On duty rules as regards to hourly employee

Well, my take is: the company is wanting you to stay in sleeper so as to get a full 10 hour break so you will be able to make the other deliveries after the first stop. However, once the receiver comes a knocking, you're on the clock and should be paid. Now as to the office editing your logs to show your on duty hours, you need to take that up with the office.

 

At the end of the day it comes down to are you making enough money to put up with it? While it may not be 100% legal what they are doing, it’s very doubtful they’ll ever have any legal trouble doing it, and if you won’t do it they’ll look for another driver who will. So are you willing to stick with the job or not? That’s all you need to decide. If you start trying to report a business for something you might as well quit. They won’t like you at all after that anyway.

 

Compensation is not always directly related to your hours of service. It is bad form for the motor carrier to pay you based off of your ELD entries as an hourly driver, unless they want to force you to be on-duty while you could be technically correct to log sleeper berth while waiting in the truck. Now, if we want to get real technical, any time waiting to be dispatched or in attendance of the truck is on-duty time unless you are "resting".

That said, if you feel you are required to be in attendance and ready to move the truck at a moments notice then you are within your rights to log on-duty as soon as you feel you must be in attendance. Just be prepared for them to starve you out by not offering you that many hours, or cutting a day off your schedule because your log book clock won't allow you to continue to drive.

If they are going to pay you hourly then it should be recorded on a payroll timekeeping app not your ELD. That is how I was paid when I was an hourly driver, based on my time card not my log book. It is also how I pay my current hourly drivers at the dealership, based on their ADP app punches not their log book. When I audit the logs I am looking for matching fuel and toll time stamps, correct start and stop, etc., but the driver can be clocked in while also logged off-duty when they are delayed or waiting for a truck to release and so on. That is perfectly legal.

It is ok to be paid while in the sleeper berth "resting" as you wait for a load to loaded or unloaded. See below for the FMCSA guidance on this issue.

https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/regulations/hours-service/how-does-compensation-relate-duty-time

 

This is not an FMCSA issue; it is a state Department of Labor issue. If you are paid hourly, you have to be compensated for your time while attending to company property, so if they do not relieve you from that duty, then you are supposed to be paid.

 

NOT EVERY ISSUE is a legal issue. NEARLY every issue in trucking is a "is this bad enough I should quit" type of issue. Only you can answer that question for you.

 

And a lawyer. And your state Attorney General. They tend to frown upon wage theft, which is what OP's employer was doing.