Rounding the minutes when logging, is it legal?

This question gets down to the nitty gritty...just like the feds & an attorney would.

I would say it's ok as long as there's no problems along the way, especially in close proximity to where you had a change of duty status.

If you got in an accident within those few mins, you might have a helll of a time explaining how you traveled 8 miles in one minute. That would, in the feds & an attorneys eyes, be enough to burn you even if the accident wasn't technically your fault.

It's all CYA anymore. Better you should show leaving sooner than later. The most they'll see then is you were draggin' your feet.

Yes, they will use that slight error in time to crucify you.

 

In Accounting, its always ok as long as you are consistant. i.e. - don't switch rounding to actual when it profits you. Round off error is chump change and shouldn't matter if you are not doing it to deceive or cheat the system. With digital clock number readouts, tenths single decimal accuracy at every 6 minutes seems more logical: but everyone sees and rounds differently. Interesting question I'd run by your company gurus so you are covered though.

 

It all depends on your company policy. If you make the mistake of going with Brickman's attitude and work for Crete, you can blame him for getting fired.
Some companies, including Crete and Shaffer, DO expect and enforce "log it as you drive it" which means you round to the nearest 15 minutes. At 7:22 you should log 7:15, so obviously, to help yourself, you sit another minute and log 7:30 activity that took place at 7:23.
Crete and Shaffer WILL scrutinize your log in regular, NOT random, audits. Computer programs WILL flag you if they recognize you parked at 8pm and then the GPS shows you rolled at 5:50, 10 minutes before the end of your legal 10 hour break.
Don't listen to anyone here, listen to your safety or log person, and ALSO balance that with what you hear from other company drivers about their experience with log enforcement from your firm.
It is only a matter of time before the DOT has access to company records directly and will assess penalties with no involvement of your company at all.
bb. speaking from recent experience.

 

I think of it more in terms of not lying but rather forced to be inaccurate.

Still, don't underestimate an attorney or the Judge.

Let me use his example; He begins driving at 2:19. By 2:30, when he shows a duty change, he's conceivably miles away from where he started. That's 11 mins worth of driving before he shows actually driving. In 11 mins of hiway speeds that's as much as 10-11 miles away from where he showed starting. I realize it won't be that much but it could still be a good fraction thereof.

Now, let something happen at 2:30. He is not supposed to be where he is at that point.

The lawyer will use that, in front of an unknowledgeable Judge &/or jury, to make him the bad guy even if he didn't cause the accident. If he wasn't there, he couldn't have been involved in the accident & cause or add to the damages resulting from that accident.

The Judge & the jury will use that.
The lawyer will see to it.
They have in the past.

He will fixate on it until the driver becomes the lowest form of life on the planet.

Driver's &/or their company's have been successfully sued on this basis before, especially in fatalities & injury accidents.

Never underestimate a sharp lawyer, a hurting family & a jury that doesn't particularly like trucks(ers).

Even if he had not "fudged" the times a little, a sharp lawyer will go thru everything & anything to prove that driver wasn't supposed to be there. It's not uncommon to go after cellphone records because the newer units have gps built in. They are accurate to at worst 10-30 meters & mere microseconds of time. Usually better than that. That's all it takes to prove a reasonable doubt that the driver falsified his logs to be there.

CYA. Forget shaving time like that. I think it's actually better to shave time by exceeding the speed limit by a couple or three mph than to get caught for mere minutes in a "fractured" log book.

Which costs more? The speeding ticket for a couple or three mph or falsifying your logs?

 

But that is NOT how it works. I have just told him from my experience that some companys DO enforce 7 1/2 minutes while you give him the green light to fudge 30 minutes. That is attitude (opinion), not fact.