Officer knock on door while in sleeper berth. My rights?

Had my door knocked 4 times in the past 3 years.

1 was a cop and informed my my parking job was crap, I agreed because I just started driving. He was cool and left. I was being nice and he didn’t give me a ticket.

2 where owners because they thought I damaged their property, I asked them to review the video tapes, that confirmed it.

3. was a lot lizard

4. was a lot lizards bf who wanted to polish my rims.

Just be nice and move on. Best you can do.

 

My instructions to my drivers, someone knocking, address it.

I had one driver ignore the cops, he kept his curtains closed and just ignored the pounding on the door for three minutes, the pounding stopped and the driver heard the cop pounding on another truck near by.

the problem is when the driver stared out the window, it was wet and a lot of emergency lights on. The idiot hotshot driver had a car on his deck on fire, and the cops wanted the truck moved to get a fire truck closer.

there was enough damage to my trailer I was pissed off to tell everyone address the person pounding on the door.

 

Be sure to return the favor when you leave...

 

An old hand told me once awhile ago that
"You'll never win a roadside arguement with a guy that has a badge and a gun".

For ####'s sakes, just find out what the cop wants. Fight it it court later if you must, lodge a complaint, whatever.

As others here have implied, you don't want to ignore a knock, then next thing you know, you feel the whole front of your tractor lifting up.

At that point, I hope you have $1500 CASH (maybe more) to get your truck off the hook.

But hey, you do you.

 

"But officer. All the super trucker lawyers on the internet told me to tell you to pound sand." Was never a great defense in court.

 

Speaking of graduates of the Truck Stop School of Law! Gosh, this had to have been at least 20 years ago. I was attending a MANDATORY log class. Attend or clean out the truck. The VP of Safety was leading it. During the inevitable long Q/A afterward, this question was brought up. The safety man went on to tell us of a time when he was awakened about 2 AM by a phone call from the West Memphis Arkansas police dept. One of his drivers had parked out on the street near the entrance to the fuel pumps to one of the Truck Stops, I think it was the Flying J. He would not get out and would not move the rig claiming he was on his "federally" mandated break. Told the cop to go away or he was calling the US Marshals!

At first, I did not believe this because generally, cops don't wait like this. Then the safety guy passed around a redacted copy of the citation and the bill the company had to pay for the tow. This also included $100 a day storage! The driver was arrested and later was fired.

I might also add a lot of people are internet Rambo's on these kinds of subjects. What they say they will do is 180 degrees out of phase with what they would actually do. In short Internet Rambos are almost as funny as Radio Rambo's!

 

CVSA guidance is for coppers to leave truck drivers the alone on their rest breaks.
Second, moving a truck at the behest of authorities, assisting authorities in case of emergency does not interrupt your rest period, per current HOS guidelines.

so just chill out, it’s going to be ok.

 

NEW RULES FOR SLEEPING DRIVERS

Posted on November 13, 2018 by DOT Compliance Services, LLC

CVSA tells inspectors not to disturb drivers during off-duty/sleeper time for inspections


James Jaillet CCJ

| November 13, 2018


Updated policy guidance from the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance issued in late September establishes that inspectors should not disrupt drivers’ off-duty or sleeper berth time, when they’re legally parked, for a random inspection.

Though the policy is not law, CVSA guidelines are intended to create uniform inspection policies.

The text of the updated guidance dictates that “inspectors shall not disturb/interrupt any driver of a commercial motor vehicle in off-duty or sleeper berth status when legally parked for the purpose of conducting a random inspection.”

Collin Mooney, executive director of CVSA, says inspectors can still interrupt drivers when they’re parked illegally and need to move their truck. “But when they’re parked at a safe location, a rest stop, the prohibition is to not wake the driver to complete an inspection,” says Mooney.

The decision was based on anecdotal feedback, said Mooney, though there were no specifics as to any inspectors or departments that had been interrupting drivers during off-duty periods. But “apparently it was an issue somewhere,” he said. “It became apparent that we needed to add a sentence” to its guidelines for random inspections.

This extends to off-duty drivers operating in team operations, says Mooney. “Our policy is to not wake up any drivers. As far as a co-driver needing to be woken up — it’s not something that we encourage, because it defeats the purpose at that point of the driver getting their rest. With ELDs, [inspectors] should have access to that information without having to wake up the driver anyway.”

Posted in DOT Compliance News

 

Well, I've sited no law or regulations. Only stating how I have, and will handle the situation. I'm simply a Independent owner op with 2 lawyers on retainer.

You run your life bending over, I'll stand tall. I think the few guys on here that I have met face to face would not call me a key board tough guy. I think to many people get butt hurt when they find out, not all of us live under the stringent mega fleet policy as gospel.

 

If you don’t answer the officer’s knock, you don’t know why he or she is knocking. What if it’s an emergency situation? Your stubborn insistence on your right to ignore the cop might have serious, even tragic consequences.