Logs: Form and Manner

Posted on February 4, 2011 
Filed Under HOURS OF SERVICE

Ok, here is a post on the regulations today, rather than all these posts I’ve been making on the avalanche of coming regulations. In Part 395 of the safety regulations, it describes what information must be on a log. When a log is not filled out correctly, such as omitting the carrier’s address, or forgetting to total your hours in the right-hand side of the log, that is called a form and manner violation. Form and manner violations are cited by the DOT, and the roadside cops, but never really meant anything, as they never issued fines for that sort of thing.

With the advent of CSA 2010, however, it does mean something. Every time one of your drivers gets written up in a DOT inspection for the previously-harmless form and manner violation, it costs you 6 CSA points. 2 for the violation, times 3 for the time weight = 6 points. So, review your drivers’ logs, and make sure they are listing an address for the motor carrier, the number miles for the day, totaling the hours on the right, and most of all, listing some type of bill number, or shipper and commodity in the lower left hand corner. You surely would hate to get audited just because your competitors drivers are listing a shipper and commodity on their logs, but your drivers aren’t.

And if anyone can tell me how filling out the shipper and commodity on the log makes the highways safer, you get a free EOBR……

Comments

Leave a Reply