Logging Off Duty Instead of Sleeper Berth

They do fall under the supporting documents rule, but that's for audits, not roadside.

https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/hours-service/elds/supporting-documents

 

Just logged 1462 miles without a single 10 hour break and just went inside for dinner while in sleeper berth. Hopefully they'll let me star as Bandit if they ever remake the movie

 

I think people forget their is a big difference between and DOT inspection and dealing with lawyers if anyone is involved in bad accident. They will look for anything to prove you wrong or you falsified your log book. Because if they can show you went over your 70 hour limit you will be responsible for the accident.

Does everyone remember the Walmart driver and Tracy Morgan accident that kill his friend. The Walmart driver was 100% legal on his log book and his truck had all the latest safety equipment. It took them a little time to figure out what the Walmart driver really did. I believe they found out he lived in NC and was driving all day in his personal vehicle to NY or NJ to the Walmart DC he was working out of. He then got in his Walmart truck and did his regular all night driving. This time he was to tired and never stopped for the traffic.

 

Sorry, if you want to defend schneider policy and cite firms (hni) advising on preferred practice, thats one thing, but youre simply mistaken.


Sleeper berth is a subset of offduty, the only requirement in order to log sleeper berth is that you actually be in it, NOT the other way around. off duty covers everything just fine so long as you always take full 10s

 

For the regulations instructing how duty statuses must be recorded on paper, and with the implied meaning of 'shall' in every single line of this section, I take that as implying SB must be used when you are utilizing a sleeper berth.

Anyone who says they might not have meant shall the same way as every other line in this section is in denial

The opening line of off duty's section is "except when using a sleeper berth"

The only thing that changes between logging on paper and ELD is that location is recorded automatically and the drive line is recorded automatically.

 

The LEO is not your friend, and yes we have a constitution and just because the Police do not think it pertains to them it does.Just no reason to load the cannon,

 

I've been through about a dozen inspections in the past many years. It's not a big deal. Some things that might have gotten written up were overlooked a few times. Other times everything was in order. The only trouble I had was at Cajon about 20 years ago but I screwed up and that was my ticket. Never felt the need to get all cagey with them. On the other hand I know better than to talk more than is necessary. I just think the whole logging your sleeper berth time as off duty is foolish and asking for trouble. Why create complications on the job? Are you just looking for an argument that you're gonna lose? You might go 30 years and it never but a problem but it's gonna be a problem for some cop you run across guaranteed. And he won't be wrong for writing a ticket on it.

 

Sorry, but I can't get past what the hell difference does it make in regard to safety, which is ostensibly the purpose behind HOS, whether or not you are physically in the sleeper or out sitting on your deck enjoying the sunset.

I respect the hell out of you and others, especially @Hammer166 , and perhaps you are just arguing the letter of the law, but hopefully the intent of the law (safety) will prevail over this bs about whether or not you log being in the sleeper or not.

Just my opinion.

 

I agree with you 110%. What does it matter? It doesn't. We have common sense. You read what the violation is, it's a "form and manner" violation. It doesn't conform to what the bureaucracy demands. That's all it is. In other words it's a stupid semantic that normal people wouldn't take issue with. But a cop or bureaucrat will. So that's why I say why make life difficult? Just log it as sleeper and you're guaranteed to never have a problem. Or, be hard headed about it and butt heads with a bureaucrat. Who's got time for that? I got better things to do.

 

I could not care less about how anyone logs their sleeper time. All I care is that a driver is rested enough to not take me out. The little I do care is because of about how bureaucracy works, and if logging off duty all the time shows up on some pencil pushers spreadsheet, they'll come up with some PITA idea to put a halt to it. And the last thing those idiots need is a reason to make life more difficult with another hare brain regulation or interpretation. As @rollin coal points out, what's the benefit & why take the risk?

My issue is that this is an information portal, and as such should pass on accurate information. And the reality is that there is a sleeper line on the log and the regs plainly say it is to be used while in the sleeper. Does it suck that it's in legalese and as such somewhat confusing? Indeed, it does. But reading legalese is much like reading Dickens, once you get your brain to shift into the mode it was written in, it's actually quite clear.

Perhaps the most amusing part of all this? The whole bootlicker subplot. (just for clarity, @Oxbow, this isn't directed at you in any way.) I mean if one is so invested in "#### the Man!", why invest so much into intentionally twisting the reading of the regs to justify what one is doing? And it's especially humorous to be accused of bowing to the man when I only occasionally find myself on the same street as Running Legal, and it's never because we're friends! Knowing what the regs say and dotting every required 'i' are two completely different things.