Weird Elog And Qualcom Experience

I started the week with a load from FL to MA without enough hours to get it there. Plus they give me a load out of MA to IL that is to pick up before I can even get the other load there. I have been behind since I was sent to pick up the first load and really busting my butt with 3 14 hour days in 4, with loading and unloading delays, not to mention the 2 hours it took to get from NJ across the bronx, and then gridlock in the NE. I got a new truck and got a working qualcom, so I am on elogs.Well 2 nights ago, my 30 minute break vanishes off my logs, and I am driving along and get a message I am 30 minutes from being in violation. I figure I did something wrong, so I took another break, and went on for a few more hours. Today trying to get this load into Dekalb, if everything goes right, I have a chance in 11 hours. Well, today the same thing happens again. Except this time, I get alarms saying I am in violation of the 8 hour rule. I had requested my logs after going off duty this time. Took it at my fuel stop and it shows on duty for fueling, and my change to off duty. I note the time, take my break, with the truck parked and off. I called safety and finally got ahold of someone, and at first he didn't believe me, but he was able to call up the truck info and sure enough, my logs were saying I was driving while the truck was parked. So, he did what ever he does and tells me it's fixed, and I go off down the road. Well, fog, and traffic lights slowed me down on US 30 and I had kept track of my time, and I see I have about 1:20 left with 118 miles to go. I call night dispatch and tell him, I am going to run short of hours. He tells me I have 1:44 left, with 140 miles to go, and I can make it. I did not argue with him. No sooner did we get done that I get a message saying I am in 1 hour of being in violation of 11 hours. Now I dont know what to do. There was a petro about 30 minutes up the road, so I went there. I requested my logs and now it is saying I have 1:10 left with about 90 miles according to my GPS. Tomorrow I am going to keep paper logs too. I shut down at Petro.The load will be late. I have a pick up tomorrow in WI I can pick up at anytime. If I get in trouble, I get in trouble, but I am not going to run in violation and now, I cant trust the elogs system. Part of the trouble is, I am just flat out tired. I need to rest to think straight. I am also a little miffed night dispatch would hang me out to dry. I am skirting Chicago in US rtes going through small towns and slow speed zones. According to my GPS and exit book, there is nothing near there if I get in trouble.

Man am I glad I never had to use elogs!!! I'm old school from the paper log days where you could do your job and lie all you needed to.

One time I get pulled into a scale house and I'm like 12 hours behind on my logs. The guys tell me to get it caught up. So I'm standing there - just me and two officers - and they're watching me write out the last 12 hours. I'm like, "Let's see....I stopped at that Petro back in Pennsylvania at the 84 mile marker, had dinner, took my eight hour break (that was the rule at the time), took off this morning, stopped for breakfast back at the 218 mile marker for 30 minutes, and resumed driving....and here I am."

I was filling in the lines on the book as I was talking my way through it. They looked it over, said it looked fine, and let me go. The one simply said, "Make sure you keep that book caught up from now on." and I said, "Yes sir. I appreciate you giving me the opportunity to get it caught up. Thanks."

And as you might expect, the entire "story" I wrote down with them watching was 100% fabricated. I did nothing of the sort. But I had been driving for quite a few years at that point so I knew how to play it. Got lucky, that's for sure!

New to e-logs myself. Managing the HOS running legal has been a challenge with that thing, that's for sure. We use Qualcomm too. I always ran a loose leaf comic book. The company provided you with as many pre-printed (company name and address) pages as you wanted (which should tell you something) because "sometimes securing and tarping can take a while and you might make a mistake. Here's a whole bunch of extra pages in case you need to fix a mistake." Wink, nod. I had a nice Road Pro canvas and leather binder. I kept my calculator, pen and log ruler in it and had pictures of my kids on the inside cover. Very professional looking fiction novel. But it was always up to date and the magic loose leaf logbook never ran out of hours. 8/10/70 (no such thing as a restart back then) always seemed to have enough time to get where I needed to go. DOT inspections (as Brett pointed out) were done with tongue in cheek for the logbook part. They knew, but as long as it looked good they didn't say anything. The pictures of my children looking all nice for picture day at school on the inside cover sparked MANY conversations resulting in the officer not even looking at the log itself other than a quick flip to make sure I had my previous 7 days in it. Quite proud of one legal week I actually asked one time (and that was the only time); "Aren't you going to look at the hours?" "Why? You just made them up. It's loose leaf. I'm sure it's all legal looking. You don't seem tired to me. I'm more interested in what kind of shape this truck and trailer are in and how well that load is secured. Go ahead and open up that kit for me and lets see how well you chained up.(covered wagon)" He proceeded to do a very in depth level 1. That's just the way it was back then EXCEPT California or if you ticked the officer off in another state. They were more interested in other things. More than one asked for my logbook with; "make sure you give me the right one now. Don't wanna have to write you up for a log violation." Not now. Nothing gets past them now. Which is good I suppose. I get more rest now. That's nice.

Qualcomm and e-logs definitely has it's quirks, though. Mine sure does. I'll start a new thread. We all have funny stories about Qualcomms and E-Logs glitching and driving us nuts. I think it'd be a gas to hear em. Those of us working during the Holiday could use a good laugh. I had 4.5 hours on my 14 when I hit the DC beltway (495) coming down from MD yesterday. More than plenty of time for the normal DC shuffle. Usually I have a professional appearance and demeanor. Golf shirt, khaki slacks, Timberlands shined. My hair is a bit long and I have a goatee, but I keep my hair neat and under a company ball cap and goatee neatly and closely trimmed. "Yes Sir, Thank you Sir. Four hour wait no problem. I realize I'm early. Have great day and good weekend when it gets here."

I looked (and felt) like my avatar by the time I got to the T/S in Ruther Glen just south of DC with only 5 minutes of drive time left and "Nancy" screaming at me every 5 minutes that I was about to violate the HOS regulations. I KNOW! DON'T YOU SEE THIS TRAFFIC AND CRAZY HOLIDAY DRIVERS? DID YOU COUNT THE ACCIDENTS? I DID. SEVEN SO FAR! YOU WANNA MAKE NUMBER EIGHT? YOU SEE ANY PLACE TO PULL OVER? I SURE DON'T. WHY DON'T YOU REACH INTO THAT GPS OF YOURS AND PULL OUT A PLACE TO PARK AND BE USEFUL FOR A CHANGE YOU ELECTRONIC PIECE OF . . . LOL.

Happy Holidays. And if the ever so fast and reliable truck stop WiFi goes all Nancy on me and I can't start it, someone else take it up. I think a thread of crazy Qualcomm and E-Log stories would be a lot of fun.