E-logs And Paper Logs

The D.O.T. officer will give you the fax number of the nearest chicken coop and they will look it over and confer with him concerning it, but you will find that most of the time when a D.O.T. officer finds out that you are using e-logs that he will just not even take a look at your logs. They usually don't even want to bother with it. In ten months of driving I have been stopped or checked at weigh stations approximately 6 times, and only one out of those times did the officer go ahead and look at my logs once he found out that I was on e-logs.

Ditto. Once they see the Qualcomm and ask if you're on elogs they usually don't look at it. But paper is another story. Btw, for the person that asked, you'll never get a paper log to match an elog exactly (unless you're managing your elog like a paper log and good luck with that!).

Your paper logs if your Elogs go down become the legal log during the down period. So while the Elogs show down to the minute paper logs show 15 minute blocks of time. No way to make them match exactly even if you try.

While it does happen sometime that Elogs do fail it's not something to worry about

My company has it set up where we can email logs directly from ppl net to any fax number. If the log fails they will try to fix it and if not you go to paper and they fax you your previous 8 day log to where ever you may be. Usually a reset can do ya just fine to fix the down logs. I have had one DOT officer ask for my logs and after 30 min of waiting for my company to send them (this was before I knew about the email thing) she let me go cause she didn't want to hold me up. Glad she did too cause my logs werent updating my location. So everytime I changed statuses it would say unknown location and I couldnt type over it.

But if the entire system goes down and they either can't access your logs or get them to you anytime soon then there needs to be a plan B.

I would assume the elog company will have a customer service telephone number for "Plan B". You let them know DOT is stairing at you and you need a copy immediately. If their system is also down then we better check for a terroist attack by an electromagnetic pulse, or the apocalypse has begun.

If "the apocalypse has begun . . ." I know where I'll be, does everyone else??

Stephen E. Birch

So the final consensus seems to be that companies will indeed have a way to access your logs one way or another going back 8 days and they'll be able to fax them or email them anywhere they're needed. Very cool.

Running this website I'm constantly thinking, "What if....." and when I answer that I think, "Yeah, but then what if..."

That's why I was wondering about ways to get those logs from the previous 8 days if the system goes down. Because trust me - all systems go down at some point. Even for this website I have 5 unique copies of every single last piece of data backed up in 5 different locations. But hey - what good is having the data backed up if you can't get access to it and restore it when you need it, right?

I have had one DOT officer ask for my logs and after 30 min of waiting for my company to send them (this was before I knew about the email thing) she let me go cause she didn't want to hold me up

So even with your previous days logs - I knew they were backing up the systems, but if they can't get you the logs you need when you need em then you could end up getting shut down until they can. And if the Qualcomm went down at a company that means potentially several dozen drivers or more are going to be waiting on logs to be faxed. Redgator got lucky that they let her go. They certainly didn't have to.

Here's another question for you guys. When you file your income taxes you use your logbook as proof of how many days you spent on the road. Do the companies give you a year-end readout of your logbook or some kind of report as proof of your time on the road if you request it?

Here's another question for you guys. When you file your income taxes you use your logbook as proof of how many days you spent on the road. Do the companies give you a year-end readout of your logbook or some kind of report as proof of your time on the road if you request it?

Yes that is correct.

And as far as the entire qualcomm system going down, I've been told a very similar explanation as to what Guyjax said earlier. The logs are backed up onto several other systems at my company on an ongoing basis so that they should be available to us even in the event of a major failure.

And as far as the entire qualcomm system going down, I've been told a very similar explanation as to what Guyjax said earlier. The logs are backed up onto several other systems at my company on an ongoing basis so that they should be available to us even in the event of a major failure.

Excellent! As long as you can get what you need when you need it.

Ok, my turn to ask a question!

Guyjax, or anyone currently using e-logs:

By law you have to keep logs for the past 8 days on the truck with you. I know you carry paper logs in case the elog system fails. I know you'll begin logging on paper if the elog system fails, but what do you do about having logs for the past 8 days? If the system is down there's no way to access the past 8 days over the Qualcomm , right? What would be the plan?

The company keeps a copy and when they request it and can't see it on your qualcomm for whatever reason, they can receive a printoff of the logs by fax. At least this is what I was told by my company.