Hi there smart drivers, Rick with Smart Drive Test talking to you today about the American
log book and the information that goes around the American logbook. A couple of
things you need to keep in mind:
average speeds. If you get pulled into the weigh scale, you get pulled over by
authorities, they're going to determine your average speed and potentially you could
get a speeding ticket. You don't want to get a speeding ticket; you don't want to
get a violation because if you do, unfortunately you're going to end up working
the day for free. You don't want to work the day for free.
So, we're going to show you how to correctly fill out the log book. We'll be right back with that
information.
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Hi there smart drivers, Rick with Smart Drive Test, talking today about filling out the information around the
graph on the American log book. The first thing that you can see see here on the log
sheet is the date. The date is fairly self-explanatory: month, day, year. As well,
on this log sheet, there's a beginning and an end date. If you have several days
off duty, you can put them all on one log sheet. So if you're off from the 14th to
21st of September, put 14 September 2016, in the top one, and then 21st September
2016 in the bottom one.As well, put a line all the way across Line #1,
off-duty and write in big letters on the graph: 'OFF DUTY'. That way, authorities—if
they look at your log sheet—will know that you had been off duty for several
days consecutively. The next thing on the log sheet is the address of your home
terminal. You can see the address here in the space for the address. There's two
reasons that you need to put the address of your home terminal. First it's to determine if
you do need a log book. They can figure out the address of your home terminal and
determine if you are running farther than a hundred miles radius from that
home terminal, and that you do in fact need a log book. If you are running less
than a hundred miles, you don't need a log book, but the company is required to
keep time sheets to determine the hours that you are running. Second, the address
of your home terminal also determines the time zone that you're working. If
you're working as a long haul truck driver out of California, and you run to
New York, you're going cross three time zones. You need to keep your logbook
according to the time zone in California where your home terminal is. So the home
address also determines the time zone in which you working and authorities can
then figure that out on your log sheet. So the timezone - always work in the time
zone your home terminal. Employee number - some companies will have an employee
number - other companies most of the time it'll just be the unit number for
your truck or bus. Driver's name -
your first name and your last name on the log sheet - print. Your co-drivers name.
also if you have a co-driver. If you're running team, you need to put that on as
well. Along the right side of the log sheet you can see a recap for your work
cycle: sixty hours in 7 days, or 70 hours in eight days and you can keep track of
that there. As well, there's another video that I have created about calculating
your work cycle, and I'll put a card up here for you to show you the video on
how to determine your work cycle. Just one point that I will make about your work
cycle, is that it is a rolling work cycle. So if you're working 70 hours in 8 days
for example, the hours that you work nine days ago
cross off and those are added to the bottom of your work cycle. So it's a
continuous rolling work cycle. In order to reset that work cycle you need to
take thirty four hours off duty and in that 34 hours off duty you have to have
two 1-5 a.m. periods off duty. So essentially what they're trying to do—
the authorities are trying to get you to do—is to take two nights rest to
reset your work cycle before you go back to work. And again there's another video
for resetting your work cycle.And you can find that here, I'll put a card up for you.
Pro number and shipping numbers - these are the manifest numbers. The manifest is...
or the bills of lading are the contract between the people who own the freight
who hired the trucking company to move the freight. And you need to sign it saying
that you took responsibility for the freight that went on your vehicle, whether your
a bus, your truck, and then you delivered it to the address where you need to
deliver it to - the receiver. They sign your bill saying that they in fact
received it. You hand your bills of lading into your company and they're
allowed to bill for the costs of transporting that freight. Consequently
the company gets paid and you get paid. So make sure you put on the bills of
lading number, because it's also a backup just in case the bills of lading go
missing. For the bills of lading— the pro bills—there's inward and outbound so if you go
out
take a load out you bring a load back, there's going to be two bills of lading.
A place here on the log sheet for the total miles that you drove for the
day. This is important because the authorities will determine the average
speed that you drove for the
the day. The average speed for the day will be determined by taking line #3,
which is the total hours that you drove—driving time—taking the total miles that
you drove and dividing the total miles by the total hours driven. Now on the
flat—eastern United States & other places in the midwest—you can probably average
between 50 and 56 miles per hour on the flat. If you're running in the mountains, it's
probably going to be a lot lower— 43 to 48 miles per hour, depending on how heavy
you are you running. If you have 80,000 pounds, you're going be running a lot slower than if
you're running light with 20,000 or 30,000 pounds in the box. At the end of
the day, when you finish filling out your log sheet, just have a quick look. Just take a
calculator out, take the total miles divide it by line three—the number of
driving hours—and make sure that you come up with the right average speed. Because
potentially, if authorities pull you over, and when they look at that, you could potentially
get a speeding ticket. The other space on the log book: tractor number, bus number,
trailer numbers. All those need to be put in there to identify the unit which you're
operating. If there isn't a unit number on the truck or bus, use the license plate
number as the unit number. Most of the time, these trucks and buses - they all have
unit numbers. As you can see on the log sheet, as well, there are two places for
trailers. Semi truck drivers often pull more than one trailer in a day. If you come
in, you drop the trailer in the yard and your other trailer is preloaded, they call it 'pin-to-pin'.
You just pick up that trailer and then you write that trailer number in on
your log sheet. Finally, driver signature: you have to sign the log sheet. The log
sheet is in fact a legal document. If you were involved in a crash or some other
incident that damages—public property,
private property, or has an injury or fatality—there will be a post-crash
investigation on the part of authorities, on the part of police. They will look at
your log sheet and determine the hours that you were driving. So it is a legal
document.-
it has to be signed. As well, in terms of signing your log sheet - it can also be
used for the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) when you file your taxes at the end of the year. There's a
per diem for truck drivers, if you're running long haul, or running beyond the
hundred miles of your home terminal, you can claim that per diem, and your log
sheets are the way that you prove that in fact you were away from home. So
ensure you sign it; it's a legal document. Get your tax breaks because we all like
to get paid and we want to get paid correctly. And as well, if you fill out
the log sheet, you're not going to get a fine and end up working the day for free.
In conclusion, we talked to you today about the information that goes around the
graph. Two important points that I just want to stress: 1) average speeds - make sure
that you fill out the total miles and then take that total miles that you
drove for the day by the number of driving hours. Divide the total driving
miles by the total driving hours - make sure that you come up with the right
average speed. 42 to 48 miles an hour if you're running heavy and in the mountains, or if
you're running on the flat, you can probably run anywhere from 50 to
58 miles per hour as an average daily speed. Note as well, that for the
total miles driven in a day, if you're running 11 hours as allowed by rules and
regulations in the United States, your average daily mileage is going to be
about 600 to 650 miles. You're probably not going to be able to run much more than
that. As well, make sure you sign the log sheet because the log sheet is a legal
document. If you're involved in a crash, there is gonna be an investigation. They're
going to look at the hours of service and how many hours you're running and making
sure that you're within legal requirements of hours of service
regulations. And get paid correctly! The IRS will use your log sheets to determine that,
in fact, you are eligible for tax breaks that are allowed and given to truck
drivers. So make sure you sign your log sheet. Question for my smart drivers: have
you had a logbook violation and what was the logbook violation for? Leave a
comment down in the comment section.
All of that information helps out the new drivers we're trying to help out here on
the channel. So leave a comment, tell us what kind of logbook violation you had. Tell us
the story. If you like what you saw here, the complete course is over my website, you
can find the link here. All of the information that you see here:
written down rules, multiple choice, two exercises that you can do, that will
teach you route planning, rules and regulations for log books. As well, there's a
free calculator for figuring out your work cycle. And at the end there is a certificate of
completion. All of that for less than $25. I'm Rick with Smart Drive Test. if you like
what you see here, share, subscribe, leave a comment down in the comment section. All of
that helps us out. Thanks very much for watching. Remember, pick the best answer,
not necessarily right answer.
have a great day. Bye now!
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