Trucker Reportedly Forced To Alter Log Book Before Crash Awarded $80 Million!

Regardless of if he deserves it, I doubt he'll ever see 80 mil

Yeah, will be appealed for years.

Ok, I might be showing my newness, but how do you falsify that on the federally required eld? Paper logs, sure, but ELDs are a different animal, yeah?

Not all trucks are required to have an ELD. Many are the exemptions, such as cattle haulers, and any truck that is 1999 engine or older.

There are still paper lods with a December deadline.

There are still paper lods with a December deadline.

I think you are speaking of an AOBRD being updated to an ELD.

You are probably right packrat. I thought I heard somewhere out there that some were still not on ELD's and I likely assumed paper logs.

The settlement stems from a crash that happened on May 6, 2015,

ELD's were not mandated in 2015.

The settlement stems from a crash that happened on May 6, 2015,

ELD's were not mandated in 2015.

Good point, TM!

You are probably right packrat. I thought I heard somewhere out there that some were still not on ELD's and I likely assumed paper logs.

Everyone had to have an ELD as of Dec 2018, except those that had exemptions. One of the exemptions concerning the major carriers was that those already using an existing AOBRD have until Dec 2019 to have all these updated to an ELD, or have a new ELD installed. Basically, by the beginning of 2020, everyone will have an ELD, except for those exempted, and that is a large, varied list of carriers hauling lots of different products. It’s a bigcan of worms before the ELD mandate, and an even bigger one post Dec 2018, but I’ll leave it here for now. I could type out pages of new rules and proposed new regulations that I keep up with, but I won’t bore everyone tonight.

The settlement stems from a crash that happened on May 6, 2015,

ELD's were not mandated in 2015.

And there were plenty of folks that were running 3 paper logs back then - especially in smaller companies. And there were numerous "anecdotal reports" of dispatchers instructing drivers to violate HOS , to get a load done.

A question was posed to my instructor when I went through school (technical college back in '09), regarding "what do you do when your dispatcher insists you violate HOS"? And the answer was - "depends on how bad you want to keep your job".

As much as ppl complain about ELD's and their "inflexibility", they protect THE DRIVER from this sort of stuff (even though logs can still be fudged by an unscrupulous logging department).

And why we advise our members that comms with a dispatcher should ALWAYS BE made on Qualcomm (or whatever system your company uses), because the logs of those are required to be kept BY LAW.

I'm not quick to call BS or not BS, in the original story. I've heard of this happening in the past. I'm not saying it did or didn't happen the way the driver makes it out - only that IT COULD HAVE.

And LDRSHIP can tell you about the logging device on his current ride (pre computer truck), where he can edit his logs himself.

There are still a number of companies that are exempt, or trucks that are - that still run paper logs (or the electronic equivalent). Aside from the fact that a number of companies still prefer pre-emission trucks, not only because they avoid the hassles of emission systems, but because they are exempt from ELD and can still cheat logs with impunity (or close to it).

Rick