Geotab: Hours of Service Hours of Service or HOS are regulations issued by the US Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). These regulations deal with the number of working hours for drivers of commercial motor vehicles (CMV). Canada has HOS regulations as well. These HOS rules apply to a myriad of personnel. Truck drivers, commercial and city bus drivers, and school bus drivers are a sample. With the goal of having well rested personnel at the wheel of these vehicles, the rules are designed to limit the number of daily and weekly hours spent driving and working. These rules also regulate the minimum amount of time drivers must spend resting between driving shifts. In the Oil and Gas industry there are even more specialized HOS rules that apply. Quite often in well operations, drivers are required to be onsite at a well for long periods of time. These rules allow exemptions in order for drivers not to run out of Hours of Service and be in violation. According to the current HOS rules, drivers are required to keep a hand written logbook showing their Hours of Service. They must present these when requested by Law Enforcement officials. Companies are required to retain physical copies of the logs as well. In December 2015, the FMCSA passed new regulations requiring these HOS logbooks be recorded and kept electronically. All transportation companies are required to be complaint by December 2017. These logs are known as E-logs. The logging data is captured via an ELD (Electronic Logging Device) or EOBR (Electronic Onboard Recorder). Geotab has a smartphone/tablet app for logging HOS called Geotab Drive. It combines information obtained from the Location Services of a smartphone/tablet and the data received from the Geotab device installed on the vehicle being driven. The Geotab Drive application is available for download to Apple and Android devices.

Geotab – Drive app: Recording Hours of Service Once Geotab Drive is downloaded and installed on the smart device and a login for the driver is has been created in the customer’s Geotab database, the driver is now ready to use the Drive app.

1)

Open the Drive app on the smart device.

2)

Enter the Username and Password created in the Geotab database.

3)

Tap on Login. In most instances, the app will automatically find the Geotab database and log the User into

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the Drive app. In cases where the login fails, it may be necessary to enter the name of the database in the login screen to help direct the app to the correct database. To do that, 4)

Tap on the plus sign to the left of the Login button.

5)

Enter the Geotab database name in the field below Password. In this example, the database name is geoforce. In rare cases, it may be necessary to enter the Geotab database URL. The information for both entries should be provided by the customer’s Geotab Admin.

Geotab database name

Geotab database URL

6)

Once the information is entered, tap on Login.

7)

The Select Vehicle screen will appear. The vehicle will come from the vehicles in the Geotab database. To select a vehicle, type in the name of a vehicle form the database. In this example, 2012 Ram.

8)

Tap on the magnifying glass

9)

The vehicle will appear. Tap the circle to the left of the vehicle name to select this vehicle.

to begin the search.

10) Once selected, the login process will begin.

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11) Once logged in, the Dashboard will be visible.

Driver Vehicle Inspection Report

Hours of Service

Current operating vehicle

Messaging Settings

12) To begin logging Hours of Service, tab on the HOS icon.

The HOS Status screen will appear. This screen provides all the information about the driver’s current HOS status.

Indicates how much time remains until a status change must be made (Rest Break or Off Duty)

Indicates specific time for Driving and Working within the HOS Rules period as well as Rest Period for the current shift. Times are in countdown format.

Buttons for recording HOS status.

13) In the screen above, the status of the driver is OFF duty. The current HOS status is highlighted in blue. For a driver coming ON duty, tap the ON button. The button will now be highlighted in blue.

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This status indicates the driver is engaged in work activity but not driving the vehicle. Some examples of this work activity are pre-trip vehicle inspections and gathering paperwork (Bill of Lading). This time does not count as drive time but does count towards the overall work day hours available.Once ON duty, the HOS status clock will begin to countdown for Rest, Duty and Cycle. Drive time is unaffected because no driving has occurred. The HOS will be logged as On Duty until the driver changes the status to Driving or the vehicle is in motion.

14) To begin logging Drive time, tap on the D button.

The Driving left countdown will begin. This indicates the Drive time available in the current work period.

It is interesting to note that the phone/tablet app will automatically change the status to Driving once the vehicle is in motion. This prevents the driver from being in On Duty status while actually driving the vehicle. The SB or Sleeper Berth button will only be used in cases where team drivers are involved. SB (Sleeper Berth) indicates one driver of the team is in the vehicle but resting and Off Duty. The other driver is doing the driving. It is also interesting to note that 2 drivers can log onto the same Drive app to record their individual HOS. Once the driver is stopped for a Rest Break, they need to tap the ON button. This will change their status to On Duty but not Driving. Once the Rest Break is done, the driver needs to tap the D button to start logging Driving time. Once the driver is reached the end of their Duty left time, they need to tap OFF. This will stop the app from recording Hours of Service. The next step is Logout.

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15) Tap on the Username icon at the top of the

screen.

A message will appear asking the driver to Verify the logs.

Underneath that message, a log of the driver’s activity will be displayed. These events need to be verified by the driver in order to officially log their HOS (Hours of Service).

16) To Verify the entries, tap the circles next to each event. Or, to Verify all of the entries at once, tap on All

.

17) Next tap on Verify.

This will log the driver out of the Drive app and store the HOS logs in the Geotab database.

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