PC and paid parking

Absolutely in compliance. Even if you took a laden trailer to your house, still in compliance.

 

Why is this a concern? Does your company not reimburse you for the paid parking. Companies I went to always reimbursed that.

 

Mine doesn't unless you text the owner and whine enough where he gets tired of hearing you.

 

I could understand if you’re abusing it by always using it. But if it’s a hey I’m stuck in the city there’s no freaking free parking it’s just $15 man reimburse me lol.

 

I think the returning to terminal exception is if you still had hours but used pc to go there. Otherwise its contradictory. A terminal would be a safe legal place to park.

 

You have good and logical questions.

From what I understand, PC is completely independent of all of your clocks. So after your 11 or 14 is up you can use it to find a safe place to park, NOT ADVANCING THE LOAD.

Your next question is about "why didn't you stop earlier?" That would bring up the question "Could you have?" If you were just driving on the interstate passing up truck stop after truck stop, then yes that's on you. But if you were sitting at a shipper/receiver waiting to get loaded/unloaded and they kick you off the property with 8 minutes of drive time left, then yes you can use PC to find a place to park. The question in THIS instance becomes "What if I know there is a "safe haven" a mile up the road, closer to my destination, but the closest OTHER one is 50 miles away in the wrong direction? Do I have to drive backwards for 50 miles in order to "not advance the load under PC" or does driving to the closest safe haven include safe havens that are on your normal travel route? Basically, what if "finding the closest safe haven involves advancing the load a short distance under PC?

 

I think if you read "between" the lines you can see what the FMCSA is attempting to do with PC in regard to being "trapped" and out of hours. There are two different ways to PC. The first one and the most common is to move about while on a 10 or 34-hour break. That one is totally independent of a driver's "hours". The next one is this "trapped" situation I spoke of. This means you can't legally drive but are "trapped", the FMCSA changed their guidance so drivers have an option. So yes, I do think in the situation of a simple return to a terminal you should use your "hours" if you have them, if not PC, but don't go from LA to Phoenix in doing so. Again, basic common sense should drive these decisions.