Droopy's trucking fact of the day

[Droopy]

Truckers must follow hours of service regulations. Hours of service are kept track of in a log book. By law a driver must keep at least the last eight days logs with him/her. The log book has a grid with four slots. These slots are: off duty, sleeper berth, driving, and on duty not driving. Once a driver comes on duty he/she has 14 hours in which he/she can drive 11 hours. That means you can drive for 5.5 hours take a three hour break and then drive for 5.5 more hours. A driver can also spend part of the 14 hours unloading a truck (on duty not driving), but once the fourteen hours are up a driver cannot legally drive even if he/she only drove 8 hours during that 14. After 14 hours from first coming on duty or 11 hours driving the driver cannot legally drive again until he/she has had ten consecutive hours off duty.

Hours of service regulations also limit the amount of time a trucker can work in an 8 day period. A driver cannot legally drive after accumulating 70 hours of on duty time in the last 8 days.

A trucking company must keep the last six months of their driver's logs and they must audit the logs and take correctional proceedures if they have drivers who are not in compliance.

If a driver is caught by motor carrier enforcement for being out of compliance with hours of service regulations, the driver will be fined and shut down for as long as it takes for the driver to be back in compliance.

It all sounds like a pain in the ass, but the hours of service regualtions are actually the trucker's friend. They keep companies from abusing drivers and they keep the motoring public and the driver safe by ensuring that a driver is well rested. A company cannot legally fire a driver for refusing to drive once he/she has run out of hours. This one area where truckers have power.

[ewagner]

1. Are these

the same logs that some truckers refer to as "swindle sheets"?

The dirver(s) that worked for our company would "fudge" these things regularly. I used to watch them do it and they would sometimes joke with me about it........

[Droopy]

2. Yes, some drivers do that

But they do so at their own peril. If they get caught they get a fine for falsifying their log book. And like I said the logs are there to protect the driver and the motoring public. Some drivers falsify their logs to try and make more money, but they can pay a pretty high price for doing so. But ultimately it is on the honor of the driver to fill out his/her logs truthfully.

[Droopy]

3. kick

Off to work with me. I'll check in later tonight.