eclipse log book
 

i was curious and bought the www.logbook.com. LOVE it. simple to use and you can do your logs with in 2 min. everything is neet and no chance of making a mistake adding up hours. a feature i love on it is it tells you when you are out of hours and when you can start up again. i highly highly recomend it.

I have looked at this software and it sure looks like a winner. However I wonder about how much time it takes to fire up your laptop and hook up the printer. Even upating whane you move from one line to another takes more time than using a log book. What do you use for a printe?. Is there room for it in your truck. I think I might wait for an Android version.

Only problem I see with a program like this is how easy can you update your log as your day progresses? You know with the new rules you have to be up to date when ever your truck stops for any reason or you could get a ticket. I know because I got one for being behind a few hours on my paper log once a few months ago in Tenn. Just a thought.

I've used Drivers Daily Log for years in the truck. Yes, I have a printer in here. The laptop stays running all day (I also use it for my navigation), so it takes literally seconds to update. Every company I've driven for, as well as every DOT inspector I've encountered, love the logs because they're absolutely perfect and easy to read. I can glance at the screen and know exactly how much time I have left on my 11, my 14, my 70, etc.

the laptop log is A LOT faster then the paper log. i recently got DOT'ed the guy looked at the laptop and his only question was do i have a printer to print the logs out. while i'm driving i leave the laptop on sleep. when i stop i update and it tells me when i'm out of hours and what not. its really clean too.

Just found a pretty decent DDL app for Android devices (no apple, sorry). It's called BigRoad. It's a completely free app, also. The only downside is that it won't print directly from the phone/tablet, but it will send a PDF file via email that you can easily print.

Here's a link to the app itself: BigRoad for Drivers

If you want to see what the actual log will look like, here's a link to mine from today: BigRoad - Driver's Daily Log

Since it uses the phone/tablet GPS, it automatically 'grabs' the location, so you don't even have to enter that.

Edit: Was just told by the developer that the next version will have the ability to print directly to a printer if your phone/tablet supports it (Android v4.0+). The app will run on any Android device with v2.2 and higher.

i was thinking about getting something for my iphone. BUT what i'm worried about is it not syncing up with the printer.

i was DOT'ed yesterday.. (again by the way...), the cop asked to see my logs. i showed him his exact words "thank you! you just saved me a bunch of time. everything is neat, and i know added up correctly". i love this thing. i know with the eclipse you can get a GPS unit for the laptop and it will do the asme thing but i think you have to pay for it a month.

Another logging option for the laptop is TruckLogger. I have it, but really haven't used it. I guess I just don't like changing my 'system'.

The website for that one http://www.trucklogger.com

Gotta love technology but I still prefur paper over electronic. What do you guys do if you have to run over your 11 or 14 with an e-log? I mean it happens all the time and with paper you can fudge but with e-log you cant and sometimes you need that extra hour to make a delivery! Old school and staying old school for as long as I can!

There's a big difference between e-logs and logbook software, trust me.

eclipse has a gps feature and it doesnt cost anything extra

the line on the log is always at the current time ,when you change status, you just click on the line you want to move to and if you have a gps hooked up, it puts in the location, if not, you type in the location, takes about 5 seconds, eclipse also has an option to print " today so far"

Downloaded an app for my Brother printer on my IPhone called IPrint & Scan and it prints wireless perfectly.

Of course this would never in a million years ever come up for squeaky clean guys like all of us on the forum, but I take it you're saying you can edit places and times after the fact? Like how sometimes I'll forget that my phone automatically adjusts for the time zone I'm in - an honest mistake that has made me have to correct my logbook more than once.

Ya - that's the exact reason - the timezone changes :p

It gives me a rash. Why can't the whole world just admit that the Eastern Time Zone rulez and get with the program? :)

So editing time and place is not problem. Cool.

What happens if your laptop gets a case of Windoze and decides to reboot for no good reason? Do you lose that day's information?

Seriously any Eclipse users tried yanking the battery from your laptop to see if the latest edit was properly saved? (If you try this and your laptop explodes and kills thousands of women and children it's your fault, not mine. I just asked a question. :D)

The software I use, Drivers Daily Log, saves to the hard drive every time you make a change. Period. I've had my laptop literally die on me completely, but luckily I have a thumb drive that I back up my log files to. After that happened and I lost a day's logs, it now backs up every hour. I also back up my files to an online cloud once per day.

Does Drivers Daily Log support the use of Streets & Trips gps?

I downloaded the Eclipse trial. I use Streets & Trips for navigation and it would be almost criminal to not give Eclipse a try. It seems pretty slick but no reports? WTF? How will I know how many days I was on the road for tax purposes? Having to count printouts seems odd.

And I'm not sure what I think about the way they do fractions. A quick scan of this page looks like I've only logged 23 hours. This pic is from the instructional video.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]1194[/ATTACH]

I haven't downloaded Eclipse, but I'll assume that it'll use any NMEA compatible GPS receiver. The only catch is that you can only use one GPS-enabled program at a time. There's software available that will let you create virtual GPS ports (run multiple GPS enabled programs at once). The one I use for that is called GPSGate.

That's a good tip. Thanks Mal.

Does Driver's Daily Log do GPS?

For you Eclipse users: I believe the trial they let you download is different from the paid version. Am I stuck with the weird way Eclipse does fractions with the paid version? I'm referring to the little boxes in the pic above on the paper view. Data view uses decimals, paper view uses cute little checkboxes.

Drivers Daily Log has a free add-on for using the GPS. It works great.