Veteran Truckers, Heres some questions from a Newbie about HOS

I’m paid a decent salary, I get the same money for sitting, sleeping, driving, whatever. I’m not any kind of fan of CPM. But regardless of how our pay is calculated, we’re generally in the truck for 24 hours each day, for days, weeks, or even months. Whatever pay we earn, it’s pay for the whole job, not just the driving.

If I take a 2 or 3 hour break, or a 7 or 8 hour break, which the split sleeper provision is designed for, and I’m relaxing in my bunk taking a nap, playing my guitar, cooking a meal, or watching a movie, I’m not masking anything. I have to be in the truck anyway. It’s literally no different than if I was parked in a rest area or truck stop.

 

Of course it’s legal. Megas don’t teach logs quite right. Think about who works at megas real quick…

 

You are mistaking what the law literally states, for what can be proven in court. Laws are to be upheld in court, where “readiness for duty” has no paper trail. To log on duty while waiting during no touch freight, is to trip over dollars to pick up pennies. It is a fool’s game and will get you removed from the best runs.

 

This... 100%!!!! I cant begin to count the number of drivers that dont understand how to make thier logbook WORK FOR THEM... Instead of them chasing their clock.

Learn as much of the ins and outs of LEGAL HOS logging... The dos, the donuts, how and when you can use exceptions or exemptions... Evenbif they dont apply to your particular situation. Someday that knowledge could make the difference between being on time or getting laud over for a weekend because you were late.

Learn when and how to LEGALLY use PC... DO NOT use it for ANY purpose besides what is EXACTLY LEGAL. I know several drivers that have gotten Falsification of Logs violations for impropper use of PC... At least one of those lost his job because he continued to use it improperly.

If you burn your candle at both ends to long... The middle gets soft. Just because you can do something legally by the clock... Doesnt mean you should. Know your personal limits and be ready to tell a dispatcher of DM... NO!!!

 

NOBODY is restricted from reading the regs. Many times the company will give new drivers a small version of the regs, almost every truck stop sells the reg book, and the regs can be read online for free. Since many drivers will never go read the regs they rely on the opinion of other drivers. I've had to rely on others when I need an answer in a hurry. I'm sure if I drove for another 20 years I'll not know as much as I could know about split-break.

 

When I started doing this job it was required companies had to give you a copy of the current green book. Dont know if that is still the case but every company I have ever worked for to date has.

 

I don't know if the company is required to give the green book or not. I think every company but the last one I worked for did give me a boos as well. My HazMat tanker company gave me a green book and the red HazMat book, a whole other set of regs. The regs are not as hard to read as it first seems, read whatever it is saying the first time ignoring the "except in paragraph B2" sort of stuff. Read that paragraph skipping those parts and then read the "paragraph B2". Many drivers go a career and only remember what their first trainer told them and assume that's what the regs say.

 

Love the fact @LTL Bull completely ignored my post proving him wrong, simply by showing the complete definition of on duty.

Plus the fact of how it' would be log falsification to show anything other than sleeper when one is "resting in a sleeper berth"

 

Even that doesn’t matter. I learned in warehouse pick that the only rules that matter are enforceable rules. I broke almost all of them to be second fastest in perishables and realized that… nobody cares about rules. The cop doesn’t care. The cop wasn’t even trained. The lawyer has burden of proof. The government just wants their next lunch break. The libs just want vengeance on the patriarchy. There is literally nobody in existence TO care about how you actually spend your hours at the customer. Hell I log the entire thing off duty and just tell them I handed the jockey my keys. What’ll they say? I was in the seat? Where’s the footage?

I don’t PC or anything that can be obviously proven false. But ELD crawl on split sleeper while charging tanker detention? Don’t threaten me with a free steak dinner

 

Except everybody completely disregards this part