OTR driver doing local runs?

On local stuff you don't need an official log. Attached is a picture of how I keep track of local stuff. Looks cheesy but this is what a local DOT told me to do. I just do it on a blank log page but it could be on a piece of toilet paper if you wanted. There are no specific requirements other than hours worked. Before I go on a trip where I must log I make sure I have my previous seven days covered like this and with me before I start normal logs on a trip. We had an audit and they looked at this and said it was ok.

 

If your sleeper looks like it is frequently used, you aren't likely to convince anybody that you are legal to run a local log, which means the potential citation for failure to keep your log book current to the last change of duty status. Personally, I wouldn't attempt to run a local log unless it was obvious that the sleeper is not being used or if the truck lacked a sleeper. Cop writes the citation and it falls on you to prove you meet the requisites for the exemption. If they ask where you slept and your response is "the sleeper berth", then you won't be beating that ticket.

 

Actually, there are requirements. The record of your hours worked must include your name, the date, the time you reported for duty (start time), the time you were released from duty (end time), and the total number of hours worked. That record could be kept on a log book, scrap piece of paper, or as you stated, on toilet paper (preferably unused)...as long as it contains the required information.

 

Good point. I am in different trucks when I use the local and the logging. A lot of the time when local I am not driving at all just working in the shop but you still can't drive after 70hrs worked in 8 days regardless if any of those hours were driving. My truck with a sleeper is not loaded up like I am an OTR warrior but it is set up with what I need on the road.

As long as you are in your air mile radius and you don't have a bill of lading coming from somewhere far away I don't see how they can deny you the local exemption even if your truck is loaded up for OTR. You could make one logging required trip a week where you sleep in the sleeper and the rest of the time you are local and go home every night but you keep your truck loaded. It is not unreasonable.

 

Where the OP would get into trouble is when he tries this:

First off, local is limited to a 12 hour day, not 14. Beyond 12 requires a RODS....but we've covered that already, so we'll move on.

Second, the 100 air-mile radius is from "the normal work reporting location". That is going to be your house, a terminal, a hotel you are using as a base of operations while on a multi-day job, etc...but it has to be somewhere specific that you park the truck each day.

Third, "returns to the work reporting location and is released from work", which will typically mean parking the truck and walking away from it to go home or into a motel...NOT remaining in the truck.

Fourth, he needs "at least 10 consecutive hours off duty separating each 12 hours on duty". Note that is OFF DUTY, not sleeper berth. Logging sleeper berth time as off duty is falsifying your log book, and you can't run a local log if you're logging sleeper berth time.

§ 395.1(e) is the regulation all of this is found under. There is quite a bit of guidance on the matter as well. Bottom line, the way the OP says he runs, I don't think it would be wise to attempt to log local.

 

i do the same thing with a flatbed and side dump. When running local we just have to keep a time card with you to show your start time. I believe you can still work the 14. If not I haven't gotten in trouble for it yet. And Ag I believe is exempt from any hour regulation for local hauling

 

Local is a 12 hour day. If it is 12.25 hrs from the time you "report for duty" until you return to the same location to be "released from duty", then you need to draw up a RODS. If you're using a time card and have days where you worked 12-14 hrs WITHOUT filling out a RODS, just hope the company isn't audited before 6 months has passed.

The reason you're required to fill out a RODS beyond 12 hours is because you are still bound by the HOS requirements. The exemption ONLY covers the need to fill out the graph. Working a 12 hour day, it would be difficult to exceed 11 hours of drive time during your shift, when loading & unloading, fueling, paperwork, etc...are all taking up part of that 12 hour period. Once you work beyond the 12th hour, the possibility becomes much greater that you are attempting to mask illegal driving by claiming that local exemption...so you are no longer eligible to claim it once you go beyond the 12th hour. Actually, the exemption goes away as soon as you become aware that you will not finish your day within 12 hours or will venture out beyond the 100th air mile at any point during the day.

 

Ok, back in 06' I ran on a log book running local, and how the FMCSA local field office had us doing it was, you mark every hour on "on duty not driving", and in the remarks section you write how many hours were driving, I went through a open chicken coop, and the officer ticketed me for it, my company I work for, contacted the FMCSA on the ticket, he came down a had the ticket dismissed, and held a training seminar for NHP, on how local truck drivers are to log,

 

The proper response when asked for a log book while running local is: "I am not required to have one." If the officer insists that you do, kindly explain how you start & stop each day from the same location within 12 hours, you stay inside the 100 air-mile radius, and your employer keeps a record of your hours worked. The FMCSA regs exempt you from having to keep a log book. You'd better stick to that story, though...had one officer ask me a dozen different times if I "was sure I didn't have a log book" before he went back to his car and called his DOT guy to check my story. After 45 minutes, he came back and let me go. Get nervous and change your story and they'll wonder what else you are trying to hide. If ANYTHING about you hints that you may not be "local", you may not be as convincing...which is why I've always preferred day cabs.

 

Sorry,but this isn't always true, at the time, the company I was with, on occasion I would travel out of state, if you re-read my original post, that was how FMCSA was having it done, not the company, now this was back in 06', the company I'm with now, I'm on a time card, no log book