Off duty Driving on paper logs

I disagree . This is a guidance not a regulation . They are just giving a couple examples out of many possibilities . For example , if a driver was on his way home and went off the direct route to stop at a store would he be on duty going to the store ?
There are duties that are defined as " On Duty " . If activities are not defined as on duty they are off duty .
A company I worked for opened a new branch in Orlando and sent a couple of drivers from MA there for a month to train new drivers . They flew these drivers to FL and rather than rent cars for them allowed them to use the day cabs they drove for personal use . Was this off duty use in violation ?

 

First of all, 395.2 definition: Driving time means all time spent at the driving controls of a commercial motor vehicle in operation. If you are driving a CMV down the road, that by definition is line 3 driving time.

Second, "Personal conveyance" or off-duty driving is not found in the regulations. It is only found in the interpretations for 395.8 question 26. Question 26 does not include the words "for example" but lists two specific situations where driving an unladen CMV may be called off-duty.

So the ONLY way driving a CMV can be called off-duty is to comply with the conditions of question 26. That is the only place in the regs that allows off-duty driving and is very specific. ALL other time driving a CMV is line 3 - driving.

 

Not going to debate on and of duty with you . It's known some LEO's are free to interpret FMCSR as they choose and drivers are free to have attorneys have unjustified charges dismissed .
However , here is the definition of driving time from another guidance . Using your strict logic driving time is at the direction of a motor carrier . That is not an example . Therefore , personal driving not at the direction of a carrier is not driving time .

http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/rules-regu...fmcsr/fmcsrruletext.aspx?reg=395.2&guidence=Y

 

Clearly states in this that they are only interested in time spent operating a cmv at the direction of the motor carrier.

This would mean that when we deliver and return, we are not under the fmcsa rules.

 

If your carrier tells you to deadhead back, or to another pick-up, then it's on-duty. Even if it's a bobtail.

 

First, RickG, your second and third sentences were stated IN my post. So, if you want to dispute that, please learn to read and comprehend first. If you take an empty with you, and are dispatched from home, then you are under dispatch, and must log it as on-duty.

I'm no expert, but 'in the vicinity' doesn't mean Iowa to Indiana just because you're unladen. And the 'terminal to home' is from your usual terminal. If you run out of a Chicago terminal, but unload in Kansas City and relieve yourself of duty at your Kansas City terminal, you're not allowed to off-duty drive home to Chicago just because you're not being directed by your carrier. It's only your 'regular terminal'.

 

Doesn't have to be a driver's " regular terminal . QC has 2 terminals 120 miles apart in western KY . Drivers from each terminal often pull loads from the other . When they drop a trailer at either terminal they bobtail home .
QC has been nailed on several issues in audits but the auditor accepted the bobtail PC .

 

My carrier does not tell me anything. If I deliver in Houston and want to go to my sisters in San Antonio, it is my choice. If I decide to just head home, same thing. I may take 4 days off before I decide to head north to the terminal area on a Sunday. They are not open till Monday at 8. So, technically, I am not being told what to do by the motor carrier.

 

So do I believe you or the DOT officer that allowed me to continue on my way home without a care from Etown, Ky? I unloaded outside of Etown a little late with nothing to reload to the house. I went off duty and turned and burned to the house. Got stopped outside of Seymour, Indiana and officer allowed me to keep on truckin home. I loaded today and will leave out Tuesday morning. Think I will stick with the way I do it since I haven't got a ticket yet.

 

As has been proven many times, just because you can do something doesn't mean it's legal. There's another thread discussing 220lb over on an axle. Not legal, but you won't get in trouble for it.

Most DOT honestly don't know whether it's legal or not. As long as they know you're empty, they really don't care. That doesn't mean you won't find the twerp who wants to ream you for it because you didn't do it to the letter.

As for Roadmedic, that's your decision. Just as I did when I was leased to a carrier. Doesn't mean if they send you out a load, that you can deadhead there for free, or even in the direction of the pick-up. And if you just decided to 'deadhead because I wanted to', and you knew freight was good in one city, why not just log Line 3 one way, and Line 1 the other and when you get there and finish your 'time off' just ask for another load. Would be a pretty convenient way around the HOS. But, then that's not what Off-Duty Driving is for. You've stated clearly it's personal use. Going to "San Antonio to visit my sister" is what you'd tell a cop if you got pulled over. There's nothing wrong there.

At the end of the day, Off-Duty Driving is all up to how well you can explain it on the side of the road to the guy who pulled you over. And really nothing more. But, for what little faith most have in the DOT, you're putting a lot of faith in them that they'll get this one in your favor when it counts.