The Best Reason to go ELD

No, but you can politely point out the law. If they still give you a ticket then go to court yes. The whole point is I have enough crap I have to carry. I'm not carrying stuff I don't have to just to make some ignorant officer happy.
If you want to live in fear though, be my guest. It only makes my life a tiny bit harder, as if you would have corrected him I would not have to. Either way though no skin off my back. Just pointing to other drivers that aren't afraid of LEO's what the actual law is.

 

I don't know what ELD you guys are using that say LEO can see your ECM data. I'm on keeptruckin AOBR and when I switch to "inspection mode" it looks like a paper log on a screen. Its up to them to add up hours to check the 70, its up to them to go back and check for any violations the previous 8 days. NOTHING is FLAGGED in "inspection mode". I was in Michigan a while back and ran out of my 70. Went back and edited (tightened up) all the on duty time until I could finish the trip legally just like I would have done on paper. Also to the OP all of us that use an AOBR we can run around @ 15 mph and still be off duty, sleeper berth, or on duty not driving, how is this mandate "made" me legal?

 

They are going to be vulcanizing this steer tire and give thanks for that they are about to recieve....

NIce. I loved it.

//YEASE!!!

 

The thing about the capability of the human brain is that you either use it, or you lose it. I prefer to use it.

 

Today was my first day using an ELD. All I can say is #### paper. I have enough crap to worry about. Push a couple buttons on a screen and go. Ain't nobody got time to waste drawing scribbles on a graph.

 

It's never a good idea to try to educate officers of law. They know the law. Sometimes they just pick at you to see if you're going to be difficult. To any driver, especially rookies, keep it on your person. It doesn't hurt

 

I have respectfully educated officers both at roadside AND inside scale houses when it becomes apparent they are ignorant of the regulation which allows me to do what I'm doing. They usually call someone who is more familiar with the regs than they are, or grab the green book and look it up for themselves. Key is to do this respectfully and professionally, NOT being rude or combative. You might be the 1st they've encountered claiming a certain exception or exemption, and they only know what they see all of the time.

 

That's good advice, but as a person of color, I'd rather not take the chance. I'm not indicting all police as prejudice, but in a situation like that, where they hold the switch blade, I'd rather just stay in my lane and get the inspection over and done with. Besides, my clock is ticking hahaha

 

The first time, I had just blown a tire...L/F/O on the trailer. I singled it out on the shoulder (what little there was on the 2-lane road), then proceeded (as allowed under §396.7(b)). He saw me, flipped around, and pulled me over. After demanding to see my log book (which I didn't have per §395.1(e)) a dozen or more times and telling me "you can't do that" when I explained what was going on with the tire, he called his "DOT guy" and spoke on the phone for 45 minutes. He comes back, looks at the other tire, and said "My DOT guy said that as long as the other tire is good, to send you on your way." ...and that's exactly what happened.

Then there was the scale house in MS, where I had to explain the 16 hour exception I had used the previous week...then had the weekend off...and was needing again that day to make it home. He looked it up for himself in the green book, saying "It's just not something I see every day." He deals mostly with OTR drivers, and to claim the 16 hour exception under §395.1(o) you have to have started & stopped at the same place the previous 5 work days and not claimed the exception in the previous 7 days UNLESS you've had a 34 hour restart. Once he read the regulation for himself, he sent me on my way.

Ignorance can be cured. It is stupid that you have to watch out for.