Another New Beginning

After having an accident and losing my job, I am once again having to start over.
It's been 3 really difficult years, and I'm finally getting myself back together after having my world torn apart.

I haven't tried to keep this up because I haven't had the money to have internet access, but now I do and I will try to post more and more often.

I'm no longer a long-haul truck driver and am back in my home state of Arizona and working as a home health aide.  It's only part time but there is enough to get me by.  In fact, I've been able to start to rebuild my life and live like other people.

I spent 15 years in the trucking industry and lived in whatever truck I had that whole time.  I would seldom spend money on motel rooms, but spent a lot of time at truck stops.  I would often drive by houses close to whatever road I was on and wonder what it was like for the people living in those houses.  I had almost forgotten what it was like to have a so-called 'normal' life.

Getting Logs In Without A Hassle

I hate doing paperwork.

I guess just about everyone does, so I've tried to find ways to cut it down, or at least to make it easier. One way that I've found is to use my computer for as much as possible. As it stands now, I (physically) only send in my trips about once a month.

By using a combination of faxes, email and a couple of computer programs, I'm able to get paid every week, keep everyone in the office satisfied, and actually keep better records because everything is done on the computer and I don't have to keep so many paper records.

The first part is logs. I do my logs with Drivers Daily Log, an excellent program that prints a neat, readable correct log that DOT and Safety both love because it's always correct. You will have to check with your own company if they will accept DDL logs and if they will allow you to fax or email them in. More and more trucking companies are accepting DDL, but there are a few rules:

1.) Logs must be printed out every day. (Showing the DOT officer your computer screen is NOT ACCEPTABLE)

2.) Every log must be signed

3.) You must have the last 7 days of logs available for inspection

4.) You must print out the current day's log on demand.

Screen shot of a DDL log

The second part is faxing the log to the office. I use eFax, a web service that allows you to send and receive faxes on your computer. You receive your faxes as email attachments and when you send one, it goes directly to the fax machine that you specify.

efax shows up as a printer on your computer, so that anything that you can print can be faxed. It has a free service that will allow you to receive up to 20 faxes per month, but I recommend at least the Plus service that gives you the ability to send and receive faxes.

Screen shot of eFax Messenger

First, you need both programs.

DDL can be downloaded from http://www.driversdailylog.com/DDL340.EXE

DDL Print Modules can be downloaded from http://www.driversdailylog.com/DDLPRINTMODULESDOWNLOAD.htm

Efax can be downloaded from http://www.efax.com/need

Once you've installed both programs, you will need an internet connection for eFax.

You will also need to set up an account at www.efax.com.

I'm not going to go through the installation process, so install the programs and enter the necessary data into DDL to set up the program and get your logs up to date.

You can go back as far as you want, but you only really need the past 14 days.

DDL can do a whole lot for you, but for now we'll just concentrate on getting the log to the office.

The first part is to get the log into the format that your company needs so that it can be scanned. Nick Bjorklund, the writer of DDL has developed what he calls 'Print Modules' for the various scanner programs that the companies use. The one my company uses is called 'Keller 0801' and that's what I'll use for this demonstration.

When you go to print in DDL, it will ask you which 'Print Module' that you want to use;

DDL asking for a print module

Select the print module that your company uses. You should see something like the next picture; your log converted to the Keller format.

Print Preview of your converted DDL log

Now, select 'Print' from the menu at the top, and you will see something similar to the next screenshot.

DDL asking which printer you want to use.

This is a standard Windows dialog, where you can specify which printer to use.

Click on the drop-down arrow to show the printers available, and select eFax.

You will see two quick little windows as DDL sends the information to the eFax Messenger program and then Messenger should pop up as shown below.

Now click on the little fax machine icon to begin to send the fax.

A window will pop up asking for the name and number of the fax machine that you want to send to. (You can send multiple pages, so save yourself time and money and send them all in a bunch.)

You won't need to include a cover page, because your log department will have all the information they need right from the fax, so you can uncheck 'Include cover page:'

That's all there is to it! Send it off!

I'll be posting more DDL tips and tricks in the future, because it is just so darned useful for a Trucker and can do so much for you.

Keep the shiny side up!

A New Beginning

Ok, I stole the title from George Lucas, but it's very descriptive of what I'm doing.
I'm starting over.
I've tried several times to write an on-going blog, but always got bogged down and let it die after a half a dozen posts. I hope I can manage to keep this one going for a while.