susansmith,

Maybe I'm still not following you but....I guess you are new enough that you haven't been pulled over by DOT at random (Indiana is good for this) to do an inspection and/or the portable scales? You will not have time to correct (fudge) your logs at that time. You had better not be behind or ahead of your logs - you will pay the fine. You should never have to wait for your logs to try to catch you, nor should your logs be ahead of you. You're asking for trouble down the road.

BOL anyway - it come back to bite one day. It always does.

I think you are definetly not following me.

While I am driving, I am on line 3. If I left at 5 AM this morning, that's the last entry on my log.

I do not *decide* I am ahead of my log until I stop... when I do the calculation at a rest area or truck stop and realize I have averaged closer to the speed limit than my company (not DOT) allows. I am not *allowed* to log as fast as I actually drive. The speed limit in Indiana is actually 65 for trucks, I am not allowed by my company to log it faster than 60 mph. So when DOT stops me, they "see" me driving around the actual speed limit. But when they do *not* stop me, I take a short break at a rest area to let my total time add up to "as if" I drove 60 mph, even though I actually drove 65.

I am not "ahead" of my log via DOT regulations, but via company regulations. Since the company does not stop and inspect me, I'm quite fine.

Similarly, when I get stuck in a bad traffic jam and waste 2-3 hours, I don't do anything to my logs at all. I sit there on line 3. But... when I shut down for the night, and realize that even though I didn't park in the truck stop until 6 PM, I *could* have theoretically made it by 4 PM, I log myself off-duty at 4 PM so as not to burn up my 70 hours. I arrive at the truck stop "behind" my log, but I'm not behind if I'm inspected on the way... I did after all actually spend 2 hours in traffic.

I am *never* either ahead or behind my logs while I'm driving... these are adjustments I make when I'm *stopped*.

As I noted, neither the 11 hour or 14 hour rule "bother" me... I don't want to drive harder than that. But the 70-hour one *does* bother me. I have no desire to hang out at a truck stop or terminal for 34 hours... I'd rather get my restart at home. So I log so as to avoid burning my 70.

And the point is kinda moot now that I'm teaming anyways. I was solo my first three months and that's when I did this stuff. Given that we only go out 10-12 days at a time, we're unlikely to have to restart anyways while teaming.

Susansmith,you are right about the teaming part,doesn't really apply to you.
But the first part of your post,I disagree with.You said that if you are caught up in traffic,you log on line 3,which is the right thing to do. But,you say that if "thereotically" you could have made it by 4pm,but yet you were driving till 6pm,and log off duty at 4pm,...this is log book falsification.
Sure,while on the road,it might look legal to whoever checks you,but when DOT does an audit on your company,you might be in trouble.
DOT has many ways to verify your driving time,miles,where you should and should not have been,etc. These types of violations are usually discovered during a company audit. And,every company gets audited from time to time.