Free download
Free printable driver's daily log
A blank record of duty status you can print and fill in by hand, with every field the rule requires. No sign-up, no email.
This is a paper log, not a paper ELD
There is no such thing as a paper ELD. An ELD is an electronic device that connects to the engine, and paper cannot satisfy the ELD rule. What this is is a record of duty status, the handwritten daily log, which is legal in its own named cases.
When a paper log is allowed
Your ELD has malfunctioned. The driver reconstructs the current 24 hours plus the past 7 days on paper, and may keep paper records for up to 8 days while the device is repaired or replaced (49 CFR 395.34).
You keep records of duty status on 8 or fewer days in any 30-day period, which is one of the exceptions to the ELD requirement in 49 CFR 395.8(a).
You operate under the short-haul exception in 49 CFR 395.1(e) and keep time records rather than a full log.
Carriers in Canada follow Transport Canada's daily log rules, which differ from this form. Check the current rule before relying on any of this: regulations change, a printed sheet does not.
What is on the sheet
Every item 49 CFR 395.8(d) requires in addition to the grid, in the regulation's own order, with nothing invented on top of it:
- Date
- Total miles driving today
- Truck or tractor and trailer number
- Name of carrier
- Driver's signature and certification
- 24-hour period starting time
- Main office address
- Remarks
- Name of co-driver
- Total hours, at the far right edge of the grid
- Shipping document numbers, or name of shipper and commodity
The grid
Twenty-four hours across, divided into quarter hours, with the four duty statuses from 49 CFR 395.8(b) down the side: off duty, sleeper berth, driving, and on duty not driving. A total hours column sits at the far right edge, where the rule puts it. Under the grid is a remarks band, because 49 CFR 395.8(c) asks for the city, town or village and the state abbreviation at every change of duty status.
Questions drivers ask about paper logs
- Can I use a paper log instead of an ELD?
- Only in the cases the rule names. The common one is an ELD malfunction: the driver notes the malfunction, reconstructs the current day and the past 7 days on paper, and may keep paper records for up to 8 days while the device is fixed or replaced. Paper is also allowed for drivers who keep records of duty status on 8 or fewer days in any 30-day period, and under the short-haul exception. Outside those, a covered driver must use an ELD.
- How long do I keep the sheet?
- The driver submits the original to the carrier within 13 days of the 24-hour period it covers, and keeps the duplicate copy for the past 8 days to show at a roadside inspection. That is why the rule asks for the record in duplicate.
- What has to be written in the remarks line?
- At every change of duty status, the name of the city, town or village with the state abbreviation. If the change happens away from a town, the rule accepts the highway number and nearest milepost, the highway numbers of the nearest junction, or the highway number and the distance and direction from the nearest town.
- Does the log have to be filled in as the day goes?
- Yes. Entries must be kept current to the time of the last change of duty status, must be legible, and must be made by the driver rather than by anyone in the office.
- Is there a Canadian version of this form?
- Not yet. This sheet follows 49 CFR 395.8, which governs US interstate carriers. Canadian daily logs are set by Transport Canada and ask for different fields, so using this form for a Canadian log would be wrong. Ask us and we will tell you what a Canadian log needs.