Pro Tips for Drivers

As a professional driver, you are no doubt convinced that electronic logbooks should be easy to use. They have to make your life simpler, not more difficult! Reducing the time it takes to perform administrative tasks at stops means you can get back on the road more quickly. Technology is designed to be an ally. In this post, we present five ISAAC features that you may not know!

1. Ensure hours of service (HoS) compliance

Did you know that the ISAAC tablet displays logbook information based on applicable Hours of Service (HoS) regulations? So, if you are driving in Canada under cycle 1, the information provided will reflect that regulation. The tablet will display driving times and work shift information based on those rules. You will be notified of upcoming hours of service violations so you can plan your time and travel.

To facilitate compliance with Canadian and American regulations, the ISAAC solution offers the following HoS display modes:

• 70 hr./7 d cycle (CAN)

• Driving north of the 60^th parallel (CAN)

• Alberta provincial hours of service (CAN)

• Saskatchewan provincial hours of service (CAN)

• 70 hr./8 d cycle (USA)

• Break exemption for short-haul transport (USA)

• Texas hours of service (USA)

• Florida hours of service (USA)

• California hours of service (USA)

2. Activate hours of service exceptions

You can quickly and easily activate hours-of-service exceptions. To avoid errors, a color banner is displayed on-screen when driving exceptions are enabled, so you can confirm the active driving type at a glance. The availability of exceptions on your tablet depends on the configurations your company has selected.

• Yard move: Option used, for example, to move around in the yard to hook or unhook equipment. With this option, your status switches to “on duty”. This status does not affect your available driving hours.

• Personal conveyance: Option used when traveling for personal reasons, such as driving home. With this option, your status switches to “off duty”. This does not affect your available driving hours. When you select this activity, you must record a personal explanation. Bear in mind that regulations regarding personal conveyance differ in Canada and the United States. You must comply with the regulation that applies where you are. 

• Adverse driving conditions: Allows to add up to two hours of driving time if unknown bad weather conditions occur while driving that could not be foreseen prior to beginning the trip.

• Daily off duty deferral (Canada only): Allows to split the off-duty time over any two consecutive days by deferring a maximum of two hours of the daily off-duty time from the first day to the second day and increasing the total of driving and on-duty times in the first day by no more than two hours.

• 100-mile short haul exception (USA only): Allows to you to extend the 14-consecutive-hour driving window to 16 hours once every 7 consecutive days.  Certain conditions must be met to use this exception.

3. Scan documents efficiently

How often do you have to fill out documents and send them to colleagues at the office? Whether it’s bills of lading, packing slips, or other documents, the tablet’s scanning application saves time! You can scan several pages at once, and even retake the photo of one page without having to start over from scratch. The integrated guide assists you throughout the process to ensure good quality photos. You can edit scans directly if you are not satisfied with them. Then, once you are ready, you can simply check and forward your documents from the tablet.

4. Manage team driving

With team driving, drivers can be simultaneously connected to the ISAAC tablet and switch between profiles as needed. The user-friendly interface helps ensure that driving time is attributed to the right driver. The main driver is clearly identified with a steering wheel icon, while the secondary driver has a color banner, to help lower the risk of error. Also, for easier reporting of hours of service at roadside inspections, drivers can access the data of both drivers without switching profiles, to avoid having to wake up your partner to provide their hours of service to the inspector.

5. Add en-route malfunction notifications

You have conducted your DVIR and taken the road. Suddenly, a problem arises during your work shift. Fortunately, you can document a malfunction en route without having to conduct another DVIR. Simply open your DVIR report to edit it and identify the malfunction, then sign your report once more. This saves time and avoids duplicate work!

Electronic logbooks are meant to facilitate compliance, and ultimately save you time versus paper logs. You might as well take advantage of all the benefits they bring so you have more time to do what you love to do: drive!