Another chapter of folks in the office not knowing the trucking industry...

Discussion in 'LTL and Local Delivery Trucking Forum' started by McUzi, Apr 6, 2020.

  1. McUzi

    McUzi Road Train Member

    1,464
    3,801
    Jan 14, 2018
    0
    Well, I had my first pissing match with safety today...

    My company knows that I have a second job running fuel. If they paid more and weren't 30 miles from my house, I'd probably be there full time. I disclosed this (at the time I was hired, I wasn't running fuel part time, but a second job that ran dry van freight, which I left when I got hired on at the fuel company) during the hiring process and in the new hire paperwork packet which specifically asked if I had secondary employment.

    This has not been an issue, until now, and it really isn't much of an issue but irritates the hell out of me.

    Last week, my 4th child was born on Tuesday, wife was admitted to the hospital on Monday so I took the week off for the baby and to give her a hand. My work e-mail is also on my personal phone, but I don't respond or anything during my off time.

    On Wednesday, my boss forwarded me an e-mail from a safety manager asking if I had another job, to which he said that he thinks I do. The safety manager told him that they want me to enter my time and what not into the ELD system to reflect that. No problem.

    The kicker in the email was when he further elaborated that I MUST have a 34 hour reset as well as 10 hours off before starting my next shift after working the second job. The 10 hours is obviously not an issue.

    But, I take issue with him telling me that I MUST have a 34 hour reset between both jobs.

    I responded today to let him know that he was in fact, wrong. There is no federal requirement that I know of to use a 34 hour reset, unless I want to reset my duty cycle and 7/60 clock to zero. Under my company's use of the 7/60 clock, I could work 8.5 hours every single day and through recapping hours, never violate HOS.

    His response was to tell me that I had no idea what I was talking about and attached a nice PowerPoint slide, which included a bullet point elaborating that you must have a 34 hour reset which included two consecutive off duty periods within 0100 and 0500, and only 1 reset per 7 days was allowed. I became enraged, because a safety "manager" of a global gas company was issuing HOS edicts based on PP slides that had information that was invalid as of 2015 (the 0100 and 0500 consecutive off duty reset and 1 max 34 was suspended during the Obama administration).

    Now, this is of no real consequence to me, because with my shifts starting at 0500, and I never work past 1700 on Saturdays at my second job, I get my 34 hour reset well before my shift on Monday, and I still have plenty of time on my 60 at the end of the second job. My biggest issue in this, is the company telling me that they require a 34 hour reset, even though there is no federal requirement to do so. With everything that is going on, I think it is ridiculous that a company would attempt to restrict someone from making additional income with plenty of hours in their duty cycle available using recapped hours.

    Think I'm going to pick up some Sunday work and push the envelope with this one. My boss doesn't care either way, but I have a real problem with safety departments not knowing what they are talking about.

    I get it, they are a gas manufacturer and distributor that uses trucks to get customers their products, and are not primarily a trucking company, but come on.
     
  2. Truckers Report Jobs

    Trucking Jobs in 30 seconds

    Every month 400 people find a job with the help of TruckersReport.

  3. Oakland Raiders Forever

    Oakland Raiders Forever Medium Load Member

    387
    442
    Feb 24, 2020
    0
    Stories like yours just remind me of how lucky I am to be were I’m at and why I don’t leave. I never hear a thing from my safety department never a thing. Well just once they did a sit down safety chat with me. Everything looks good keep doing what your doing said Mr. Safety man.

    I have found it’s best that companies know as little about you as possible.

    I worked at 2 companies with driver facing cameras. 1 was Roehl they weren’t just bad they were comically bad. Constantly filming you doing everything !!!!!! Actually there were 3 companies that had drive cams , the other 2 were no trouble at all.
     
  4. McUzi

    McUzi Road Train Member

    1,464
    3,801
    Jan 14, 2018
    0
    This is true, but as both of my jobs are 100% placarded loads, should something bad happen, I don't need DOT coming down on me for any perceived discrepancy in my HOS.
     
    x1Heavy and G13Tomcat Thank this.
  5. Banker

    Banker Road Train Member

    3,687
    9,835
    Aug 19, 2012
    0
    I feel your pain as I have not really liked being told much for the last 53 years especially when I “felt” I knew better. This could be the reason I love being an owner op. But as a realist I understand that when you wish to keep a job, sometimes you have to put up with a certain level of BS that doesn’t always make sense. We really are in a terrible job market currently, so be prepared for the worst if you decide to draw a line in the sand. Good luck with your situation and try to look at the big picture rather than little things that really don’t matter. I should have taken this advice myself a couple times in my life, but it still worked out OK.
     
  6. Western flyer

    Western flyer Road Train Member

    2,807
    6,784
    Mar 13, 2014
    0
    In the real world, working 2 different jobs is easy.
    In our world it's almost impossible.
    I'm surprised you got 2 different companies
    To agree to it.
    They usually want no parts of it just for the reasons
    Your talking about.
    It's easier just to find another driver.

    You got 70 hours either way.
    If I have to work 2 jobs driving trucks, then it's
    Time for a new line of work, or some serious downsizing.
     
  7. McUzi

    McUzi Road Train Member

    1,464
    3,801
    Jan 14, 2018
    0
    In the big picture, both of my jobs are great, none of my trucks have cameras, lane departure, radar etc. And the second job uses no ELD under shorthaul. Both jobs are easily, low stress and pay well.

    The main reason I work a second job is mainly because I enjoy working and putting away as much money as possible for retirement/for my wife should I pass before her. Running the second job I'm able to add an additional $1200-1300 a month into retirement savings, on top of living comfortably and having discretionary income with my home and vehicles being my only debt. Main company runs 7/60, other company runs 8/70. I tend to just look at adhering to 7/60, because anything regulatory wise with the government seems to yield to the more restrictive policy that would be available.
     
  8. Western flyer

    Western flyer Road Train Member

    2,807
    6,784
    Mar 13, 2014
    0
    I'm not ragging on you for working 2 jobs.
    Usually the one trucking job uses up so
    Many of your hours, there's no time left for
    A 2nd job.
     
    road_runner and McUzi Thank this.
  9. Banker

    Banker Road Train Member

    3,687
    9,835
    Aug 19, 2012
    0
    Everything is relative depending on one’s point of view. I don’t expect others to see value in certain things that I do. I choose to have cameras rolling 24/7 on all four sides of my rig to protect my assets and safe driving record. I really like having an ELD in my truck so I don’t have to deal with a log book. I also worked a second job in trucking for the better part of 20 years while I was a professional firefighter to make my and my family’s life better. Fortunately I didn’t have to explain to some bean counter at the various trucking companies that the two jobs worked ok together with out their input. We are in a very litigious society now and companies often do things because of it. It may still suck, but that is the world we live in.
     
  10. Kyle G.

    Kyle G. Road Train Member

    3,296
    16,740
    Jan 23, 2016
    Eastern Iowa
    0
    It could be that it is just company policy that you "must" have a reset between shifts at the two jobs. That doesn't make it right, but I could see a safety dept making a stupid rule like that just so they don't have to worry about it.
     
    BigDog Trucker, jmz and McUzi Thank this.
  11. Russian Rabbit

    Russian Rabbit Road Train Member

    1,701
    1,633
    Jan 3, 2016
    0
    Until recently, apparently not too many people, and people in positions who should have known, didn't know about the 16 hour extension rule:

    1) i got suspended/almost got suspended at another company before arriving at UPSF for "driving over hours." At the meeting they(safety department) realized they were wrong.

    2) Believe it or not, while at UPSF orientation one of the driver trainers---he is a good trainer and driver, don't get me wrong, but was not aware of the 16-hour extension. We actually got into it, one of the other new hires in the class actually previously worked as a journalist at a newspaper and had experience with proofreading, so he actively scanned all the HOS documentation and rules. We all spent about 1/2hr to 45 mins on this going back and forth. i even brought up the situation above where i got suspended for that very reason and that the outcome was in my favor. It was hilarious.

    Now everyone at UPSF knows about the 16 hours extension because it's built into our E-logs and will actually pop up automatically as an option when you get low on hours and you're eligible to use it.

    So, don't be too critical of manAjerks and stupervisors, but on the other hand i see what you're saying-----they should know better BECAUSE IT'S THEIR JOB.
     
    alds, McUzi and x1Heavy Thank this.
  • Truckers Report Jobs

    Trucking Jobs in 30 seconds

    Every month 400 people find a job with the help of TruckersReport.