Georgia Injury Lawyers Blog
Driver’s Daily Logs: Overview
While the previous blog posts discussed what hours a driver may legally drive a CMV, this section details how his driving and non-driving time must be recorded. Section 395.8 allows the use of traditional paper logs and also permits a motor carrier to require drivers to use an automatic on-board recording device. Therefore, an early task is to request that any paper logs or any electronic file used with an automatic on-board recording system be maintained and preserved. Concomitantly, a request or requests should be made requiring that the supporting documents referenced by the Regulations also be preserved.
In theory, the preparation of logs is fairly straightforward, and a fair explanation of how to prepare the logs is set forth in the Regulations, which include a drawing of a typical paper log and an explanation of how it is meant to be filled out. Despite this, a driver’s actual preparation of his logs often falls considerably short of the ideal. This does not automatically mean that foul play is involved, and one should resist the urge to characterize any mistake on a log as a falsification. Rather, an examination of the logs along with their supporting documents will typically reveal whether a error, such as an addition error, or a falsification such as logging one activity (sleeper berth) while pursuing another (driving), is involved.