Not OK to take a passenger with a year of experience?

As a CMV driver you are the FINAL authority on the operation of that vehicle. It should NOT move until YOU the driver are 100% sure all is right and legal. However a truck movement begins well before a driver sits in that seat. I have always counseled young drivers to pick their battles. I would never operate a CMV with a defect or a missing legal. I have actually told an operations supervisor once I refuse to drive a truck, until a problem was fixed. EVEN to get to a place to get it fixed. However with my advice to pick your battles was advice to not let a situation get to that point. YOU the driver are a part of a team that has many people in it. YOU can not just get in a CMV with a defect and then turn around and blame your company for the illegal operation. This passenger topic is a case in point. It is much ado about nothing as far as I am concerned. If your company don't want passengers you should respect this. If you don't like it go find a job with a carrier that will let you do it. This thread is now at around 70 replies. Crazy!

 

very well said. He has 1 year driving, that's NO EXPERIENCE, and now want s a distraction on board, not a good idea.

 

The point is not whether you agree or disagree with anyone's opinion on passengers and their effect on the driver, the point is whose opinion matters regarding decisions made once the truck is on road.

I have no problem with a guy who thinks he will be distracted with a passenger in the cab and I have no problem with a guy who thinks that is a ridiculous concern.

The point is that the driver who fears the distraction should never take a passenger because his company told him to and the guy who thinks passengers are in no way distracting to a professional driver should not obey any such rule prohibiting it.

Surrendering your authority over the cab does not surrender your responsibility.

 

The ONLY time you as a driver have ultimate authority of your CAB is when you are an OO running your own numbers. If you are not running your own numbers YOU HAVE NO final authority on this passenger issue. PERIOD. This is NOT an opinion is IS established FMCSA rules. You don't like that take it up with the FMCSA!

 

§392.60 Unauthorized persons not to be transported.
(a) Unless specifically authorized in writing to do so by the motor carrier under whose authority the commercial motor vehicle is being operated, no driver shall transport any person or permit any person to be transported on any commercial motor vehicle other than a bus. When such authorization is issued, it shall state the name of the person to be transported, the points where the transportation is to begin and end, and the date upon which such authority expires. No written authorization, however, shall be necessary for the transportation of:

(1) Employees or other persons assigned to a commercial motor vehicle by a motor carrier;

(2) Any person transported when aid is being rendered in case of an accident or other emergency;

(3) An attendant delegated to care for livestock.

(b) This section shall not apply to the operation of commercial motor vehicles controlled and operated by any farmer and used in the transportation of agricultural commodities or products thereof from his/her farm or in the transportation of supplies to his/her farm.

[60 FR 38747, July 28, 1995]


Edited to add:

I saw this enforced once in Mississippi because an OO developed diarrhea of the mouth and pissed off an enforcement officer at the eastbound Vicksburg Coop. His girlfriend left that scale house in a Taxi headed to god only knows where and the driver had both a ticket as well as a violation noted on an inspection form when he finally left. I saw driver sign both of them!

 

Nothing you posted is news to me. Not after 16 years.

No passengers means no passengers, period. And that's the topic of this thread.

If something is wrong with the truck, that is another matter. The company has ways that it wants you to handle breakdowns, their rules. They pay the bill, how hard is it to say ok, unless what you want me to do is unsafe. I'll play your game.

If something is wrong with the company, move along. Find another employer. No big mystery, or hardship.
Also no reason to get up in arms about it either.

 

Absolute and unequivocally false, there is only one person who can make decisions once that truck leaves the yard and that is the driver; whether he makes excuses for his decisions or not they are still his decisions and they happen under his authority alone.

You may get a court of law to say "not your fault, the big bad company made you do it" but that will never be true in reality.

 

Nope!! You are 100% wrong in regard to passengers. Safety, yes, passengers, NO! AND I have linked to the ACTUAL rule. You are not calling me wrong here. YOU are saying a clearly worded rule is wrong. That is between YOU and the FMCSA!! Enough said, Peace!

 

That is not the topic of this thread, the OP said he refused a job because the company refused to accept his autonomy as the driver; the quote was "my life, my rules".

That inspired many people to say that he has no right to think that way, that he should surrender his autonomy to the company, I agreed with the OP because he is absolutely correct.

I am not "up in arms" over this and I never have been, I simply make it clear to every employer that I have ever had that I make all the decisions based on my judgment because I have all of the responsibility and accountability.

The only ones who get "up in arms" over this are those who like the false security of living in CYA mode, I have no illusions regarding who is to blame or credit for the decisions I make.

 

Take that garbage somewhere else!