There has been a whole lot of confusion over the specifics of the new HOS rules here on our forums and among drivers nationwide, especially concerning the 30-minute break that drivers must take at least once every 8 hours. It seems that the FMCSA has taken notice of the confusion as they have announced that they will be issuing some guidance on the Hours Of Service rules on Friday, July 12th.
The “clarification” comes in the form of two new conditions that must be met in order for the 30-minutes you spend not driving to count as your federally mandated “break.”
1) “The driver is relieved of all duty and responsibility for the care and custody of the vehicle, its accessories, and any cargo or passengers it may be carrying.”
2) “During the stop, and for the duration of the stop, the driver must be at liberty to pursue activities of his/her own choosing.
I’m going to go out on a limb here and predict that there will be more than a few drivers who take issue with the first condition. The idea that a driver is EVER “relieved of all duty and responsibility” for their vehicle and its contents is truly laughable. If a driver walks away from his rig for half an hour and he comes back to find it stripped of all parts, his cargo gone, and his trailer on fire, I don’t think that his company will absolve him of responsibility because he was taking his federally mandated break.
What those in the industry always seem to fail to understand is that trucking isn’t a normal job. It’s often a 24-hour commitment when you’re on the road. Whether you’re at the wheel or asleep in your bunk, you are responsible for your own safety and the safety of your vehicle and cargo. Your responsibilities don’t just go away because a rule says that you’re not really resting unless they do.
Forgive me, FMCSA, but I think your clarification needs a little clarification.
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Hit the nail on the head! Great report, thanks. In addition, Government fails to realize that they cannot regulate an individual’s sleep. We’re talking government here though right. Regs should be drawn up by an actual driver. Everytime they screw with the regs, they make it so complicated!! It’s not rocket science, just plain old common sense would do just fine!
I think we and they fail to realize they DON’T have common sense or any clue. Worse yet they really don’t care and are the prostitutes of the special interest groups. A lawyer told me that making laws by legislators and government agency is like making sausage. Everything goes in it and you really don’t want to watch.
I think it is laughable that we have a bunch of desk jockeys telling us we need to abide by hourly pay or salary pay employees rules. Oh lets not to mention…. some drivers wake up drive 9 hrs and shut down or even 10 hrs and shut down cause honestly that many hours of being cut off, flipped off, tail gated, and just generally abused by the general motoring public will wear you out now have to have a 9.5 to 10.5 hour day oooh wait your inspections 9.75 to 10.75 hr day oooh wait fuel 10 hr day to 11 hour day. Where is another 30 minutes fighting fatigue. You want to fight fatigue FIX THE ROADS being bounced all over the place, steering wheel ripped out of your hands not only angers you but frustrates you, and that causes massive amounts of fatigue.
Love it but you forgot the dispatcher hassment. Thats my husbands greatest source of fatigue.
Until we can strip this government of the power to appoint and pay bureaucrats to sit around and come up with this kind of bs, we will just keep getting this kind of bs. Maybe if being on the FMCSA was a unpaid position that only met every couple of years, or so, and was only made up of people who are actually, really, industry and safety who are nominated by some kind of industry & citizen council who’s only role was to revue, detect, analyze, and develop solutions to actual, real, emerging safety issues? …Oh, well. Dream on, I suppose.
You really can’t walk away from your truck for 30 minutes???? Would people stop whining about this and just take the 30 min break? I haven’t had a single problem taking this break. It’s not that big of a deal….
Sure I can, but I’m not comfortable walking away from 9,000 gallons of gasoline. These things don’t lock, you know. Some retard gets to messing with it, holds up a gas can to try to fill it from the spigot, and spills 300 gallons of gas in the blink of an eye. Now my company is on the hook for a million bucks or more. Oh, and even though I was “off duty” guess whose ass is canned? Right.
Bravo, FMCSA, bravvvvoooo.
Exactly. I too am a fuel hauler. We can’t just walk away from a full tanker. This rule most certainly is problematic especially for us drivers who work only 8-10 hours per day and then go home at night. Yesterday I was on my way back to the yard when a storm rolled through and added 45 minutes to my trip. I made it back to the truck yard with THREE minutes to spare before my mandated eight-hour break. Given this new poorly-thought-out rule, if I were delayed any longer I would have had to pull over somewhere within a few miles of my yard, log out for 30 minutes, log back in, drive the two or three miles to the yard only to log out and go off duty for the day.
Curious but if you walked away from your tanker for 30 min of a caustic chemical, some one opened a valve and released it on the ground or in the air. (terrorist ) your happen to notice it you would then violate the law by interfering in any way. So does that mean call hazmat when its empty? In 30 min. Or go to jail or get fined?
If ya’ll would read the rule, if you haul haz-mat you can take your 30 min. Manadated break on-duty. But only if you haul haz-mat. I LOVE desk jockeys.They have no common scense.
Doesn’t that same logic apply to your 10 hour break? Or to whenever you are away from your truck?
So NOW I can leave my plarcarded “Explosives 1.3” trailer unattended for 30 minutes? I only have to attend it now for 23 1/2 hrs. a day? IDIOTS!
what do you do Chris, work for JN hunt? probably not a big issue for you.. wat if you are traveling in a grayhound bus?Are you going to sit patiently while the driver leaves in a taxi cab and goes to the strip joint and leaves you sitting there in a hot bus?
WHat about your packagesDO you want your fed ex , ups, or USPS package left unattended in some rest area while the driver leaves with his girlfriend and comes back in 30 minutes? America is such a safe place, do you think people are going to wait till the driver returns to steal his trailer contents??? Lets just stick to the basic question at hand??Where in the HELL are you going to go for 30 minutes when your 1000 miles from home, no car, no relatives, and no way to go?? Hey wait, what if the taxi driver that comes to pick you up has to go on break after he gets you in his cab?? Now there is what want to know.
amen Chris
I run a regular schedule on my outbound turn, it loads at 1600 and is a 9.5 hour leg to my first drop. I now need to take a mandatory rest break by the 8th hour of driving, and that stop just gasses me, instead of being able to get to my first drop and take a break.
I was *less* tired driving straight through and getting to my stop ASAP instead of having to stop for a ‘rest break’ that makes me even more tired for the last 1.5 hours of drive time.
Not that “big of a deal” for daylight only drivers, I suppose.
“What those in the industry always seem to fail to understand is that trucking isn’t a normal job.”
Herein lies the problem! To the author of this article: Do you sleep? Do you eat lunch? Do you go to the bathroom? Do you take a shower or bath everyday? Do you change your clothes everyday? Do you see your family on some regular occurence? Do you have feelings, can you feel pain, do you get sick sometimes, do you go to the Doctor sometimes? Are you a human being? If you answered NO to any of these questions, then please forgive my ignorance. Is there anybody in America who has a job, ANY job, that does not do any of these things? Then are we to believe that “trucking” is any different than any other job in America?
Please explain WHY then, you as the author would take sides with American company’s to have us believe that truck drivers are 2nd class citizens who must yield to corporations desires by requiring us to sacrifice our lives in such a way that is “not normal”…..
It is HIGH TIME that truck drivers take issue with your’s and corporations expectations that somehow the job we do, transporting goods to american stores “isn’t a normal job”! I subscribe that the only thing that IS NOT normal about it is the LOW pay! When American Truck Drivers refuse to haul freight for 3 days because of LOW pay and outrageous expectations, that would be a demonstration of what “isn’t normal”, and that would be truly laughable!!!
You’re completely missing my point. Most trucking companies are always going to hold drivers responsible for their trucks, even though it’s unfair and can conflict with FMCSA regulation. The FMCSA has one goal, companies have a different goal, and drivers are stuck in the middle getting it from both sides.
Mr. Barradas, thank you for your reply. Please allow me to apologize for directing my comment to you as it was intended to be directed at the circumstance you describe.
To your reply: Companies that “hold driver’s responsible for their trucks” when driver’s are complying with ‘public policy’ such as an FMCSA regulation would subject themselves to punitive recourse in a court of law. While the majority of companies would provide some sort of work around to comply, there are always a few that would not, then subjecting a small minority of drivers to your circumstances.
From my original post, to offer additional elaboration, American companies and corporations, by virtue of evolution, have created ALL the problems for which FMCSA seeks to rectify, on behalf of American Truck Drivers! The only way corporations and companies can hope to maintain the “status quo”, of keeping driver wages depressed while padding their own pockets on the backs of American Truck Drivers is to strive to keep “drivers stuck in the middle” and hope the very people that they subject to personal degradation (driver’s) will continue to be their voice to hold down regulation’s and driver’s wages.
The solution’s to ALL Truck Driver issues, including regulations, has always and will continue to rest with American companies and corporations, for they are the only group that creates these problems and the only group with the power to fix it! Please try to keep this in mind when considering future publications and thank you for your work and thank you for your article!
What company are you working for that is paying “low wages” and just what is considered “low wage”? Most drivers are victims of themselves not being willing to better themselves. If you think you are not being compensated properly, change employers!
FMCSA is NOT seeking to rectify ANY problems at all, but jumping when the self-centered politicians and safety groups holler, working off of faulty “computer models” and not taking the realities of the JOB performed by drivers into account.
And, the job of a truck driver is not like any other job out there, just as serving in the military is not like any other job. For anyone to think that driving a truck is like any other job, they are NOT true truck drivers, but just in the industry because they got downsized out of something else.
One cannot think that the FMCSA is trying to FIX anything if one is a truck driver. If one is a truck driver, then one knows that everything the FMCSA does just hurts the drivers.
If I’m taking my 30 minutes in the bunk and the satellite pings with a message from my travel agent, does my break need to restart because it was interrupted? It got to the point with a company I worked for a few years ago that I would do just that with my 10 hours. If I told dispatch I was on break and they interrupted me with a satellite message or phone call, I told them I was restarting my 10 hours until I got an uninterrupted break. I can see the same thing happening with this intrusion on my job.
Don’t answer the ping or call. I too have had no problem taking a break. That is why they make door locks. What do you do when you go off duty altogether?
You do realize that there is a chance that one in six truck drivers can unlock and start your truck with their key don’t you?
It’s not the break itself that is the issue, it’s the requirement that it has to be within a certain time, when we all know that one simple traffic jam can really mess up a driver’s day real quick. We have all taken a a break for that amount of time every day, it’s just the fact that they are now saying it HAS to be between this time and this time since your day started. We took them when it was convenient for OUR schedule, not because some clown in DC says it HAS to be after this amount of time and before this amount of time.
FMCSA Regulations:
395.2
(ii) Rest breaks. After June 30, 2013, driving is not permitted if more than 8 hours have passed since the end of the driver’s last off-duty or sleeper-berth period of at least 30 minutes.
Where is the relieved from all duties coming from that was printed in this article?
I used to get drawn into these sort of discussions but really all the law change is designed to do is find angry old men and ruin them before they can become a threat. Ya missed you bunch of @ssholes. And im still upset. And im about to have an awful lot of “free”time on my hands. Hmm, how not to get caught would seem like a worthwhile study.
As a female, I am hesitant to get out of the truck in certain areas, and in many truck stops, especially at night. I will not risk the chance of my T/T being stolen, hi-jacked, or broken into. I will also not compromise my own safety. Even though I already take 1/2 hour break or more throughout the day, (Since the FMCSA hasn’t figured out that woman drivers cannot pee in a Snapple bottle whilst driving down the road), I will take my federally mandated 1/2 hour break. But don’t you dare tell me how to spend my time doing it! I shall do as I please with that 1/2, which will entail me remaining in my truck, eating a little lunch and picking up all the items that have fallen thanks to the roadways that are long overdue for repaving.
You go Christy! maybe we should all get together and have starbucks for our 1/2. i’ll get Jenn! we can watch each others trucks while one of us makes the coffee run! lol
Some hazmat or government loads cannot be left unattended. That’s their rule. How is that they can have conflicting rules ??
Exactly Ron! So I take the powers that be are telling solo drivers in some instances, to ignore hazmat rules?
The rule implies that solo drivers must either have a co-driver, or have someone watch the vehicle while they take a break.
You have to laugh at these guys showing up for work ( term used loosely) after they have been off for 14 to 16 hours in the comfort of these houses we afford them that they can really think they know what kind of rest I need that 30 minutes is a joke,and who sleeps for 10 hours after 6 hours I’m recharged and ready…….we need real truck drivers in these meetings to slap these idiots when they suggest these stupid rules…..
I’m done..turning in the truck monday…fmcsa can kma!! Im not a criminal…..fmcsa has no idea (besides the increase of accidents) of how dangerous theyre making the highways….the stress alone is causing health problems!!!
I am with you Cheyenne yesterday my schedule was so tight my 30 break was done in the dock because i ran out of time. QC kept telling me as i was backing the truck into the dock, if you continue to drive you will be in violation.
I wonder what would happen if a driver was under a HAZ-Mat load and take the required 30 minute break as required by Feds, did so and something happen to load? I know already what the answer would be, but if Feds require than they should bare the weight if anything happens to load, especially explosive load!!!! Wanna bet the driver wouldn’t be able to stake the claim being relieved of duty??? I bet the Feds didn’t think much on that one…No matter what type load, I have never seen a driver that, even on a break, didn’t sorta keep eyes on load/vehicle…so many out to nail a driver, one can’t afford to forget..I am just saying and wondering!!!
Sweet… now I can leave my trailer full of explosives unattended while I grab a BigMac and take a short nap.
Ditto that for me!
Most will not agree with this statement, but here goes…
You want to put the DOT and FMCSA twiddling there thumbs and see how ignorant most truly are… Every driver out there find a friend that drives that you can work with well, and …..TEAM DRIVE…Truck will continue around the clock, and plus you will make more money as well…
The FMCSA will scramble trying to figure out new laws…like…Wait don’t want to give them any ideas…
To all truck drivers…We are family together…
Team driving is NOT for everyone! As a matter of fact it’s not for ALOT of people. And as for the “make more money” part i don’t know where you work but that blanket statement is a joke. The truck may always be able to run but that does not mean the drivers individually will make more money. And when I talk to other drivers who are thinking of teaming with their friends, I always ask “do you want to remain friends?” This industry draws a specific kind of person to it….a true driver is a free spirit. This idea is as ridiculous as the FMSCA/DOT rulings on when we should/should not sleep/break/get out the unit/etc etc etc. I feel like I am watching the ultimate demise of an industry that is slowly being destroyed. Frankly I am saddened that so little seems to be able to be done to prevent this.
I failed to realize that so many drivers drove straight 8 hours without stopping every day for lunch or pee breaks. How do you all ever find time to take a ten hour break if taking a 30 minute break is causing you this much trouble? Is this why we have so many drivers today that look and smell like hell because they are unable to take 30 minutes for a shower every day because someone will break into their truck or steal the whole rig? How can so many drivers be so obese when they are unable to stop and eat? So many questions!
I try to shower during my 10 hour break, and try to run as hard as possible to get to my destination sooner so I can go to sleep. I run a little bit old school though. I have come to see that the break is hardest on those of us with really tight schedules. I am making it work though, and still keeping my 12,500 miles an month average and 2 days a week home time.
I drove under the old rules of service then a bit under them when they changed in 04. Keeping tabs now. I quit in 05 driving so from 1995 to 05 I had a good run, never got a citation or a warning in a cmv. Of course the laws were more manageable then. If I needed to drive less in one time frame and more in another so be it. I avoided rush hour traffic. At the time a 50.00 fine and 8 hours down was worth the risk if caught. But I never had a accident avoided dot and fought with them when they dot me. Usually once was enough for them. the new regulations are quite irresponsible. I am happy that I quit driving now,but feel for the rest of you.
It’s going to get a lot worst when they try to make us go to onboard logs.
Then your not a O/O anymore.
Thats when I go on welfare
Now for a HUGE deficit in their new rules that I haven’t seen anyone else bring up… What about Haz-Mat Loads??? Rules state on a Haz-Mat load that the driver must be in attention to their rig at ALL TIMES… This little clarification is in DIRECT denial of previous rules and regulations…
I haul Crude oil in the Bakken. We all log out in line but there is nowhere to get out and walk away from our trucks. Nor are we allowed to. Trucking has many aspects. Different rules for different fields. Some idiot sitting in an office thinking of ways to basically make trucking companies hire more people. They never stop to consider of what it actually may do to some companies. Missed deadlines, missed loads, ect. Not to mention that it isn’t just a 1/2 hour of cost. By the time you pull off get parked log off it costs more than a 1/2 hour.
That’s because the people making these laws know nothing about trucking. They want to sit in judgement but haven’t earned the right to do so in the eyes of those they judge. They need to get a job and leave trucking to the trucking industry.
Ok if off duty means that i can pursue any activity that i want. Then why can’t i fuel my truck if i want to, why can’t i take a nap in my driver’s seat if i ant, why cant i have a beer?
On long runs it shouldn’t really be a problem, or if there is time built in. My problem with it is that I run JIT loads half of my time on the road, with the new rules and E-logs without the 30 minute break I am showing up about 30-45 minutes early. With the break, right at my appointment time. I don’t have time to stop now for 5-10 minutes 3-4 times a day because of the break. And the part that gets my goat is that the 14 hour clock doesn’t stop for a MANDATED break. I would rather have a handful of small breaks rather than 1 longer break.
Me too. I always did. The 14 hour rule took my nap away and now i am being forced to take a break. Lets see before 14 hour rule i took regular breaks, after 14 hour rule i could take breaks but no nap, guess i just was not smart enough to get rest when i needed it.
here is something I talk to my son about who is a state trooper in Connecticut.why is it okay for him to work back to back shifts.16 hrs with nothing but a couple lunch breaks and be required to be able to make split second decisions but we have government telling us what we have to do.
I think that the FMCSA should impose these rules on the drivers that have bad driving history
. Not the men and women that are out here and that have been out here doing it the rite way day in and day out ..I’m having this crap shoved down my throat because of the few that have no busines to even push a wheelbarrow .
How dose this work for my truck load of gas?
I leave I get a ticket I stay I get a ticket.
No breaks,No OT,and free time on post/pre trip,
refueling and paperwork. You have to love it.
As a local hazmat driver, the 30 minute break is a complete pain. My 12 to 13 hour days just got increased. Any delays and it’s hotel time. No family time that night. Just can’t see how keeping me on the road for a extra 2.5 hours a week is good for me. Over 120 hours a year to spend sitting around doing nothing, instead of home with the family.
Question 2: What conditions must be met for a commercial motor vehicle (CMV) driver to record meal and other routine stops made during a work shift as off-duty time?
Guidance: Drivers may record meal and other routine stops, including a rest break of at least 30 minutes intended to satisfy 49 CFR 395.3(a)(3)(ii), as off-duty time provided:
1. The driver is relieved of all duty and responsibility for the care and custody of the vehicle, its accessories, and any cargo or passengers it may be carrying.
2. During the stop, and for the duration of the stop, the driver must be at liberty to pursue activities of his/her own choosing.
Question 4: A driver has been given written permission by his/her employer to record meal and other routine stops made during a tour of duty as off-duty time. Is the driver allowed to record his stops during a tour of duty as off-duty time when the Commercial Motor Vehicle (CMV) is laden with HM and the CMV is parked in a truck stop parking lot?
Guidance: Drivers may record meal and other routine stops made during a tour of duty as off-duty time, except when a Commercial Motor Vehicle (CMV) is laden with explosive HM classified as hazard divisions 1.1, 1.2, or 1.3 (formerly Class A or B explosives). In addition, when HM classified under hazard divisions 1.1, 1.2, or 1.3 are on a Commercial Motor Vehicle (CMV), the employer and the driver must comply with §397.5 of the FMCSRs.
Question 5: Do telephone calls to or from the motor carrier that momentarily interrupt a driver’s rest period constitute a change of the driver’s duty status?
Guidance: Telephone calls of this type do not prevent the driver from obtaining adequate rest. Therefore, the FHWA does not consider these brief telephone calls to be a break in the driver’s off duty status.
Question 6: If a driver is required by a motor carrier to carry a pager/beeper to receive notification to contact the motor carrier for a duty assignment, how should this time be recorded?
Guidance: The time is to be recorded as off-duty.
http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/rules-regulations/administration/fmcsr/fmcsrruletext.aspx?reg=395.2&guidence=y&keyword=meal
What about tour buses??? if they have people that are tourist and do not speak English than what?
driver stop on side of road and walk away for 30 minutes leaving it’s cargo unattended they the tourists will all panic and it will be a mess. What a joke.
I have read all these post plus made some comments. You got to love it the way the trucking industry has become a joke by government. I say lets just wait and see what new idea from Washington comes up with. Maybe home every day and hourly wages.
1) “The driver is relieved of all duty and responsibility for the care and custody of the vehicle, its accessories, and any cargo or passengers it may be carrying.”
2) “During the stop, and for the duration of the stop, the driver must be at liberty to pursue activities of his/her own choosing.
#1. Not going to happen. We haul our own product outbound and we’re never relieved of the duty or responsibility for the load. Then, we pick up a brokered back haul for the return trip home and the same applies to it.
#2. Hardly. Unless you consider stopping in truck stop or a rest area to take a dump “pursuing an activity of our choosing”. Where does the FMCSA think we’re going to pull over for this? Disneyland? We’re lucky to get into a truck stop, mostly it’s a rest area. Gee, I wonder what I’ll be doing there!
It’s a stupid, badly implemented rule that has already created for my employer a number of headaches and our customers even more.
Hey, yea…its a pain
And very sad that we as grown men/women have to be told to pull out our Nap Mats and take a quiet time like kindergardners.
But make something positive out of it. I use mine to walk or I pull out my dumbells.
It is what it is…lets move on.
Can anyone tell me if I m doing an illegal act?
I have been taking this new break by fueling.
I know you’re not supposed to be in the sleeper while fueling, but my company hasn’t said anything to me about it.
all you guys do is complain about everything, go find another career, i love trucking and will take the 30 minute break, for all who carrying hazmat have a legitimate complaint for the rest deal with it
Well we are getting closer but we aren’t there yet. What I mean by that statement is lets all pull over and park for 24 hrs O/O’s and Company Drivers. Trouble is its hard to find drivers that will take the leap and show America and the people who are running it we are feed up with the B/S. I you even begin to believe that they could find 1/2 a million drivers in less than 4 weeks your dumber than a box off rocks and should not have a CDL . Even if they crash coursed that many people there would so many problems that it would turn the industry up side down. The first thing we should demand is to be paid for the real miles we all drive as company drivers, and if you are leasing and you think you aren’t a company driver,(box of rocks comes to mind). Just remember we could change some of the problems we have, if we truck folks stopped for 3 days this wonder full place we leave in would be in sorry shape. Somebody needs to get a real drivers union started then there will be change. But until then I’ll keep getting ready for my retirement and hoping that someday before I die I get to see we the people say enough is enough. P.S If you vote for any one in the next election who has been in the senate or house,( well again box of rocks comes to mind).
Good luck to all of you cause you most definitely will need it if you continue to vote for the folks we have right. And if you say to the rest of use that why you don’t vote then you are getting exactly what you deserve
Wow… this why trucking has a bad name. The rule is too ensure we get a lunch period folks just like any other job you might work at. As far as hazmat you still walk away from your trucks act like you dont. So just take your break and roll-on.
Perfect example. Hauling hazmat you are NEVER “off duty!”
Rules like this is exactly what happens when a bunch of people that have never operated a truck for any amount of time at all try to make rules on how to operate one.
Sooo, I’m at liberty to pursue activities of my own choosing…. I choose DRIVING you flippin’ morons !
You know I sit hear and read all these post complaining about the mandatory 30 min. break. And how hard and confusing it is, “really”. The 34 hour re-start is more confusing than that and who wants to stop at 3 o’clock in the afternoon and sit and wait till 1 am in the morning to start there 34 hour clock. Give me a break, why don’t you quit complaining and start doing something about. The truck drivers in this country can do more for this country than most people think. Talk to Warner-Robbins, GA. about that, the trucks driver shut that town down in less than a week. All because the local government thought that the drivers were a nuisance and eye sore. They wouldn’t let them park in the town for there breaks while delivering or picking up products, so they stop going into that town. This is the kind of action that needs to be done if you want something to get through. To me this nation not united it is divided, because no one want to use common sense and come to a reasonable solution. It’s all about my ideal is better and that’s the way it is. If we want real change in the system then we need to stick together and make it happen.
My thoughts EXACTLY Dan!
Yes, Everyone makes a good point here! No, They have no idea what they are doing. There are other ways of making the Roads safer besides making new laws every year. In ten years you’ll need to be a lawyer to drive a truck. Also, If I’m “On duty” when I’m not actually doing anything or being compensated in any way, but the rules state that I have to show “ON-Duty” when I’m not in the sleeper or Off-Duty, Doesn’t that contradict federal labor laws staying that I should be paid for any duties or time spent on the clock/job? Because If so we could really have a good case on our hands!!! I know its been this way for years but I believe if I’m not being compensated and in just sitting in my truck waiting 20 minutes for a load, I shouldn’t have to show that as On-Duty…
You can never, technically, or legally leave the rig and load , while at work. Doesn’t matter if you log off or not, on duty/on break/not driving. Government regulators love to make exceptions, but look, did they think it through for Hazmat. NO! Had to ADD it?! As long as you are out on the road, YOU
ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE LOAD! In the sleeper or out. In the outhouse or whorehouse or out.
The juries WILL find you, as the driver….liable. The jackboots make these frivolous regulations because the play of the day is to lay the blame on someone else.
Ever note that mass murderers get sympathy and not the death sentence… . O, I was abused as a child, la la la. And on and on. Yet , let a truck driver come back to work(he works nights) from vacation, and when he runs into an already ongoing multi-car accident, caused by two drivers at the head of the scene,(they weren’t cited), is blamed by the jury and the company he drives for is also, and you have a 63,000,000 dollar award, half paid by the insurance company and half by the driver (oh, he’s in his sixties…) because the jury says he was not allowed to acclimate back to his work routine. GET IT!? The deck is loaded against professional drivers, of any kind.
There was a day and time when it was understood that when you signed on as a driver, you hauled the load, took care of the customer, made your own decision as to when to take a break,
a shower, knew how to use a phone to communicate (it wasn’t an entertainment device) , read a map and know how to load legal, or go around.
I have had more than enough newbies ask me how to slide an axle to get legal, and always willing to help a new guy or old…..You can learn something from anyone (it’s about attitude).
But this attitude of DOT/BRIG BROTHER is do what I say, not what I do…..the above example of hazmat…..did not consider safe haven???
We were treated as ADULTS, not two year olds. We knew and know the risks still. Low or no pay,bad food, bad equipment, bad roads, poor drivers (CDL or not), fractured families, wrecked health, yet we took on the job, had some loyalty to the thought that we, third class tin dogs in tin dog houses, were doing and still do,ascribe to a higher purpose, of serving our fellow man. Like it or not , tough, dirty job, with long hours and low pay, 7/24/168 hours a week (actually more… call broker/dispatch while you’re sleeping to let ’em know where you are and are gettin’ it done!).
Yet we try to wave the Constitution to save us from ourselves….anybody know what the Supreme Court ruled about log books… that it is okay to require the company(which by the way,is a virtual entity)to require you to use and provide a log book to police officers, thereby incriminating yourself, when one of your rights as an American, says you don’t have to incriminate your self.
Have you ever had an officer/DOT man read you your rights first?
Can you say “invasion of privacy”?
The point others and I try to put forth, is that if we allow the Constitution and the Bill of Rights to be used as rolls of toilet paper by the fat bureaucrats and jackboots, and REFUSE to stand up for our rights and against this take over of our privacy, our right to self determination…. then we get what we’ve got coming. Level the playing field, against PATT/MADD/PUBLIC CITIZEN,DOT.
Or quietly go as sheep to slaughter, which is what we have now!
Well said Wing!!!! Divided we stand, United we fall..Like it or not its the truth!!
Just to add my two cents, my co-driver and I haul liquid hydrogen and we both have to take these half hour breaks. There is absolutely NO time at all during our trips that we are at liberty to pursue other activists, a mandatory break or not, one of us has to stay with our unit, I doubt Homeland Security would want us to willy nilly walking around leaving the tanker unattended for anytime, never mind these mandated breaks. Question is, if I can’t really be relieved of duty I should be paid for those breaks, am I wrong?