Question For Old School

I have gone through the high road training program and am now going back through the HOS module. I read in one of your posts where you slept at a receiver and another driver did not. You were first in line to unload and were able to unload off the clock while he had to burn several hours of clock time waiting on you to unload. I am going into flatbed and have a lot of experience around flatbeds being in the construction industry, so my question is: how were you able to unstrap and move into an unload position without going on the clock? As I study the HOS module I may answer my own question. There have been many times when I would show up on site and drivers were already there waiting. Most of the time I have move them a few hundred yards to where I needed them to unload and unstrap the load. Just wondering how this is handled. I direct this to OS but anybody having information is obviously welcome to answer.

Each company sets their ELD (electronic log device) up differently. My truck has to move about two miles before it automatically sets itself onto the drive mode. This allows the driver to move about a little without falsely triggering your logs. We would call this a trailer move onsite at a location. Some of the facilities we go to are rather large, so you need the ability to move around a bit without falsely triggering your logs.

Oftentimes rookie drivers obsess over putting themselves "on duty" anytime they're doing the least little bit of work. Experienced drivers will get creative in this area so they are conserving their available drive hours. How you manage your logs makes all the difference in the world on your level of income. We often see rookie drivers in here complaining about burning up their 70 hour clock and yet only doing around 2,300 miles per week. In my opinion, anybody who is bumping up against their 70 hour limit should be hitting in excess of 3,000 miles. The magic becomes apparent once you master the art of managing the clock.

I always show some "on duty" time at shippers and receivers, but I may be doing a little work during a portion of the time my logs show I'm resting. My logs have been reviewed multiple times during inspections. No one has ever had any doubts as to their legitimacy.

Thanks for your reply. I assumed there needed to be some creativity involved. I believe I have also read where one could move his or her load a certain distance or under a certain mph and not have to log in. My goal is to master the HOS and attain the level of performance and professionalism of yourself and the many other regular contributors/moderators on here.

I'm actually doing what Old School describes right now. My E-Logs also don't register movement until you exceed 5mph and then don't trigger the logs until you've moved 2 miles within a 5 minute period.

I don't pick up until later tonight, but earlier I drove to a truck stop less than one mile from my shipper. I logged my required on duty time for the pickup earlier today. I will roll up the street to the shipper without triggering my clock and by the time I'm done loading I'll have at least an 8hr sleeper break done, possibly a full 10.

I will do the same at my reciever as there is also a truckstop within 1 mile of them, and I plan to arrive very early and log my required on duty time. By the time I actually get unloaded I'll be well rested with full 11 and 14 hour clocks leaving me in an excellent position to get another load. That nearby truckstop also has a in network truck wash, so I will be able to roll back to that truckstop and get my trailer washed out and prepped without triggering my clock.

Once you get the hang of the HoS and how your particular E-Log works, you'll start seeing how you can best plan your trips to your advantage.

Ill try clarify my 2 miles within 5 minute description as it is more complicated than that.

For my truck once it hits 5mph it considers the truck moving, this does not trigger the logs yet, but it is tracking my movement. If I am stopped, or under 5mph for 5 minutes it resets and no longer considers me moving. If I exceed 5 mph within 5 minutes it continues to track my movement for another 5 minutes. So if I were to exceed 5 mph every 4 minutes and then stop, it would still be tracking this as one movement. If during that movement I eventually reach 2 miles distance covered, it will kick my log onto the drive line retroactive from when my wheels first exceeded 5 mph.

This happened to my trainer once when we were stuck in very very slow moving traffic behind a truck accident. I was the driver but was sitting in traffic so long my 14hr clock ran out. He took over driving with his fresh clock. He was creeping forward at +5mph and then stopping. Then creeping forward again within 5 minutes. About 45 minutes later his log was still showing a full clock because we hadn't covered 2 miles yet. Then as he hit the 2 mile mark suddenly it kicked him onto the drive line as of 45 minutes ago.

You can manually break the logging of the movement into smaller segments to prevent that retroactive loss of time, but he just simply forgot to do it as we were amused listening to other drivers on the CB...