On Duty Time and Off Duty Time

Let's take a look at what I posted:
This little known fact can and has been used against drivers in civil lawsuits to prove they were fatigued, falsified their logs, negligent, and therefore responsible for any damages that resulted from being involved in an accident

Now let's look at the actual regulations:

Hours of service of drivers

395.1

(j) Travel time'(1) When a property-carrying commercial motor vehicle driver at the direction of the motor carrier is traveling, but not driving or assuming any other responsibility to the carrier, such time must be counted as on-duty time unless the driver is afforded at least 10 consecutive hours off duty when arriving at destination, in which case he/she must be considered off duty for the entire period

395.2

On duty time means all time from the time a driver begins to work or is required to be in readiness to work until the time the driver is relieved from work and all responsibility for performing work. On duty time shall include: (1) All time at a plant, terminal, facility, or other property of a motor carrier or shipper, or on any public property, waiting to be dispatched, unless the driver has been relieved from duty by the motor carrier;





What this means is:
If you are involved in an accident, especially one with a fatality, an extremely through investigation will be conducted into EVERY aspect of your life for SIX MONTHS preceding the accident.
A competent attorney will find out that you did not log your daily commute and will argue the following:
1.) You were fatigued, especially if, had you logged your commute the way you are supposed to, that you exceed HOS.
2.) Because you did not log it correctly every day and drove to work every day, this could indicate a habitual pattern of falsifying records thus putting all your testimony in jeopardy. (The lawyer will say if you lied regularly on your logs, then everything you say is probably a lie also.)
3.) The argument will be made that you were grossly negligent and there fore liable for damages IN A CIVIL LAWSUIT!

Did I clarify my point now?
Don't think this could happen to you?
How much would you care to wager?
$1 million? $5 million?
It's been done before.

 

Not completely accurate, If you receive a dispatch by phone at home before leaving, the commute time is on duty not driving (driving pov). Normal commute times to and from your terminal are off duty if you are not acting at the direction or the company (under dispatch).

 

Correct! If you are not acting at the direction of the company.

If you drove to the yard just to chew the fat with your buddies, and not under dispatch, your time is "off duty".

But if you were told "REPORT TO WORK AT 0600" or you are reporting at your regularly scheduled time, you can be considered "on duty-not driving" when you leave the house to go to work.

But, at the end of the day, once you have been relieved by the company, your trip home is "off duty".

The same princple applies for Workman's Compensation. If you were hurt on your way to work, straight to work, your injuries would be covered by workers comp.

(my girlfriend is only a Registered Nurse, never drove a truck in her life, and she gets this!)

 

People will argue about anything, just for the sake of arguing.

There's the regs, then there's the real world. I can't imagine logging commute time, adding it to my 70... that's the whole purpose of flagging pre-trips or post-trips... saving your time for WORK/DRIVING. Any yayhoo that would log silly crap like this deserves to have to have a 34 hr reset 2 hours from home.

 

Nonsense .

 

Double nonsense. Horsehockey.

 

Your is point is taken. But in a civil suit, you would be tore a new one.

I have been driving for almost 17 years, I live in the real world too. I have never logged my commute either, but if I was involved in a fatality accident....I would rather not think about it.
I was asked to quote the regs, I did.

 

I understand - always give the rookie the rulebook version... and then the common sense version.

I'm not much worried about lawsuits - I work for 2 firms, and keep good notes, and cover myself pretty well. Not risking my relationships, or my business standing or theirs.

 

I quoted the regs right off the FMCSA website. You can choose to not comply or not take my word for it. I hope you never get proven wrong at a civil trial.

 

And any yayhoo can falsify logs by not logging things AS THEY ACTUALLY HAPPENED! (I have never seen a proper pretrip done correctly in 15 minutes).

Do you get under the truck and measure push rod travel every day?
Do you really perform the proper procedures to inspect the air brake system daily?
(for the record, I'm not innocent here either)

My point is newbies should know the facts and need to understand the consequences for taking shortcuts.

If you don't like the answer, don't ask the question.