Pre-trip And HOS

My trainer taught me to start the clock not before, but after I finish pre-trip. It makes sense, so I do it. I also know that some companies tell drivers not to do it - I heard it from people, and was told so myself at Roehl, although nobody could explain to me what's wrong about it. Any ideas?

Pretrip is a work task so legally its required to be logged on duty. Many drivers do it off duty then log on duty time afterwards. This allows them to save their 14 hour clock if there's an issue that needs to be addressed before they can safely hit the road (like a flat tire).

At the end of the day its your logs that you're certifying as being a true reflection of your activities. With that being said there are numerous ways drivers bend the rules to maximize their earnings.

The way I was taught was do a pretrip on duty. If DOT inspects your logs and you go straight to drive everyday, it'll open some cans you don't want opened.

I log 15 minutes on duty for my pre trip at the beginning of each shift, after I've done it.

Some times if I start out bobtailing, Ill do 8 minutes for the tractor and then when I pick up the trailer, I'll do 7 minutes for that. But usually I just pretrip in the am and then log it.

While I was at Prime they taught me to log 10-15 mins of off duty before driving to signify a pretrip. Then log a roughly 15 min on duty inspection at end of shift. This was being taught by the logs department in their logs classes. I never had a DoT officer question it, and apparently Primes other 7-8k trucks aren't having a problem either.

Currently I drive a fuel tanker and get pulled over for inspections WAY more often. I still log my pre/post trips the same way and have still never had an officer have any issue with my logs.

Just wanted to touch on your "whats wrong about it" question.

It seems to come down to differing interpretations of the DoT requirements. Ill call them the "literal" and "safe" interpretations.

You are required to make sure your equipment is safe before you begin driving. You are also required to complete a vehicle inspection daily.

The literal interpretation, taught to me by Prime, uses a time period of off duty prior to starting your drive shift to show a pretrip inspection/walkaround. This is your logged period of making sure the equipment is safe before driving. At the end of your shift, an on duty inspection is logged to satisfy your required daily inspection. Prime has confirmed with DoT that this is acceptable and teaches this method to its incoming students as a way to efficiently log your inspections.

Many drivers/companies take it an extra safe step and log the pretrip on duty to make sure that there is no question that the driver made sure the equipment was safe before driving. Others will log it on duty because they feel that any work related task should be logged on duty so that no DoT officer or lawyer can question it. This is what I'm referring to as the "safe" interpretation.

Neither interpretation is wrong.

Just wanted to touch on your "whats wrong about it" question.

It seems to come down to differing interpretations of the DoT requirements. Ill call them the "literal" and "safe" interpretations.

You are required to make sure your equipment is safe before you begin driving. You are also required to complete a vehicle inspection daily.

The literal interpretation, taught to me by Prime, uses a time period of off duty prior to starting your drive shift to show a pretrip inspection/walkaround. This is your logged period of making sure the equipment is safe before driving. At the end of your shift, an on duty inspection is logged to satisfy your required daily inspection. Prime has confirmed with DoT that this is acceptable and teaches this method to its incoming students as a way to efficiently log your inspections.

Many drivers/companies take it an extra safe step and log the pretrip on duty to make sure that there is no question that the driver made sure the equipment was safe before driving. Others will log it on duty because they feel that any work related task should be logged on duty so that no DoT officer or lawyer can question it. This is what I'm referring to as the "safe" interpretation.

Neither interpretation is wrong.

There is no “feeling” that work related time is to be recorded as duty, that’s quite literally in the regulations. Each company determines how they want to see drivers log their information within the guidelines. Some prefer to just meet the requirements and others take it a step further. So long as the guidelines are met, there’s no real right or wrong, just time consumed. The likelihood of getting shut down by an officer for log violations while using electronic logs is pretty slim and you’d have to be pretty sloppy to get jammed up. Not to mention most company log departments will have caught it, reprimanded or advised the driver and made those adjustments.

The "whats wrong with it?" part is that it is a duty function. The odds are extremely rare but if DOT happened to be watching you pretrip then came over once you got in the truck, well, a violation has occurred.

Personally I pretrip on duty and if something comes up thats gonna waste my day I just edit that on duty time back to off duty. Its just like it never happened. As long as you don't actually drive thereby starting the driveline it can be edited out. Once you hit the driveline it can no longer be edited out and your day has started.

Ask a DOT Officer. 😆

If DOT inspects your logs and you go straight to drive everyday, it'll open some cans you don't want opened.

I know that these 15 minutes have to be logged, so when I wake up, I do my pre-trip off the clock, then log in and do whatever has to be done - bathroom, fixing a bottle of water, finding audiobooks for the day and so on. Once 15 minutes are logged, I hit the road.