Local truck driving question

Some local jobs track driver work hours using the ELD.

 

Getting away with not logging your Uber/Lyft side-job, or having your boss at the CDL job knowing and/or agreeing with you doing both jobs does NOT make not logging the Uber/Lyft job time legal. It doesn't matter if every Uber/Lyft driver is doing it or not.

I think you are under the impression that all you are risking is one day getting a fine for falsification of log, or maybe get put out of service for 10 hours. Those are not the worst-case scenario. The worst-case is 30 minutes after you start CDL driving on a normal trip, with lots of energy/alertness, a perfect truck & trailer, driving 100% legally doing nothing wrong a car driver or another truck driver hits you and eventually you are involved in a lawsuit. The at-fault driver sues your insurance company claimimg your waiting at a traffic light in some way created some blame for the injuries/damage of the crash and the judge/jury ##### you/your employer/your insurance companies owes millions in damages to the at-fault driver. You dont risk a $75 fine but a huge settlement $$$$$. Some people think if they drive carefully they can never be in a crash with some reckless or drunk driver. If you get involved in a criminal trial or a civil lawsuit your records are very likely to be subpoenaed and any lawyer suing trucking companies/drivers knows to look for hidden part-time jobs and Uber/Lyft will turn over their records when they are subpoenaed. Hiding the side-job will make you very vulnerable when it is discovered.

This is not a murky regulation. It's as clear as a thermometer or clock. All compensated work at any job counts toward your 60/70 hour total and can effect your 10 rest break before driving. You might as well say "I've been shoplifting for years, my boss knows about it, and I am always careful, so I won't get caught." The duration of the violation makes it more likely to be caught eventually.

 

Nobody said that driving 300 miles out and 300 miles back was a local job. The poster made the point that driving out 300 miles, which is clearly beyond the 150 mile 'short-haul exemption for running a log (if other conditions are met) andvrunning back 300 miles could be an example of a "home daily job".

 

If you read and follow the rules correctly, you clock out at 3 pm, at 5 pm you mow your elderly neighbors yard and she slips you $20, then you need to log it also, that's actually a point of argument from the unions to support ELD's.

If you read the rules in black and white, then anything you do when you're off the clock, that results in compensation, then you need to log it. Hence, don't take a friend of family member to the airport, unless you do it for free. Take the pickup load of stuff to Goodwill, don't expect a receipt, as that becomes compensation at the end of the year.

And the same argument for the lawsuit holds true if you suffer insomnia and didn't get enough sleep last night, but you feel fine, that movie you haven't seen in 20 yrs but love didn't end till 11 pm, but you normally go to bed at 9 pm, etc., etc., etc.

 

The unions and some of the mega's have pushed this as "black and white" definition of the regs, but the specific example they will give, you mow your neighbors yard and they slip you a few bucks for the favor, then you need to log it.

 

Just because you can imagine fringe cases doesn't mean the HOS regs and guidance are not plenty clear enough to answer the OP's question. If you have a CDL and are subject to the FMCSA regulations, then any compensated work is to count against your 60/70 clock. There is a reason why law school is typically 3 years of graduate level education and not a 30 minute online YouTube video. The laws and regulations mean what they mean, according to the accumulated and specific cases which sometimes define particular words in those regulations. That laymen have similar words they use in different ways doesn't change what the regulations mean.

If you do skip sufficient sleep to watch a movie or don't successfully treat your insomnia and you are involved in an accident, they court doesn't absolve you of responsibility because you watched the movie instead of sleeping. The facts of the case will be used in BOTH determination of guilt/responsibility AND determination of prison sentence/monetary settlement. You can skip sleeping for 2 weeks to paint art for cancer patients, if you drive fatigued and cause a crash your behavior and reasons will be used by the state/opponents and you get to live with the consequences eve if the 2 sides disagree about how many painting for cancer patients justify each dollar of damages.

 

I've had company safety reps create even more ridiculous situations in which running over an elderly driver is claimed to be the most reasonable option versus running over a child. Words being said by some union rep or company safety rep are no more reliable than opinions on the internet. The regulations are online and not one driver has an excuse to avoid knowing those regs. All work done for compensation must be logged for certain people in this industry to comply with the regulations. Some people work twice as hard not to know and they could to know, based on if the answer is what they want to know.

 

That's actually not a ridiculous situation, it's based on a legal variation of a moral and ethical dilemma that is a choice a human driver would have to make and is a conundrum facing driverless vehicles. It's based on something called "The Trolley Problem". What is the 'Trolley Problem?’ | Merriam-Webster

The original premise is this, you're riding on a trolley without functioning brakes heading towards a switch in the tracks, on the tracks directly ahead of you stand 5 people, you have the ability to throw a switch to change tracks, but on that track stand one person, which choice do you make? It's a moral/ethical dilemma that has been subject to discussion for close to one hundred years.

The driverless car moral decision Driverless Cars Will Face Moral Dilemmas - Scientific American

So, when you do favors for friends or family on your day off, and they give you a few bucks in exchange, do you log it? I'd venture that 1,000,000% of drivers don't, I'd venture that 1,000,000% of pilots don't, I'd venture that 1,000,000% of train engineers don't. We all know the risk, it also goes to the obvious part of the regs, your 10 hr break must include 8 uninterrupted hours in the sleeper, how many drivers log it correctly? If you got up during the night and ran into the truckstop/rest area to take a dump, do you restart your 8 hours in the sleeper as the regs suggest?

 

title of the post is local truck driving question. Not home daily truck question. That’s why I asked why he is running a log book.

and to the mowing your neighbors yard and they slip you a 20. what about your own lawn. Or painting your own house. One day you might sell it and be compensated. So do you have to log that too.

And yes I’m being sarcastic.

 

I got a question for all those who religiously follow the law when it comes to logging. You know the neighbors lawn and you getting 20 buck.

Do you all go exactly the speed limit as well. Cause a lawyer would be able to prove you should not have been at the scene of the accident because you were going 60 in a 55 for an hour. Thus you should have been 5 miles back. Most elogs today log your speed so before you get all righteous about logging other compensation. You’ve already lost because you were speeding. The lawyers wouldn’t give two craps about the lawn you mowed. They already gotcha!