DOT Inspection, Logs Scrutinized.

So yesterday I pull into the Casper, Wyoming weigh station, get scaled and am signaled to pull off and bring my paperwork in. No biggie, I know everything is in order and this should be a quick verification of IFTA or something. Well, the officer asks me when the last time I've had a level 3 inspection. It's been a fair bit. No worries though, and in gact I'm actually happy now because as I said everything is in order and this should be a quick $30 (company bonus for passing a level 3 inspection).

Turns out to not be so quick and simple. They end up keeping me there nearly an hour because as they're checking my logs they get super suspicious that there's some kind of funny business going on and they decide to comb through every little detail minute by minute. In fact the officer performing the inspection calls her supervisor and they both start questioning me on what's going on.

The problem? I log everything as I do it. If I leave the truck for a quick bathroom break I go off-duty break. If I'm inside the truck and not working then sleeper berth it is. They see all the times I'm changing my duty status back and forth and they're convinced I'm doing something shady trying to cook the books or something. Nope. Just doing my job as I've been taught.

There's 4 officers there, including the supervisor, and they tell me they've never seen anybody do that. The supervisor then strongly advises me not to be doing that as it could cause some serious issues - especially as it can easily cause split sleeper berth violations, which is what they were looking for. I assured them I only ever take a 10 hour break and don't mess with split sleeper berth. Still, they again strongly urged me not to be changing my duty status so often and that if I need to use the bathroom or leave the truck for anything under 15 minutes to just stay in sleeper berth. I was truly dumbfounded by this recommendation from them and expressed my concern of an officer accusing me of falsifying my logs if I were to be caught taking a bathroom break while being logged into sleeper berth. They didn't seem concerned about it and again stressed not to be changing my duty status unless I'm going to be taking longer than 15 minutes, such as to do laundry or something.

After nearly an hour of scrutinizing all my paperwork and elogs they finally let me go with their seal of approval.

What is everyone's thoughts?

As for me, I plan on still logging everything as I do it.

That’s crazy. At my company, we get regular reminders from safety to do exactly what you do, that is to log it as we do it. I switch my duty status all the time according to what I’m doing. Sounds like you encountered some over zealous officers looking to find fault.

Yeah, I called safety and asked them about it. He said to just keep logging it as I do it. I can't be nailed on any violations if my logs are accurate and legal. And if they do claim a violation that's not there we can easily fight it. While it may be true that many officers aren't going to quibble over minor differences between sleeper berth and off-duty status, there are some who may be sticklers and it's best to just log it correctly in the first place to avoid problems.

Keep doing what you're doing. They're so used to seeing the bare minimum performed that when they have to go through a proper log of daily activity, it frustrates them because now they actually have to do a bit of work. I use the splits from time to time and the computer sorts it all out so as long as I'm putting it in the proper location regarding sleeper vs on duty, I'll always be good and man does that frustrate them.

Well technically your both right. Logging what you do at the time is proper, but so is not changing the status unless it takes 15 minutes or longer.

The 15 minute rule still exists because paper logs still exist and is still valid for both forms.

The 15 minute rule still exists because paper logs still exist and is still valid for both forms.

What is the 15 minute rule?

I’m not aware of any official rule saying a duty status has to be 15 minutes. As far as I’m aware some officers are just accustomed to seeing duty statuses in 15 minute increments because that’s how things were/are logged on paper. Is that what you’re saying or is there a regulation about this?

The logs are printed in 15 minute increments. I’ll have to search for it, but it is if a duty status is less than 15 minutes it does not need to be logged. You would either round up and use 15 minutes if it was something that had to be there or you didn’t log it.

The logs are printed in 15 minute increments. I’ll have to search for it, but it is if a duty status is less than 15 minutes it does not need to be logged. You would either round up and use 15 minutes if it was something that had to be there or you didn’t log it.

Oh ok that’s interesting. I’ll try to look around and see what I can find too