How To Do Hour Of Service Log

Before looking at the rules, first nosotros'll look at how to account for a driver's hours. In order for a DOT inspector to make up one's mind if a driver is complying with the hours of service rules, they must know how many hours a commuter has driven. Traditionally a driver would record their hours of service on sheets of paper chosen log sheets, or logs. With the proliferation of smartphones and mobile devices it is condign increasingly more mutual for the commuter to use an app to create Electronic Logs. Below is an example of a electronic log.

Englund_Log

The log shows what a driver did during one 24 hour day.

A driver must choose between one of the 4 duty status during their shift:

Off-Duty - for when a driver is not working.
Sleeper - for when a commuter is sleeping in the truck'southward sleeper berth.
Driving - time spent behind the wheel driving on public roads.
On-Duty - time spent working, but not driving.

In the example in a higher place, driver Alex Garcia of Englund Equipment Company comes on-duty at 9:45am in Newnan, GA. He spends 15 minutes on-duty, presumably conducting a pre-trip inspection on his truck. He then drives s for 5 i/2 hours, arriving in Gulfport, MS at iii.30pm. He so goes off-duty until 4:00pm for his 30-minute break. He then continues driving from 4:00pm until 6:45pm when he stops for fuel in Breaux Bridge, LA. At 7:00pm he's back on the route and drives until 9:15pm when he reaches Beaumont, TX and changes his duty status to Sleeper. As you can quickly see from the Log Events on the electronic log all this information is neatly summarized. With paper logs all this information would exist filled out by hand.

With paper logs, every time a driver changes duty status, he must draw a line into the "Remarks" section, and write down the city and the state. With Electronic Logs the process is greatly simplified past inputting a few taps on the screen and logs are automatically generated for them. This information tells the authorities where the driver was. A driver must record his time every mean solar day, fifty-fifty if he does not work that day. All days must exist accounted for.

There is some more than to it. Drivers staying inside 100 air miles of their terminals generally don't have to fill out the log shown above, as long as they are recording the time they get-go work, the fourth dimension they end work, and their full number of hours that mean solar day.

Finally, many drivers use an electronic log to record their hours of service. Inside 5 years, the DOT will crave all drivers to use an electronic log, largely eliminating the newspaper log. The big advantage of using BigRoad electronic logs is that information technology will alert drivers when to accept their breaks, and how many hours they accept left to drive.

It helps if the driver knows the circuitous rules, which we'll await at side by side time, but when using the Electronic Logs a lot of the legwork is already taken care of, as the device knows the rules.

Join usa next week for the 3^rd and final part every bit nosotros look at how many hours drivers are allowed to drive.

"Hours of Service Regulations – An Overview" is a blog series prepared for BigRoad by Eric Arnold of Arnold Safety Consulting. It is a simple, yet comprehensive, expect at main points of the trucking hours of service rules. During the 3 parts it volition talk over who must comply with the hours of service rules, how the hours of service are recorded, and how many hours a driver is allowed to work and bulldoze. The Federal Department of Transportation commercial motor vehicle hours of service rules are relatively complex, and contain dozens, if not hundreds, of nuances, interpretations, and greyness areas. It would be impossible to embrace all of the various specific interpretations in a few weblog posts. The description of the hours of service rules is meant to exist an overview of the rules. It is non a complete, detailed clarification of the rules. If you lot want to view the bodily rules, they are found in 49 CFR Part 395, which is more unremarkably referred to Part 395 of the Federal Motor Carrier Rubber Regulations.