Company Wants To Edit My Logs

I recently hit 70 hours on my logs for this week. My load is still 9 hours away from its destination and my carrier wants me to accept the edits it made to my logs so i could meet my delivery time without having to repower. I normally would let them but I already worked a 2 18 hour shifts this week after I hit my 14 for the day and securing my load off duty and am pretty exhausted (flat bed). Is this a normal occurrence in the business? Should I stand my ground and say reject the edits or keep pushing my clock and falsifying my logs?

They say I took too long securing my load on duty time and want to remove almost 10 hours of on duty time all of which I was doing load securement, which for me is ridiculous because I only have been flatbedding for only a month and want to make sure my load is safe for the road and protect my CDL.

What company is this?

This sounds to me like someone planning you are not taking into account your new. Newbies are learning as they go. You will get faster at it as you gain experience.

That is an honesty/intergerity issue you need to address within yourself. The legal side is this. If you logged what you did as you did it then what your company is doing is making false entries on your logs, which will get you in trouble if caught.

I don’t know what your load(s) are but it does seem you took an excessive amount of time getting it or them secured. They are all different so it is hard to tell you how long it should take. I’m assuming it was more than one load.

18 hr days sounds crazy to me. I don’t know what to say, other than you possibly need experience or had issues. I’ve never came close to that type of day personaly.

I think the bigger question is are you getting paid by the hour or by the mile? While I don’t like a company editing logs, I can see where they are coming from. You left a ton of drive time on the table which in the end, is money out of your pocket. I used to log on duty for 30-45 minutes while securing/tarping, then go off duty for the rest.

It was two loads for the week, one of them was a very hard securement where I had to use every wench on my flatbed and 2 x straps in front of load and back. It was insulation so it required 40+ edge protectors and needed 3 tarps which I had to share tarping machine with 3 other drivers in the bay.

I get why they’re upset but when I’m on duty I’m working my ass off and it’s not like I’m just sitting around running my clock. I get they want me to secure off duty sometimes but in my head if I’m working I will remain on duty like the HOS intend to be used and won’t cheat the system. Last thing I want is for DOT to see I have low securement times or something like that, and I also don’t like working off the clock.

You have alot to learn. I appreciate your comments, but I will tell you the harsh reality.

I don’t know what tarps your using but mine are 27’. 2 will do just fine, so I don’t have a clue why you needed 3.

Show a reasonable amount of time on duty to secure and the rest you can reserve. We have all cut a few corners where it doesn’t matter. That’s life in the real world.

Why did you have to share time on the tarp machine?? The customer should have a schedule that prevents that.

2 loads and 10 hours to secure. You need to learn to be more efficient. I rarely tarp and even being inexperienced at it I can usually get 1 load done in about 2 hours max.

I’m not passing judgement on you but your time frames seem to be way off. You definetly need more experience and quite possibly more training.

Totally agree with PJ. Unless you’re local or want to limit yourself to making no more than 60-70k a year tops, you should realize that most drivers log things off duty here or there so they don’t end up in a pickle at the end of the week like you are right now. That said, the rules exist to protect drivers so if you’re tired reject the edits and let them know you won’t be running illegally. They cannot legally pressure you to run illegally.

All that said, reading between the lines it sounds like you’re doing your job extremely slowly, despite your best efforts. You either could benefit from additional training, or if you’ve had sufficient training then I’d say your most likely way overthinking things. Idk what the insulation was that you hauled but if it’s what I think it is that’s not a hard load to secure at all. The tarping is a pita on that because it’s so tall and long but even that is only mildly difficult overall. If you want to throw an extra strap or two that’s fine but don’t waste time that you don’t have throwing tons of extra straps. Stick to the FMCSA regs for securement and throw a couple extra straps and call it good

Something to consider is that new people often log things that dont need to be. As reefer i do not need to log on duty while in a dock. New people often do this and it shaves considerable amounts of time from their drive time that makes them money

This is growing pains. Learn from it. Let them know ahead of time if u want a load that will goce u more sleep time.

I show on duty time, but I’m paid hourly.

Otherwise, staying on the clock needlessly will mean you don’t make money.