Using log books for driving

[roadrunner]

About a month ago, I was talking to the office at the company I work at about the requirement for all drivers to keep log books, and they had no idea what I was talking about. For other jobs I've worked that operate under the same federal hours of service that we do, I've always had to do this and it's always been a fairly big deal, so I was curious about it. On the back of the log books we're given it does say that copies need to be submitted to the home terminal within 20 days. I called the BC Trucking Association and said I was a small treeplanting contractor (I didn't use any names) and was wondering about this. The lady I spoke with said that as a contractor operating commercial vehicles federally out of BC in excess of 5000kg GVW that I was required to keep records of all drivers logs for 6 months and copies of trip inspections for 3 months when outside the 160km home terminal thing (which we always are). Trip inspections only need to be done for vehicles over 14,600kg GVW, however, or any crummies that seat 10 passengers PLUS the driver apparently.

The relevant part of regs on this can be found at: http://www.bclaws.ca/EPLibraries/bclaws ... e/26_58_12
Scroll down to 37.18.05 and onward.

I'm not bringing this up because I think planting companies "should" start keeping records if they are in fact required to do so - treeplanting seems to operate within a bizarre black hole with respect to scales and log books etc. and perhaps its best to just roll with that - but planters who drive should at least know it might be a requirement and could assess whether there's potential auditing/liability danger in some scenario to a company. This seems like one of those low probability/high risk things, like a tree falling on a planter.

Keeping records that could be properly audited is a pretty daunting endeavour. For the other companies I've worked for it's a painful process and a mild administrative nightmare to keep up with this properly and ensure that not only are logs being filled out period, but that they're being filled out correctly I've now taken 4 separate courses on "how to fill out a log book" (e.g. "Hours of Service") and I'm not even sure I'm doing it correctly in every instance.

If this is something anyone does want to investigate further I'd be interested in helping out if I can, as I'd like to understand it more thoroughly myself given that I deal with this in the other jobs I work and I've heard the horror stories of carriers/drivers getting nailed with crazy fines etc.

It might just be something better to ignore, however, as the likelihood of anything dramatically negative occurring as a result of failing to keep copies seems pretty low, and it would add a significant paperwork/regulatory strain on everyone at a time when there's more and more paperwork each year. But I thought I'd mention it as it seems like something at least good to know is potentially out there.

Maybe there's a weird loophole companies squeeze through on this I'm missing, however, and it's all a non-issue.

[Mike]

Any information you could gather on this is probably going to prove useful in an obscure situation.

Last season I watched a foreman drive into a scale, and due to improperly filled out log book, get a 3 day driving suspension and a court date set for like, September 20th...

Maybe Scooter can provide the outcome of this situation? I forgot about it until now.

[Scooter]

He was found guilty of the offence, specifically, of not having a quad strapped down in the back of a closed and latched wooden canopy, even though the quad was prevented from moving by a few dozen dufflebags packed around it. I think his fine was $600. I'll try to double check the amount, it might have been just under $600.

[Scooter]

Can you guess what the attached photo shows?

I'll give you a hint: it shows two Summit vehicles in the left lane.

Is it because they're racing towards town at 132 km/hr, passing all other vehicles on the highway? Maybe, maybe not.

Actually, it's photographic proof that they were about to pull into the scale outside of Whitecourt, although they moved back into the right lane once they realized that the scale was closed.

I'd say that this is pretty good inferred proof that Summit is doing log books and trying to do things properly at the scales. They wouldn't be pulling into a scale without log books completed.