company CANNOT legally make changes to it, and if they attempt to do so, it is much more apparent and likely to be spotted during an audit. Why? Because it has to be completed in the driver's own handwriting. If the company wants a change to be made and the log entry to look legitimate, they have to send it back to the driver and request changes be made...but it is still up to the driver whether or not to make those changes.

Until such time as e-logs comply with §395.8(f)(2), they should not be legal for use. "Entries made by driver only." I understand that those entries will not be in the driver's own handwriting on an e-log, but that should not exempt the e-log from the requirement that entries be made only by the driver.

 

Well... according to my company's rules, we only log out when truck is at shop and someone else may drive it... or when we are taking home time off... this way, we have absolutely no responsibility...

 

I tend to agree with this, at first I was opposed to the idea of a driver being able to edit his own elogs. However I'm thinking that this makes the most sense, and then once you've approved your logs for the day they are sealed to everyone. This puts the accountability on the driver. If a driver smokes all of his hours because he doesn't understand the hours of service it's up to the company to train him properly or term him. At this point he's mis managing his hours. My job would be significantly easier and I could really focus on those that need help, drivers would still be required to think.

However the big drawback will be, from my experience, that the really dumb drivers that don't understand the HOS will just state that the eLogs are "broken" and drive in violation. It's my opinion that those drivers shouldn't be working anyways, the rules aren't that hard to understand.

 

In that case, you fire the driver. §395.3 prohibits the motor carrier from allowing a driver to drive in violation of the HOS. If you have a policy in place to discipline drivers and you follow through with that policy (up to and including termination), then I don't see where the company could be held liable....you AREN'T permitting a driver to drive in violation of the HOS.

If, however, the company plays an active role in pressuring the driver to falsify his RODS in order to make the HOS violations go away...or ESPECIALLY if the company takes the initiative to falsify the drivers RODS for him....then the carrier would be in deep doo-doo should that falsification ever be found by the DOT.

The HOS are what they are...you either abide by them or you do not. Personally, I find it advantageous to log it as I do it...I'm on line 3 or 4 from the time I roll out of my driveway in the morning until I arrive back home again and complete my post trip inspection and any repairs that are necessary. If by the time I park the truck Friday afternoon I'm at 65-70 hours for the week, I have a VERY good excuse to have the weekend off. If, however, I were to falsify my log throughout the week...showing off duty time when in fact I was actually working and SHOULD have been on duty, I might only have 40-50 hours for the week by Friday afternoon. Now, if a load is offered to me on Saturday, it is much more difficult to turn down...I screwed myself out of a day off....and I just don't see any reason to do that.

Back when I was a company driver, I actually had another company driver yelling at me over the amount of time I log on line 4. He said I should only log 15 minutes for loading, 15 minutes for unloading, and all of my drive time at 65 mph. He then started complaining about how he hadn't had a day off in 3 weeks, and hadn't even been home in over a week. Who's fault is that? You falsified your log so that you'd have plenty of time to work...loads were available, and so you had to work. Not only do you give up your time off, if anything were to happen and the lawyers got their hands on your log book and supporting documents, they'd have a field day with you! Just not worth it. I work to live...not the other way around.

 

That's not true. You are required to complete and pti report.
http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/rules-regulations/administration/fmcsr/fmcsrruletext.aspx?reg=396.11

 

On our e-logs the logout screen has the option to state the logs are correct or contain errors . Logging out is how the logs are signed and we are supposed to do it daily .
However we know from experience in some areas it is difficult or impossible to get a signal to log back in . In these areas I simply go off duty and don't log out