It happened. My AOBRD went down. I went into work like normal. Turned the machine on. Logged on duty. Arrived myself and then recorded my pre trip. From there I bob tailed down to my customer to pick up my load. All was well, I changed my status to on duty and went about the business of getting my papers and finding my trailer. I found my trailer and hooked up to it. Then I did my pre trip on my trailer and all was well with the trailer.
My tablet was frozen. I tied restarting it. That usually works. Then I tried turning it off and back on. It still wouldn’t work. I reached into my cabinet and got our the old paper logs. It was Sunday and we would not have my regular dispatcher there. Safety would not be there. Informational Technology would not be there either. We do have extended services and they could email me my last 8 days, so at least I was covered. A lot of drivers do not have “extended” services and you have to make sure that if something does happen to your recording device that you have access to your last 8 days.
It has been over 5 years since I spent a whole day on paper logs. I had to remember how to fill out my log. Luckily, I had been filling one out for almost 25 years before that. It came back to me. It really wasn’t that bad, or that good either. Really it was no big deal. I drove the 2 hours from my customer and took a short break in Milton, WI. I logged the 2 hours on the drive line and then 15 minutes off duty. Even if I could not access it, I thought that the machine would be recording it. So, I logged it exactly like I was driving it and even made sure to log myself back up to the drive line.
The timing of my 30 minute break did not change much either. On a perfect day, I can make it to Farmersville, IL. My goal is to make it at least to La Salle, IL. The Dixie Travel Plaza in Mc Lean is one of my faves, and I often stop there. This day, I had my lunch packed. So, I just hit the Funk’s Grove Rest Area south of Bloomington. As luck would have it there was an Illinois State Trooper watching all of the trucks in the rest area. I didn’t take any chances, and took a 32 minute break.
The IT department was able to remotely fix my electronic logs the next day. I scanned in my paper log and my electronic log was automatically updated. The episode did serve to remind me that we need to keep a paper log on board. You will also need to access your last 8 days. Be prepared.