Hi there smart drivers, Rick with smart drive test. Something a little different
for you today: a free trial for a logbook exercise in the United States. The logbook exercise
teaches you both route planning and how to fill out a log sheet in the United
States of America. The trip starts in Phoenix, Arizona, takes you up to Los
Angeles, you have a couple of drops in Los Angeles. You then head up to Las Vegas,
you're out of hours by the time you get to Barstow, so you overnight in Barstow
and get fuel. You drop your trailer in Las Vegas - when you get there you and two pickups -
one at a produce place and the other one at the International Airport there in
Las Vegas. And then you return home. You're going to route plan and log that
on the log sheet. So you can head over to my website and I'll put a link up here for
you for both mobile devices, and if you're on a computer, hit the annotation
there, and that will take you over to my website. You'll find the free trial for
the American logbook exercise - you can go in there,
print out the log sheets and do that exercise. Now I encourage you to do the
exercise. And to understand this--I realize that most logbooks and the way
that log books are going now is all electronic--however doing the logbook
exercise... doing the work will help you to understand fundamentally what the basics
are of log sheets. Because it's important that you understand the basics.
It's like a child learning math. A child has to understand the different concept
between 2 times 2 and 2 plus 2 because the answer to both of those math
questions is four, but fundamentally they need to understand why. It's the same thing
with log books, you need to understand why. So you do a little bit of work,
you'll understand why. Head over to the website, do the free trial & come back and watch the
rest of the video, which concerns itself with going through the exercise and
explaining and giving you detail about how to log the exercise and why we do
particular things. Particularly, it shows you how to fill out the log sheet
step-by-step and shows you Google maps. So head over to the website. If you don't head over
to my website or you're on a mobile device and don't have access to that right now,
watch the rest of the video and it
will give you some understanding of how to do the exercise and how to fill out
the log sheet. Stick around, we'll be right back with that information.
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Hi there smart drivers, welcome back. Rick at the computer here and I have plugged in all
of the information into Google maps for the trip that we are going to take today.
And the trip that we are going to log on the logbooks is a theoretical exercise
for you learn how to do both logbooks and route planning. As well, you can find
all of this over at my website - just click on the FREE TRIAL, it'll take you to the
free trial. When you go into the exercise,this will already be plugged into Google
maps for you. So we're starting in Phoenix, Arizona and I've used the Heartland
express address as a starting point, so you have specific addresses.
We're driving to Los Angeles - we have two stops in Los Angeles - one at the Wine
Warehouse and one at the Los Angeles Wholesale Produce Market. As well, we're
going up to Barstow, California to the Flying J. We're going to overnight there
because the trip, as you can see here, is 14 hours and 18 minutes of driving time
in a car or light truck - not in a big truck. So it's going to take you twenty
to twenty percent longer than that, so probably the driving time alone is going
to take you closer to 20 hours, depending on traffic, hills, and terrain and that sort
of thing. After we overnight at Barstow, California at the Flying J, where we get
fuel. As well, we're going to go to Las Vegas - switch trailers and we have a pickup
at the Pacific Produce; we have another pickup at the McCarran
International Airport in Las Vegas, and then we're going to return to Phoenix,
Arizona. So this is the trip that we're going to do and it's a rounder and it's a
two-day rounder because we know that a thousand miles - we can do approximately...
I'd say 500 to 550 miles in the U.S., running into a major city like Los
Angeles. So it's two days for sure with our drops and pickups. So we go over to
my website - you can see here that I have google maps embedded for you right on
the e-learning page.
And you can simply click on more options and it will take you to the other page,
which will give you all of the details for each leg of the trip from Phoenix to
Los Angeles--the two drops--specific addresses and whatnot. And if we go back
to our page, as well, below the map you can see specifics for your truck and
trailer numbers here. The outbound truck is #426 - the inbound truck will also be
#426! The outbound trailer inbound trailer - your outbound bills of lading
1) Foxtrot, Mike 17893 X-ray 2) 21 Juliet Mike 10 are your outbound bills of
lading. Your inbound bills of lading are Bravo 12896 to Lima, Victor 49162.
And you're starting a odometer is 362,198. Your addresses for your home
terminals, your deliveries where, you're going to rest and fuel for your over-
night and you're going to deadhead to Las Vegas, Nevada from Los Angeles and
deadhead simply means that you're running empty - you don't have any freight.
from Los Angeles to Las Vegas drop the trailer in Las Vegas and pick up your
second trailer with LTL Freight. "LTL" stands for "less than load." It just means
multiple drops and pickups on a single trailer. Pick up more LTL freight at
McCarran International Airport and then return home to your home terminal at
4555 West Mohave Street, Phoenix. You can see here the log
sheets and how you fill them in, so the first leg of our trip is from Phoenix
Arizona to Los Angeles. And according to Google maps... go back up here to the top - five
hours and 25 minutes in a car or light truck. In a big truck, we're going to add
some more time to that because you're going into a major urban centre - in a
big truck. And it is going to take you some more time, so you can see here on
our log sheet - on day one we get up, we start our trip at six in the morning. We
do a pre-trip inspection
which can be shortened with the abbreviation "VI," which stands for
vehicle inspection. So we go into the yard at six, we load, vehicle inspection
and we're on the road at six-fifteen. Heading down the road, and you can see
here that we left at six-fifteen -- one o'clock. So we logged six hours and 45
minutes for the first leg of the trip from Phoenix, Arizona into Los Angeles.
Because it's going to take you about that amount of time, depending on traffic
even at midday in Los Angeles it's going to be fairly backed up. We unload and we are
stuck there for a little while unloading because it takes a bit to get into the dock. so
we simply go off duty. After we back into the loading dock and wait for them to
unload we log 45 minutes to drive from our first drop in Los Angeles to our
second drop and you can see here that and we back into the dock - 15 minutes. We
take an hour break. And time at loading docks can either be in the sleeper berth
or off-duty time--either or, it it doesn't matter which. Both of them are considered
off-duty time. So if you spend time in the sleeper berth and log it in sleeper
berth, & if you're not in the sleeper berth and go for a cup of coffee or
whatnot and are away from the truck, then you can log it as off-duty time. Then we
get unloaded at our second drop and then we're gonna drive to Barstow, California
and we can see here to the Flying J is 1 hour and 40 minutes in a car or light
truck.
We're going to log 2 hours and 30 minutes over to Barstow, California. We're
going to log 15 minutes for fuel. Putting fuel in the truck and having a break and
we take the rest of the day off. So from 7.30 at night or rather 7.45 at night...
sorry.. to midnight, were off-duty. 7,6,10 & 1 are our numbers for our duty status lines,
which adds up to 24. We've filled in the information here and you can find the
videos on how to fill in the information for the form over on the YouTube channel,
where you probably came from. And that will give you the information on how
you fill it out on the forms. The form is basically self-explanatory. It's like any
government form - just fill in the blanks. So truck number, for example, the address
for your home terminal, sign and date, and you must sign and date because it is a
legal document. The logbook can be used in post-crash investigation and for tax purposes.
Because over the road truck drivers and bus drivers are allowed a per diem per
day that you can claim on your taxes. So, I don't know what it is exactly, but just
as an example, say fifty dollars a day for meals and living away from home
expenses and those types of things, and if the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) comes after you-- the Internal
Revenue Service--comes after you in the United States they will want you to
produce log books to prove that you were away from home. And that's how you do
that and most of the logbooks in this day and age are all going to be
electronic, so this is just giving you an understanding of how to fill out
logbooks and hours of service regulations and whatnot. So on our first
day we drove for 10 hours, we had one hour on-duty, not driving, and we had six
hours in the sleeper berths plus 7 hours off-duty, so we're well within our hours
of service regulations. And again, you can find that video over on the YouTube
channel. Pre-trip inspection matches up with our log books - 6 a.m. and we can
see here that 6am we get a vehicle inspection, truck and trailer number,
address,
sign and date - condition of the above vehicle is satisfactory. And starting and
ending odometer for total mileage of 496 miles for the day. From Phoenix, Arizona
to Los Angeles and up to Barstow, California. So on day two, we get up -
we're in Barstow, California. We do a pre-trip inspection for 30 minutes and
then we drive to Los Vegas, Nevada. Two hours and 45 minutes into Las Vegas
Nevada and the reason we do that is because we allow a half an hour more
than what Google maps says. Now obviously what I'm going to say here is that we
are doing this for theoretical purposes. When you start driving, you're actually
going to log the actual time that you drive,
you're not going to be making up numbers from Google maps. So we're just adding a
bit of time because it
takes longer in a big truck. Because obviously they don't go as fast as cars
and light trucks. So that's why we're adding a bit of time and even though
Google maps says it's two hours and 15 minutes from the Flying J in Barstow,
California into Las Vegas, we're gonna log 2 hours and 45 minutes and that's
what we've done here. We back in, we swap trailers - take an hour break in Las Vegas,
Nevada.
I've made a mistake here on the log sheet, so I've initial this and then we
drive down to McCarran Airport. It takes us an hour and we log 15 minutes for
load time. We back into the dock at McCarran International Airport and it takes
an hour and a half to get loaded. We get our paperwork and then we drive home. And
the last leg of the trip from McCarran International Airport back to Phoenix,
Arizona is four hours and 30 minutes and we log 5 hours and 15 minutes back to
Phoenix. Arizona and 15 minutes to unload and then we go home.
So our duty status lines are five and a half hours off-duty, eight-and-a-half
hours in the sleeper berth, eight hours 45 minutes driving time, and actually
that should be written 8.75, but if officials looked at that, they would
know what you meant - was just a simple error. That it's eight hours, 45 minutes.
When it's eight and three-quarters of an hour.
The last one is one hour, 15 minutes on- duty, not driving which adds up to 24
hours. We have our bills of lading numbers down here in the corner, truck
and trailer numbers, start and end odometer - 476 miles. The date, trucking
company, sign and date the document down here. And again, our pre-trip inspection matches our
vehicle inspection on our log sheet. Truck number, trailer numbers all match.
Barstow, California is where we did our pre-trip inspection, starting and ending
odometer & "condition of the above vehicle is satisfactory and safe." Sign and print
your name on the pre-trip inspection, because again the pre-trip inspection
like the log book is a legal document and can be used by authorities to
investigate crashe and for tax purposes.
So that's the exercise from Phoenix, Arizona over to Los Angeles, two drops in
Los Angeles, California up to Barstow - break and fuel and into Las Vegas - swap
trailers - two pick ups, and back to Phoenix, Arizona.
So in conclusion, we went over the log sheet for the route planning of a trip
from Phoenix, Arizona up to Los Angeles. Two drops in Los Angeles, overnight in
Barstow, California because we're out of hours. We get fuel at the Flying J in Barstow,
California - head up to Las Vegas, Nevada, drop the trailer, pickup a different
trailer. We do another pickup at McCarran International Airport and back to
Phoenix. we went over all the details for that, and you can do the free trial
over my website. I'll put a link up here for you - head over to our website, do the
free trial and get a good basic understanding of how to fill out
logbooks if you are required to fill out logbooks if you're operating beyond 100
miles of your home terminal, either as a truck or bus driver. As well, over at my
website, there you'll find the American logbook course, which will give you a
certificate at the end of the course. There are actually two exercises in that
log book course. One exercise is from Tulsa, Oklahoma up to Kansas City,
Missouri over to St. Louis, Missouri, down to Memphis, Tennessee, and you get some scale
time on the way back to Tulsa. So that's the first exercise. The second exercise
is from Minneapolis, Minnesota over to Billings, Montana down to Sioux Falls,
South Dakota, back up to Minneapolis. So there's two exercises. There's five
multiple choice questions for each exercise for you to do.
There's also a toolkit. And there's a checklist of things that you need to
check after you finish filling in your log sheet. There are log sheets that you
can print out as well, and there's a cheat sheet of things that you need to
do for the purposes of filling out your log sheet and checking your hours of
service regulations so that you're in compliance with hours of service in the
United States of America.
Finally there's a final exam, which consists of 15 questions: 10 of the
questions are general logbook questions, & 5 of the questions are pertaining to the two
exercises that you do for the purposes of the course.
Finally when you're finished--you get eighty percent on the
final exam--get a certificate of completion. You can take that certificate
to a prospective employer and get a "leg up" on getting a job as a truck or bus
driver. So head over to my website, sign up for the course. It's less than $25 & get
your certificate - get your understanding of logbooks, so when you're going up and
down the road, you don't get a fine, you don't end up working the day for free. If
you like what you see here share, subscribe, leave a comment down in the
comment section. All of that helps us out. As well, hit that "thumbs up" button.
Be sure to check out the videos below: lots of great information for those embarking
on a career as a truck or bus driver. For those of you on a mobile
device, be sure to check out the cards in the upper right-hand corner. Those too
will give you links to all the videos and the great information for those of you
embarking on a road test. Question for my smart drivers: Have you had a logbook
violation? Leave a comment down in the comment section there. Give us the
details of what happened and why you got a log book violation. It gives great
information to the new drivers coming into the industry, so they can learn from
other people's mistakes. Remember what Newton said, "I only know what I know
by standing on the shoulders of giants!" Which means he learned from other people.
I'm Rick with Smart Drive Test. Good luck in your new career.
And remember, pick the best answer, not necessarily the right answer.
Have a great day! Bye now.
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