I think this may be a potentially volatile topic but it may be helpful to our new truck driver brothers and sisters.

As was stated in another post some drivers will log average speed as opposed to actual time it took to drive a run. This is commonly referred to as "pattern logging."
The premise is a driver will be delayed due to bad weather or road construction or an accident. In order to finish the run and make the delivery on time, drivers will drive beyond the hos rules and then will simply take the total miles they drove and divide it by a set speed such as 60 mph. The savvy drivers will do this when there are no toll receipts, fuel receipts, or dot inspections that would contradict their account. What this does is save some of their driving hours for future use during the week.

For some drivers attempting to make more money while on the road they will "drop trips." This is for gung-ho drivers that want to maximize their earnings while on the road. The premise is a driver will begin his day in (lets say) Chicago Il (for illustration purposes) and goes to Indianapolis In where he drops his trailer and hooks to another trailer for the return trip to Chicago Il. The run is 181 miles each way with an approximate transit time of 3 hours each way for a total of 6 hours. The driver will tear out his log page for that day (or for drivers that use "loose leaf logbooks" just discard it and start a fresh 1) and start his day 6 hours later showing he had an extra long break rather than actually running that round trip. As long as the driver didnt fuel up or pay any tolls and doesnt have an onboard computer tracking his whereabouts there is really nothing to trip him/her up especially if there was no actual delivery and the driver just shuttled the trailers back and forth.

Potential pitfalls of these strategies are tracking due to gps systems installed with the trucks onboard computer, pre-pass records, ez pass records, fuel receipts, dated and timed bills of lading, and even other motorist compaints about your truck driving if you passed them too quickly, tailgated, was speeding, etc (seems like everyone has a cell phone and an attitude today).

The possible ramifications of using either of these could be;
1. You get away with it and become complacent.
2. You received a "log violation" from your companies safety department and possible loss of bonus for that month.
3. You get caught by the police due to a minor traffic violation such as speeding, improper lane change, tail light out, etc. and get placed out of service for 10 hours with a hefty ticket.
4. You are involved in an accident through no fault of your own except that "you shouldn't have been there according to your log book." Now you may lose your job and be incarcerated.

I am sure I will receive flak for this but I want to let drivers know whats at stake out here.

this is a viotile topic but it is a good topic also. it will be interesting to see if people are gonna be honest and answer that way or say what they should say to appease the general public.

with that being said, you made some good points and that is why everybody should run legal. log it like you run it.

Well said DragonMaster.

The use of multiple logbooks is another illustration of how drivers have pushed the envelope to make more money in this business. Of course with the advent of loose leaf logbooks this has become obsolete for many "hustlers."

The premise of this strategy was a driver would use separate logbooks for dot checkpoints and inspections. The driver would usually show a different home base on the cover of the book so he could tell them apart quickly. This took a savvy driver that was creative and was able to juggle his stops through use of cribnotes in his personal notebook.

Another form of this (or slight variation) was opening the staples on his current logbook and removing the page that was to be "re-written." The driver would canabalize another log book by removing the staples and taking a clean set (original and copy) and (using the original staple holes) replace the missing log from his original book so he would still have a logbook with 31 days of logs. The benefit of this was there was no telltale duplicate log to trip the driver up in the event his cab was searched.

The fact is truckdrivers are an extremely intelligent group despite the stereotype of being uneducated hicks that can't do anything else. Many have left positions as computer programmers, police officers, plant managers, business owners, etc. It really runs the gamut.

Does anyone think this would be a good thread to make a sticky post out of? Especially considering this is a very new site.

As reported in Transport Topics a few years ago, a port of entry in a western state was taking log books to a back room for a few minutes before returning the books to the drivers and sending them on their way. Farther west, another state's port of entry was doing the same thing. The first state had faxed copies of the logs to the second state. Would you believe it?! A large percentage of the drivers had shown a different log book at the second state's port of entry.

A log book is more than your personal record. I was hauling Labatts from London, Ontario to Benton Harbor when they examined my logs thoroughly at an Ontario scale. I drove for a beer distributor. Perhaps, in the back room, they were able to access our fuel tax payments and reported Ontario miles. As my logs showed, we only went to Ontario about once per month (and that is why our fuel taxes paid to Ontario was so low). I wanted to tell them that Labatts is simply not that popular in the States. My point is that your log can be used by authorities for enforcement of more than the Hours of Service.

Ghost drivers are fictitious drivers that are listed on a drivers logbook to cover more miles. This is usually done after the days running is over and the driver has arrived at a truckstop or rest area where he can "re-create" the days run by adding a co-driver.

One of the simplest ways to get a fresh full 70 hours available is to show you were off duty for the last 7 days on time off and start a new logbook altogether. These "tricks" are a big reason why politicians and safety groups are pushing so hard for on board recorders aka black boxes.
It is truly sad that drivers are so underpaid for their time on the road that they resort to these tactics in an attempt to live the american dream.
Until politicians are willing to stop treating truckers as second class citizens and start advocating for equality in wages and treatment for the men and women responsible for this nations economy, these tricks will be rampant.

Many drivers have opted to get their own trucks and run on their own in an attempt to dodge scrutiny from on board computers and over zealous safety departments. Their feeling is they should not have any prohibitions upon their earning potential and I for 1 can empathize with that sentiment.