Personal Time "Bobtailing" I asked DOT :)

Discussion in 'Trucking Industry Regulations' started by LogsRus, Jul 12, 2007.

  1. Roadmedic

    Roadmedic Road Train Member

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    I owned a 53 van. Wished I had learned to flatbed though. The website had alot more ways of making money with partial loads there. I had discussed doing flatbed with them but never went through with it.

    I felt the money I made having my own trailer on the rates was worth the cost and headaches at the time.

    Landstar was the best company I was leased to. They wanted to see you succeed and worked for that to happen. Unfortunately, I came off the road for a while and when I returned it was another way to truck that I entered into.
     
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  3. BobC

    BobC Medium Load Member

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    Ok, I'm a little confuse here. So let me pose a question specifically on our situation. O/O delivers load 26 miles from home, drives to truck wash in home town, drops trailer for washout, then bobtails home.

    Can he log off duty from the time he drops the load, or the time that he drops the trailer?
    _____________________________________________________

    In this case, from the time the trailer was dropped & he went home.

    Had the driver unloaded & dragged the trailer straight home, he
    could log off-duty from the moment he dropped the load.

    You see, it's more of a question of whether or not you're
    performing any kind of company business.

    I won't waste bandwidth reposting the rules here because
    you each know where to look for them already.

    There's apparently two ways to log off-duty when you
    have a trailer dangling from your backside.

    The first would be: When you're empty(unladen) & the
    company has relieved you from all responsibilty of performing
    comany business. This means you still have the trailer
    but are not driving for the purpose of furthering the company's
    usual business. The caveat is, if you do anything like stop for
    the purpose of buying parts for the truck/trailer, get it washed,
    take it to the garage for repair/MX, stop along the way to drop
    a trip pac etc, you are performing company business & cannot
    log off-duty.

    The second, & it's a "twist" is: The rules say you "CAN" drive
    the LADEN truck..off-duty..to a place of lodging or food while
    enroute to a final destination if it's only a "short distance" off
    your (presumably) main route. These things would not necessarily
    be for the benefit of furthering company business. I see this
    rule's guidance as only an example of places you're allowed
    to go under these circumstances & not necessarily the "only"
    allowable places you can go within that "short distance".

    The caveat in the above is what is a "short distance"?
    You will not find a definitive answer in the rules.
    This aspect of the rule is open to interpretation by everyone.
    The officer will have his definition & so will the court.

    I've been told by a couple DOT/FMCSA inspectors that 20-30mi's
    is NOT outside the realm of "reasonable" to them.

    It depends on what the officers consider "good enough" lodgings
    or quality of food for you. In essence, you are being told that
    you have to "settle" for their tastes when it comes to what they
    consider a "reasonable or short distance" out of route.

    Let me reiterate my findings & conclusions from rules strictly
    interpreted from the FMCSA handbook.

    You may use the truck/trailer as personal conveyance if:
    The company has relieved you of any responsibilty of performing
    company business (off-duty), the trailer is empty (unladen) &
    you have their permission to use it that way in the first place.

    If you fit the legal requirements of using the truck as personal
    conveyance, you also no longer fall under the FMCSA's rules &
    can drive [the tractor & trailer] off-duty.

    I qualify the above by saying the FMCSA's rules apply only
    to vehicles that are actively engaged in the business of
    interstate &/or some intrastate commerce.

    Since you are off-duty (relieved of responsibilty of performing
    company business)...the truck/trailer is unladen (not actively
    engaged in commerce)...& you have owners permission to use
    the vehicle as personal conveyance, you are not subject to
    the FMCSA rules at that point & can drive it wherever the
    owner says you can...OFF-DUTY.

    In my arguments with the couple of FMCSA inspectors,they
    proposed that if you performed fueling of the truck while using
    it for personal conveyance, that would be furthering company
    business. I say no. My stand is that once you're "borrowing"
    that vehicle, you can provide the necessary & ordinary care
    that you would any other borrowed vehicle.

    Once you're off-duty & no longer fall under the auspices of
    the FMCSA rules, that truck is the same as me borrowing
    someone's pickup. If that truck needed fuel to get me to my
    destination, fueling is just an ordinary consequence & not
    performed as a requirement of company business.

    Again, these are just how I read the rules.
     
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  4. L.B.

    L.B. Third Generation Truck Driver

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    Thanks Bob, that's the way I understood it all too, but I haven't driven in a while. Thanks for the clearification.

    LB
     
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  5. Roadmedic

    Roadmedic Road Train Member

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    BobC
    I too agree with you on these issues.

    It appears to me that the scenarios you list have one thing in common. The catch comes from the DOT and their opinion. It may be okay for one officer, but not for another. This seems to be a gray area and if you are reasonable and not abusing it, I would believe the DOT might not be a problem. This is my personal opinion though.
     
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  6. L.B.

    L.B. Third Generation Truck Driver

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    I am interested in going with Landstar after I get back into driving and have the recent experience to cross over. I want to flatbed. I drove reefer before and just don't want to do that again, although I would rather drive reefer than dry box.

    LB
     
  7. bullhaulerswife

    bullhaulerswife Forum Leader/Admin Staff Member Administrator

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    Doh, I guess that I should have been more specific. Hubby is running his own authority.

    I mean its only about a half an hour but sometimes it could make a difference on his logs. For the most part, he has plenty of time, but this is just a "just in case" scenario.
     
  8. L.B.

    L.B. Third Generation Truck Driver

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    If he's on his own authority and owns the trailer I would say if he is short on hours, he could log offduty as soon as he delivers the load. If he is dropping at the truck wash, then he is offduty after he drops the trailer because getting the trailer to the truck wash is company business.

    LB
     
  9. Brickman

    Brickman Trucker Forum STAFF Staff Member

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    Because of the grey area I always log from the time I leave home (with the semi) until the time I park it at home.

    This way there is no tickets,fines and/or jail time in a worst case scenario.
     
  10. bullhaulerswife

    bullhaulerswife Forum Leader/Admin Staff Member Administrator

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    Ahhhhhh, good point! Your right, in that dropping the trailer to be washed is company business. Thanks for helping clear that up. Make sense now.

    Yeah, your right, its not worth a half an hour on the log book, just to find out that it wasn't legal. :biggrin_25514:
     
  11. Brickman

    Brickman Trucker Forum STAFF Staff Member

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    I had a wanna be DOT cop tell me once that if my terminal is in town and I drive a personal vehicle to town and then get in the semi I HAD to log from the time I left home in the pickup until I got back home in the pickup. I told him was full of it, and to show me in the regs where it said that. He couldn't, never tried in fact.

    The reason I say "wanna be DOT" is because all he was just a regular highway patrol trying to play in a bigger fish bowl than what he was qualified for.
     
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