Use of Tractor as Line 1 (flagged)

You should be able to tell if you use the recap for hours available . Only hours on lines 3 and 4 are entered as on duty hours there .

 

I hear ya. Yea, I had asked them about it in oreintation and they flat out said no you can not do that. Once again as memory serves me that's only company policy. I did it with Marten but nothing was ever said about it so. When I started with Prime they said go right ahead. I'm gonna drag out my FMCR book and see what the DOT regulation on it is. I was on 171 south of my house on my way home from South Houston and I ran out of hours. I went over just a little under half an hour and had a state trooper get on the road with me. Had all my red cab lights on but he slowed down to about 50-55 in a 65 so I passed him. Staying behind them not doing the speed limit show's that you are up to something. I passed he kept falling behind until I finally found a place to pull off and he didn't see me pull off. I shut off my light's and here he came rounding a curve and I'm sitting in the dark, I'm .75 over my 11. I'm 20 miles from the house. Go to bed get woke up by the store owner for being parked on his lot. End up having to move before he had me towed because there was place else to go but i finally said hell with it and just drove on home and made it look good in the book. They never said a word about it. Of course I lied about the milage too. Plus have to keep in mind that "once more" the #### electronic log book in my truck magically stopped working.

Another thing that pissed me off at F.F.E was they don't allow a fuel "lee-way" like an hour forward or backward from the minute you fuel and a bunch of us had a conversation about it. Well what if it is (examples 08:15 ok then you log it at the 15 min mark. Well what if it is 08:20? What time do you log then? Hell we don't know so most of us just logged 30 minutes for fuel because they want it logged the second you swip your fuel card. I can't sit there and block up the fuel island for 5-10 mintues just for the clock to roll over so it is logged correctly. I hate the way they run logs. That's why I'm being so #### picky about the next company I go to because I like to run loose leaf and not having someone looking over my #### shoulder every minute (which is what it seemed like with their log's) . It is not possible in anyway to 3500 miles a week running perfectly legal. I tried it. You do good to get around 2800 miles a week in completely legal because of shipper's, recievers, traffic delay's. Can't be done. You have to cheat in order to make it.

I've done the 8-900 mile days and back when I first got into it it was 1k-1300 mile shifts. It was hell trying to drive a full 650 mile day and get a restroom break in once or twice sense I dispise pee bottles in my truck. And I don't know about you but those #### vynal option seat's in the newer trucks suck major ###. They make your back hurt. It takes an act of congress to do 200 miles without starting to hurt so bad that you can't walk when you get out of the truck. I complained to them about the seats and told them they are so #### hard you might as well remove them and put a rock on the floor to sit on that's how bad they are.

Yea, if I were you I would go ahead and start doing my homework on looking for some place else to go. It's taken me this long to make a decision on where I want to go sense I left there.

 

Diesel Bear
I heard that if you are tinkering with your truck ( polishing the chrome) or helping a neighbor work on his outfit that you must list the time as on-duty not driving. That you can only work on your own home items not to be legally logging on-duty time. Is the law that ambiguous. And would this affect your 70? yes i am sure it is most likely not enforced

 

Sorry , incorrect . Especially wrong is the part about driving your car . A car is not a CMV and is not regulated by the FMCSA . If you want to go to extremes and the carrier paid you to drive your car back to the terminal it would have to be logged as on duty . The following rule has been posted several times in this forum .
The JB driver should have gotten an attorney . That officer was wrong .
Question 26: If a driver is permitted to use a CMV for personal reasons, how must the driving time be recorded?

Guidance: When a driver is relieved from work and all responsibility for performing work, time spent traveling from a driver's home to his/her terminal (normal work reporting location), or from a driver's terminal to his/her home, may be considered off-duty time. Similarly, time spent traveling short distances from a driver's en route lodgings (such as en route terminals or motels) to restaurants in the vicinity of such lodgings may be considered off-duty time. The type of conveyance used from the terminal to the driver's home, from the driver's home to the terminal, or to restaurants in the vicinity of en route lodgings would not alter the situation unless the vehicle is laden. A driver may not operate a laden CMV as a personal conveyance. The driver who uses a motor carrier's CMV for transportation home, and is subsequently called by the employing carrier and is then dispatched from home, would be on-duty from the time the driver leaves home.

 

You'd beat that ticket in 2 seconds in court...You're never on duty when you are in your personal vehicle or even when you are bobtailing home from the yard or to eat or whatever for that matter.

Probably a "trucker tall tale".

 

Are you so sure? Here is some of the intrepretations of Part 395.


Question 1: A company told all of its drivers that it would no longer pay for driving from the last stop to home and that this time should not be shown on the time cards. Is it a violation of the FMCSRs to operate a CMV from the last stop to home and not show that time on the time cards?
Guidance: The FMCSRs do not address questions of pay. All the time spent operating a CMV for, or at the direction of, a motor carrier must be recorded as driving time.

Question 14: How must a CMV driver driving a non-CMV at the direction of a motor carrier record this time?
Guidance: If CMV drivers operate motor vehicles with GVWRs of 10,000 pounds or less at the direction of a motor carrier, the FHWA requires those drivers to maintain records of duty status and record such time operating as on-duty (not driving).
Question 2: What conditions must be met for a CMV driver to record meal and other routine stops made during a tour of duty as off-duty time?
Guidance:1. The driver must have been relieved of all duty and responsibility for the care and custody of the vehicle, its accessories, and any cargo or passengers it may be carrying.
2. The duration of the driver’s relief from duty must be a finite period of time which is of sufficient duration to ensure that the accumulated fatigue resulting from operating a CMV will be significantly reduced.
3. If the driver has been relieved from duty, as noted in (1) above, the duration of the relief from duty must have been made known to the driver prior to the driver’s departure in written instructions from the employer. There are no record retention requirements for these instructions on board a vehicle or at a motor carrier’s principal place of business.
4. During the stop, and for the duration of the stop, the driver must be at liberty to pursue activities of his/her own choosing and to leave the premises where the vehicle is situated.
Question 3: A driver has been given written permission by his/her employer to record meal and other routine stops made during a tour of duty as off-duty time. Is the driver required to record such time as off-duty, or is it the driver’s decision whether such time is recorded as off-duty?
Guidance: It is the employer’s choice whether the driver shall record stops made during a tour of duty as off-duty time. However, employers may permit drivers to make the decision as to how the time will be recorded.
Question 4: A driver has been given written permission by his/her employer to record meal and other routine stops made during a tour of duty as off-duty time. Is the driver allowed to record his stops during a tour of duty as off-duty time when the CMV is laden with HM and the CMV is parked in a truck stop parking lot?
Guidance: Drivers may record meal and other routine stops made during a tour of duty as off-duty time, except when a CMV is laden with explosive HM classified as hazard divisions 1.1, 1.2, or 1.3 (formerly Class A or B explosives). In addition, when HM classified under hazard divisions 1.1, 1.2, or 1.3 are on a CMV, the employer and the driver must comply with §397.5 of the FMCSRs.

 

It's simple. It's not what they know, it's only what they can prove!

 

I have read this 3 or 4 times and can't figure out your point. Maybe I'm blind but I see nothing that says anything about when your driving your personal vehicle to and from your place of employment or terminal before or after your on duty time which was what was in question.

 

Smurf, this assumes that its a commercial vehicle. If its not leased onto a company you can make it something other than a commercial vehicle and it becomes a large car.

What i mean is, you can get an RV license plate for it pretty easily. Then it's not a commercial vehicle. some states throw a fit about this though. I know you've seen the people pulling 5th wheel rvs with modified tractors....