As a driver, I've never enjoyed maintaining a daily log. Matter of fact, back in the day (WAY back in the day), my log book rarely, if ever, reflected anything remotely resembling my true activities. These days, though, unless you're begging to spend a lot of hard earned cash or, worse, spend some serious time under lock and key in case, God forbid, you have an accident resulting in injury or death, you'd be a fool to phony up your log book. Even if an accident, any accident, isn't your fault, you'd better be able to prove you can legally be exactly where you are.
Having been available for nearly 10 years you could hardly call Driver's Daily Log "new technology". However, the software's been continually updated and improved upon so, even though it's been available for a long time, DDL is most definitely deserving of a fresh look. Besides, not every driver is aware of just how good DDL software really is.
Drivers Daily Log Features
I've only been using DDL, myself, for a little over a year. I absolutely wouldn't be without it and, If you've got a computer, you shouldn't be without it either. Aside from making log book maintenance far easier and infinitely more accurate than it ever was using paper logs, this program is capable of much, much more.
For example
- Mileage Reports: DDL can generate reports indicating the total and percentage of both loaded and empty miles.
- Revenue & Expense Reports: The reports can be kept by date or trip number and you can even save an image of an expense receipt to the DDL Expense Record.
- IFTA Reporting: Providing the necessary information has been dutifully entered, and after downloading the Tax Rate Matrices from the IFTA web site.
- Switch between U.S. and Canadian Rules: When you travel into Canada you need to switch over to thier HOS rules. Drivers Daily Log does this seamlessly and DDL also converts liters to gallons, kilometers to miles and Canadian to U.S. dollars for all the reports.
Of course, this is an extremely abbreviated list of features. You can find more of them here and here.
Drivers Daily Log: Is it Legal?
The short answer is "YES!" According to testimonials on the "Is DDL Legal? page of the Drivers Daily Log web site; most drivers seem to be met with positive responses during those most enjoyable impromptu meetings that are so often and so politely requested by DOT officers of various states. You should be aware, however, that even though DOT officers don't always ask to see them the law explicitly states that a driver is required to provide printed, signed, log pages for the previous 7 days, in the U.S., and for the previous 13 days in Canada.
And one more thing. If you're printing out log pages and your company, for whatever reasons, won't accept them, you might be best advised to use the DDL program primarily as a method of checking your hand written logs for accuracy. You don't want to have two sets of logs in your truck; the ones printed from the Drivers Daily Log program as well as the ones you turn into your company. Check out this discussion on the DDL Forum.
Drivers Daily Log: Closing Thoughts
There are two Drivers Daily Log versions: "Full" and "Lite". The DDL version you choose is entirely up to you but, even if you're a company driver, not needing the print modules or features like IFTA reporting, I'd suggest purchasing the "Full" version. The reports that can be generated using the "Full" version can go a long way toward helping every driver, company or otherwise, understand more about their business. And that, as Martha would say, is a good thing.
I've found the program extremely easy to use but support is outstanding and there's an excellent User Forum that's provided answers to most of my questions. It should also be noted that many companies can and will accept DDL printed logs and DDL offers several print modules that format the printed log for company specific requirements.
What the heck are you waiting for? Download DDL NOW! The trial period lasts for a full sixty days and that should give you plenty of time to figure out whether you want to pay for a "Full" or "Lite" version. Once you've used this program you'll wonder how anybody gets along without it.
