Advice On An HOS Situation, Please

Matt, how is it going so far today? Are you on schedule? I think everyone is cheering for you to make it.

Matt, how is it going so far today? Are you on schedule? I think everyone is cheering for you to make it.

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BK, I made it!!! Thank you for your kindness and concern!

NaeNae, that was pure gold! I was able to edit my certified logs, "trim the fat" as others suggested, and free up another hour and 45 minutes!! (Lots of loading and unloading this week). Sure enough, if I hadn't done that, I would've had maybe 5 minutes on my clock when I arrived. Not enough for On Duty-Unloading or vehicle inspection. So my figuring was correct.

And thank you everyone else--Stevo, Davy, etc.--for the advice and perspective on running recaps, making sure I don't violate HOS , and only doing what I can do.

TT community: You really helped me on this one, and I appreciate it!

I would've had maybe 5 minutes on my clock when I arrived. Not enough for On Duty-Unloading or vehicle inspection. So my figuring was correct.

Great job! For future reference as long as you communicate with dispatch if you would have been late it wouldn't be your fault or held against you at most companies.

Also, you can remain on duty after your 14 or 70 hour clocks are up. You just can not drive anymore until you take the required break (10/34) or have your recaps come back.

Has anybody been inspected after editing their logs this way? I rarely need to make edits in my gig and when I do they're not used in this same manner. We all find ways of skirting around the rules, I'm just curious if DOT has hassled anyone over it. Some days it's hard enough remembering what happened the day prior and technically by certifying your logs you're saying that they are correct.

Thanks, Rob. Good to know. So, I would've just needed to shut down and tell my company I can't make it until the next day?

I was trying to keep them informed and see what solutions there were.

And good to know about the 14 and 70. I need to drive out of here, but I guess I can use PC (that's what my company tells me).

Yeah, I didn't love editing the logs...but it gave me a margin that took the stress off me today.

I've edited after I certified, just communicated with my DM and safety manager as to why. I'm on Zonar and the GPS module for the ELD portion frequently gets off.

I’ve got just the opposite problem. I got here with my delivery at 0830 today and I’m still waiting for unload. My appointment is at 2345 and I think they hold to that time.

Matt, congratulations on your diligence.

Nice job Matt! It looks like everyone else was pretty much saying the same thing but sorry my last reply was pretty choppy. I was in the store and using voice to text.

To the person who asked if any of us have been inspected after editing logs like that, I’ve been inspected one time in 4+ years of driving and my student got inspected and they literally didn’t care about any edits. Not saying that’s every officer ever so I still try to be careful about it but I think the main thing is making sure that you cover your ass and that your logs look 100% legal.

For example I know people that log 5 minutes per pretrip and a few for post trip along with only a few minutes here or there for loading/unloading. Personally while I may trim the fat I typically log closer to 15 minutes per pretrip since I know I can’t do a full pretrip in 3-5 minutes, and since I do flatbed and have to untarp and unstrap I usually log at least 10-15 minutes bare minimum for deliveries since there’s no way I can fold my tarps and roll my straps and check in with the receiver in 5 minutes flat. I try to make it look as reasonable as possible while limiting my on duty as much as I can. So for me I’ll untarp and put everything away and then hop in the cab and log sleeper right away while I wait to be unloaded. For you check in typically only takes like 5 minutes (depending on the receiver obviously) so no reason to log a lot of time for loading/unloading.

Another thing I want to add for clarification. When I say cover your ass I imagine what would happen to me if I were involved in a fatal accident. Even if it wasn’t my fault, they are going to go through my logs with a fine tooth comb and I don’t want them to have ANY reason to say I was falsifying my logs. I value my freedom and have no intention of going to prison. I do use the edit feature quite a bit but if asked I chalk it up to laziness and forgetting to change the status at the exact moment I was supposed to, which is not a lie. I’m so busy doing the job and then when I have a moment running to the bathroom or making food or whatever that I am sometimes kinda lazy about changing my duty status on the dot. But yeah whatever you do make sure that if something crazy happened and a school bus full of kids hit you and some kids died that it CANNOT COME BACK ON YOU. This job isn’t worth going to prison over

Now one thing to remember about the logs is it will show on your ELD in the individual truck. It will also be an electronic copy of the same thing that is going back to your company. This is what the state and federal regulators are looking at periodically when they show up to do both scheduled and unscheduled audits of your company. This is why the logs and regulations folks can seem to be really nitpicking when they ask you to do certain things on your logs. Log what you do and do what you log. Edits are okay, but don't do them often IMO.

Matt, I'm super glad it worked! I wanted to do 'more' ... I did text a few folks. (Sry!)

Thanks to ya Paul for helping.

Means a lot 2 me for caring!!

Best to all,

(And you also, BK.)

~ Anne ~

Ps: when I finally break free of MY chains (read still whacked Rotator Cuff) I'll hope to get the love & help from a window also!