PaperMiles: ELD-Exempt Logbook

PaperMiles is not an ELD, and there's no subscription to pay. It's for drivers who keep a log on eight days or fewer in any 30, or who only need a sheet on the odd day they run beyond the 150 air-mile radius. The logbook you used to keep in the door pocket now lives on your phone. It doesn't connect to the engine or to satellites, and it isn't a device registered with FMCSA. Whether you're exempt is a matter for your carrier and FMCSA guidance. 5:10 am · before you start the engine The first screen is a blank sheet, so you can leave the header for later and put down your first line straight away. Across the top run 24 hours, midnight to midnight; down the side are four rows: Off Duty, Sleeper Berth, Driving and On Duty (not driving). It follows the §395.8 layout, and the four row names stay in English because that's what the officer reads. Drag a finger along a row and the ink follows, with a small tick under your fingertip at every 15-minute mark, much like a pen catching on a ruler. Wherever your finger went, the line settles onto the quarter-hour, and the total on the right is filled in before you lift off. Switch rows and the vertical line comes with you, and you can see whether the four rows add up to 24 hours. No praise, no telling-off, just the sums. 9:40 am · at the weighbridge Tap a point where your status changed and a box opens for the city and state. An ELD is a machine that records your driving time for you. There's no such machine here, so you'll never be asked for your location. You type it yourself, and where you've left it blank it prints blank rather than saying "none". Not a single screen needs an internet connection to open. 2:20 pm · when a line lands in the wrong place On paper you'd reach for the Tipp-Ex. Here you tap the line and handles appear at each end. Lengthen it, shorten it, shift it by 15 minutes, change the status, delete it or undo. On a day you only realise at clocking-off time that you went beyond the radius, this is also where you fill the day back to when you started. Your carrier, main office and home terminal addresses, and truck and trailer numbers go into your profile once. Every new sheet picks them up, and only the miles and shipping documents are filled in by hand each day. 4:05 pm · pulled over, window down The Inspection tab lines up today and the last 7 days. Tap Show on screen and the sheet fills the display as the brightness goes up. You can also tap a date to open that day's sheet and correct it. 4:20 pm · when they ask for a print-out Make the PDF there and then. Days without a sheet are simply left out rather than turned into invented blank pages, because a day that never happened shouldn't sit beside your signature. Every officer has their own preference, so a printed copy in the cab is still a comfort. 9:50 pm · closing the day Sign your name with a finger in the signature box; it confirms that everything you've entered is true. Touch a line after signing and a note appears asking you to sign again. Above the sheet sits Paper logs, last 30 days 3/8. It doesn't reset each calendar month; it counts back 30 days from today, and only days where you drew Driving or On Duty are included. Rest days with nothing but Off Duty and Sleeper Berth are left out. When the eighth sheet arrives, nothing changes colour and no warning pops up. It simply keeps count. A single backup file holds your sheets, the lines you drew and your signatures, so you can restore everything on a new phone. Choose a month to bundle into a PDF, and hand in the sheets your carrier needs within 13 days of completing them. Erase everything on this phone and the PDFs you made go too. There are no adverts and nothing locked away. Delete the app and the backup file stays with you.