Electronic Logs

I am reading Brett's book online. GREAT book Brett. Thanks for putting it online. I have been putting off buying it. I am still reading all the blogs and waiting to purchase the book to read. So thank you very much for putting it online.

I might still buy it in the future to have on hand to re-read from time to time.

I just got done with the section on logbooks. I totally understand about doing creative logbook entries. Our head mechanic calls it the lie book, not log book.

I won't ever say to lie on a log book, but should you be creative. That is another point entirely.

When you start out one morning at 7am and get to the shop the next morning at 7am. Without any 8 hour break, you have to be creative or get into some real deep hot water somewhere along the line.

I won't say I have not been creative, but to actually lie. Well, that is another point all together.

I have been reading where the trucks have the Qualcomm on them. I assume that keeps the electronic logs. In our buses we use SAUCOM. Same idea I guess, but ours is for buses, yours for trucking.

On our SAUCOM's, when our 10 hours is up, it is up. When 15 hours it up, it is up. The bus actually goes into neutral and a low idle. You CAN'T put it into gear at all. Of course you get warnings before hand. First warning comes 15 minutes before time. The second warning 5 minutes before hand. When you reach that 5 minute warning, you better be finding a place to pull over.

The SAUCOM is not fully integrated into our systems yet, so we are still on paper logs for now.

Now to my question. Sorry for taking so long to get there.

To get more miles and more loads, you had to be creative with the paper logs. More loads/miles, more money. For the driver and the company.

However, now that companies have gone to the electronic logs , how can you be creative anymore? How do you work "around" them?

You simply cannot work around the electronic logs. There is no way being creative with it because no "cheat" works. You must follow the electronic logs and don't ever go over your hours because it will tell you that you violated your logbooks. You maximize your miles by using your time smartly and effectively, there's nothing else you can do pretty much. And if you're out of hours no one can tell you to keep driving because it would make you more money and the company more money too. Just how it is :/

Yep that's true. Lots of guys won't work at companies with e-logs. What I do is I constantly try to get my load off early. If I have an 8pm appt, I try to get it there and unloaded as early as I can, which or course means I'm available sooner for another load. A lot of guys will sit around at a truck stop until 7:30, then unload, but then they complain they aren't making any money. As far as my 30 min break, I usually try to take it at a shipper. That's about all you can do.

The electronic logs cannot be tampered with by the driver...BUT, they CAN be "altered" by the company. So if your outta whatever you need on the E logs, some creative person at the company can find magical time that is put on your logs...I know this as fact, as we were running with a company truck who was hauling same stuff as us, and HAD to deliver the same time as us. He, being a solo driver, ran out of hours about 2 hours out from delivery. We'd both stopped to see what the company wanted him to do, since we could have "dolly drove" him on in, if need be. But they magically found him hours !! I'd looked at his E log to see if there was anything he could change for that day that would give him more time....there was nothing until the company man played with the logs on their end. So, as hard as the feds tried to lock down the driving time scenario, they pretty much left the fox in the hen house, so to speak. but the only thing nice about it is, the company is liable for it, and if they are caught, its on their head. But it still leaves the driver workin' when he shoulda been restin'

It's true - you can't cheat the electronic logs. And even if companies can alter them like Starcar mentioned, don't expect it. Don't even ask. That's probably more rare than getting struck by lightning.

The best thing you can do is know the logbook rules inside and out. We have a great logbook section in our High Road CDL Training Program and it really covers the rules thoroughly. The better you know the rules, the more often you'll be able to find ways to keep rolling when others who don't know the rules would have to stop. There are a lot of little exceptions you can take advantage of out there.

I am in a bit of a different situation. I run paperlogs just like the old days and you may say great....well depends. Even though I run paper logs they have to match up to my satellite position at all times according to where the qualcomm says I am. So in a way its just like Elogs.

And no the company can not change my satellite position cause that is kept on file at Qualcomm HQ. So I could be creative if I wanted but the log violations would soon catch up to me and I would be out of a job.

Because of the dedicated account that I run each of my trips pretty much are set. 1300 miles going north out of Arkansas and then a short run to Virginia of 400 to 500 miles and 1300 right back to Arkansas. Every once in a while there will be an extra 300 mile trip thrown in but mostly stays at 3000 to 3100 miles each week and back home for a restart. And all that at .37 cpm. So it does not matter if I arrive early cause I can not get my next load until appointment time. So might as well run completely legal cause there is no benefit to cheating of my logs.