Logging Off Duty Instead of Sleeper Berth

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49 CFR 395.1(g)

Sleeper berths —

(1) Property-carrying commercial motor vehicle —

(i) General. A driver who operates a property-carrying commercial motor vehicle equipped with a sleeper berth, as defined in § 395.2, and uses the sleeper berth to obtain the off-duty time required by § 395.3(a)(1) must accumulate:

(A) At least 10 consecutive hours off-duty;

(B) At least 10 consecutive hours of sleeper berth time;

(C) A combination of consecutive sleeper berth and off-duty time amounting to at least 10 hours;

(D) A combination of sleeper berth time of at least 7 consecutive hours and up to 3 hours riding in the passenger seat of the vehicle while the vehicle is moving on the highway, either immediately before or after the sleeper berth time, amounting to at least 10 consecutive hours; or

(E) The equivalent of at least 10 consecutive hours off-duty calculated under paragraphs (g)(1)(ii) and (iii) of this section.

 

That doesn't say you can log sleeper berth as off duty.

 

And 3-4 minutes for a PTI would have to be demonstrated to be believed. I'll just go ahead and say it, that ain't possible.

 

What so many don’t understand..

 

Good, it does not say SB and Off Duty are the same thing. SB time is "considered" off duty for compliance with the 10 hour off-duty rule, but off duty IS NOT SB. You CANNOT log off duty if you are sleeping in the sleeper. THAT IS FALSIFICATION OF LOGS. I don't care what you quote or try to say otherwise.

"It's important to note that off duty time is distinct from sleeper berth time. While off duty time is spent away from the commercial motor vehicle (CMV), sleeper berth time refers to the period when a driver rests or sleeps in the sleeper berth compartment of the CMV as defined in sect 393.76 Sleeper berths ."

Sleeper berth provision refers to the period in which a driver rests or sleeps in a qualified sleeper berth compartment of their commercial motor vehicle (CMV)

Sleeper Berth vs Off Duty Time Explained I Konexial.

And on the other side of the coin, you CANNOT log SB in a truck that does not have a compartment that meets all the DOT requirements of a truck SB compartment. What does this mean? You cannot legally sleep in the truck as that requires you to log SB time and without a proper SB compartment, that's illegal.

 

Never said they are the same thing. They are very clearly 2 different things. They can be used interchangeably to obtain a 10 hour break though as the law clearly states.

I am a driver of a property carrying commercial vehicle. I am using the sleeper berth to obtain the 10 hour break required by 395.3(a)(1). I will accumulate 10 hours of off duty time. I have satisfied all the requirements of the law above.

Linking a bunch of random blog posts doesn't make them correct. How about showing the actual law that says you can not use off duty in the sleeper.

13 years without a sleeper break. Many inspections and FMCSA audits. Not a single citation or failed inspection for my logs.

What if I decide to spend my nights sleeping in the passenger seat? I did that many years ago when I had to run a team load in a single bunk truck with an absolute slob. I was not going to touch that bed. 4 nights sleeping in the passenger seat. All off duty time.

When I sleep in my bed at home I do not write that on my logs. Is that a falsified log because I slept 50ft away from my sleeper but didn't put it on the log? What if I slept in the sleeper in my driveway instead of my home. There's no camera to say if I was or wasn't in either bed. Do I log it as both or neither?

At the end of the day I'm going to keep logging off duty and keep not getting tickets for it.

 

Being inspected, even a hundred times, and not getting a ticket or violation does NOT mean something a driver is doing is legal. Almost EVERY vehicle on the road speeds at least once a day. The fact they don't get a speeding ticket each & every time they go even 1 mph over the speed limit does not mean cops are not enforcing the law or those drivers were legal when speeding. Officers have discretion, they miss things, they may have another reason for not enforcing something.

I'm glad you are not getting violations, if your actions & your logs are not matching. It doesn't mean your logging is legal if you are not logging how you actually behave & according to the regs. Best to you.

 

Requiring you log Sleeper Berth if you are in the sleeper (to avoid a log falsification violation) is not a requirement to sleep. Regs may never require anyone sleep, I don't remember, but logging something different than what happens is log falsification.

 

They don't have to prove anything, they can have a suspicion that there is a falsification of the logs and they can write up a violation just on suspicion.

Many of you don't understand that the state's DOT officers are enforcing regulations so this is administrative enforcement, not traffic law or criminal law enforcement.

 

Maybe one day the FMCSA will actually start to care about how your break is logged and it will get all the worthless hotshots off the road that don’t have insurance and tape a different company name on their back window every day.