Confusing DOT

You have to be careful here. That 15 / 8 can bite you and its cargo specific, not carte blanche. The cargo has to originate and terminate in Texas. So if we pick up at a well and take it to a pipeline that transmit it to a barge or ship or across state line the exemption is moot. But it there's a tank at the dock and you push in there then ok cause that's the termination point.

It's a real grey area and the driver gets the shaft if we're wrong. I use it but don't like it.

My carrier uses it across the fleet out of the same terminal. So I run the 15/8 and the other guy runs the 14 /70 I think he's asking for trouble. The carrier says it's good if you don't leave the state.

JMO

 

14/70 is too easy, there is little reason to break it on the water side. I get plenty of hours, run 12-14 hours on duty per day and work a 5/1 schedule. By the time 5 days have passed, I am bumping up onto the 70 and need to do my sock laundry anyway.

Might be a different feeling for those on percentage pay, but hourly? It's tits.

 

Can only answer for interstate and not intrastate Texas.

2 different issues, depending on what you do. 24 hr reset and Wait Time Logging.

24 hour reset.
The 24 hr reset applies to "CMVs that are used exclusively to transport oil/gas field equipment".
This is clarified as directly to or from a well site.
One addition/exception is for “Dedicated oilfield mechanics operating CMVs used to service the vehicles/equipment associated with field operations”

Any 24 hours OFF DUTY or in a sleeper berth will do.
The source I was looking at said that if you switched to some non-qualifying duty during your 8 days, the 24 hour reset would no longer be recognized as valid.

Waiting time logging.
"..exemption to the normal definition of "on duty" for time spent at well sites. Such time can be recorded as "off duty" and can be excluded from drivers 14 hour calculation. HOWEVER, this can only be used by specially trained drivers operating specially constructed equipment" Clarified as extensive training in the operation of complex equipment, in addition to driving the vehicle. It's training that a truck driver would not normally receive. So, as mentioned below, water delivery truck, sand deliv, frac fueler, vacuum truck don’t get the exception.

“Examples of equipment that may qualify the operator/driver for the “waiting time exception” in §395.1(d)(2) are vehicles commonly known in oilfield operations as heavy-coil vehicles, missile trailers, nitrogen pumps, wire-line trucks, sand storage trailers, cement pumps, “frac” pumps, blenders, hydration pumps, and separators. This list should only be considered examples and not all-inclusive.”
“Operators of CMVs that are used to transport supplies, equipment, and materials such as sand and water to and from the well sites do not qualify for the “waiting time exception” even if there have been some modifications to the vehicle to transport, load, or unload the materials, and the driver required some minimal additional training in the operation of the vehicle, such as running pumps or controlling the unloading and loading processes. It is recognized that these operators may encounter delays caused by logistical or operational situations, just as other motor carriers experience delays at shipping and receiving facilities.

You can paper log as waiting time and make special notes or use the 5 line log form with the "off duty waiting at well site" line added. IT affects other things like can’t use 100/150 air mile logging requirements so get your answer from a trusted source(s).

If you qualify for the exception, you also have the option to accumulate the “equivalent” of 10 consecutive hours off duty (including a split-break with complicated rules of minimum length, exactly when you drove.

= = = = = = = = = =

With a 34 hour reset (and it’s restrictions, once in 168 hrs, 2 x 1am-5am)) it’s impossible to legally do more than 70 hours in a calendar week.

With the 24 hour reset (which doesn’t have the same restrictions as the 34), 14/10 and starting the same time every day, you can legally do 84 hours in a calendar week.
(well, OK 84 for 4 wks and 70 in 5[SUP]th[/SUP] week when you have 2 resets, avg. 81.2).

Is that right or have I missed something?

( trivia: If I didn’t mess something up, with the 24hr reset it looks like you can do a max of 87.8 paid legal hours per calendar week. It unrealistically assumes you go back to work when the 24 hours is up vs. same time of day you usually start work. I still have a hard time swallowing the average is a fraction, but if you start off at 00:00 Sun the totals for the weeks are 94, 88, 90, 80, 94, 86, 92, ??, ??, ??, then it repeats. I initially set up a spread sheet when I started looking at oil field jobs (“foolishly starting in ND”, no offense, if you are up there) to figure out how drivers appeared to be working more than 70.)