Keeping Accurate Driver's Log Book.

I'm sure that this subject been covered in the past. But keeping accurate logs is very important. One log violation can put you out of service. Which will cost you and/or company money, time, and/or lost of job. I found that out first hand. Of course, I'm from some old school.when paper logs was done and hours of service was little different. Just wanted to put that out there.

Yap, I'm old school too. In fact, I never used electronic logs.

"Hours of service" back in the day was pretty straight forward. Dispatch wanted to know how many hours you were willing to serve and your answer was always "All of em!!" And we just kept driving and driving and driving.

Actually, it's funny because with paper logs everyone lied and cheated all the time. In fact, if you heard someone talking about the hours they had available to drive everyone would look at him with a kind smile because you knew he was just a rookie and was still learning how things were done out there. Nobody cared about that. You wrote down whatever you had to in order to be legal and drove on.

Actually, the majority of the years I drove my goal was about 3,200 miles per week. Anything more than that, which I had done many times over the years, was too much to sustain. You could do it for a while but you would burn out before long. So for me, cheating the logbook didn't mean driving 5,000 miles in a week. What it meant for me was flexibility. I could drive when I wanted to and sleep when I wanted to. I didn't have to fit everything into an artificial 11 or 14 hour window. If I felt up to it, I drove. If I needed a two hour nap in the afternoon then I took it. If the weather and traffic were terrible I'd wait it out. And when the sun was shining I would "make hay".

I wish they would bring more flexibility back into the system. This 14 hour garbage is awful. They're forcing people to push through when they shouldn't be trying to push through. Once that clock starts ticking it's go, go, go. That's not safe and it's not practical. The seas do not part because you're coming through and your 14 hour clock is ticking. You're not wide awake and feeling great because you're in your 14 hour window. You need flexibility to run when it's prudent to run and shut it down when it's time to shut it down.

GPS tracking is incredibly accurate and costs virtually nothing to implement. Combine that with the truck's on board computer and you could limit the number of miles someone could drive in a day/week/month - however you'd like to limit it. That's what I'd like to see. Forget about hourly windows and limits. Let people drive up to a certain number of miles per day, week, and month. Give people the flexibility to run when it's safe and prudent. Now this is not going to happen. I realize this. But it would be nice.

I agree Brett. I don't do so well driving at night. I tend to get sleepy an hour or two after the sun goes down. I am ok driving an hour or two before dawn. I am wondering if my schedule is going to allow me to drive when I am the most alert.

The company Ill be working for still does paper logs which sounds like a good thing lol. Im sure my trainer will teach me all the tricks lol.

Even with paper logs, there isn't much free play anymore. When you cross a state entry scale, they can, and will (alot of times) call the other state and ask when you logged into their state. then they catch you on your own log books!! I know, its happened to me...hated that cheater ticket.. But with paper logs I think it would be easier to manage your hours. I have never "donated" hours to a company...if I drive 'em, I get paid for them...I don't care if their freight is late...I do the very best I can, but I don't do charity work. And I figured out a long time ago that speeding DOES NOT pencil out....when you take the ticket that you get (not to mention the points off your CDL), and divide it by the miles you gained by speeding, it doesn't even break down close to what you are getting paid per mile...so that ticket just costs you money that you haven't made yet, period. Ya might as well just toss it out the window, while you are running the legal limit....