Falisfy or log a violation?

So turn your trucks up to 67, adjust your overspeed warning higher, like 72, and leave the cruise control top speed at 65. Your fleet mileage is good enough to make our VP turn green with envy. You guys should be running 70, especially running out west. The extra loads you could get would more than cover the drop in mileage.

 

In the industry, unladen means without a load. Bobtail means without a trailer. There is no gray area here. Call an insurance company and they will clear it up for you.

 

The FMCSA does not define "unladen". That opens up the term to a more broad interpretation, and any insurance company's definition is irrelevant when it comes to violations/citations that may be issued. And while there may be some commonly accepted interpretations of words or terms within the industry, it is the ability to convince an enforcement officer or judge to accept that same interpretation which is going to decide the outcome.

 

Well, if they meant bobtail only, they would not have mentioned unladen. It specifically says "bobtail or unladen." That means that unladen by their definition is something other than bobtail. Therefore, empty trailer.

 

I'm not sure which "they" you are referring to, but if it is the FMCSA, there is actually no regulation specifically pertaining to personal conveyance. The commonly referenced source is contained in the Interpretation for 395.8.

So, the FMCSA never uses either of the terms "unladen", nor "bobtail" with respect to this issue. They do say that a laden vehicle would not qualify. Any reasonable enforcement officer should accept this interpretation, but as it isn't specifically regulated they are not bound to do so.

 

"A driver may not operate a laden CMV as a personal conveyance"

And, to address the chicken littles and scaredy cats who were claiming that when you leave your house, you're supposed to log driving time... (BS)... the reference is ONLY after taking a motor carriers's vehicle home...

"The driver who uses a motor carrier's Commercial Motor Vehicle (CMV) for transportation home, and is subsequently called by the employing carrier and is then dispatched from home, would be on-duty from the time the driver leaves home."

Thanks for the link, btw.

 

Silly question, I'm sure, but when you get sent towards your home for home time, without a load, do you log that the same as you would when driving a load? Or is the truck a personal vehicle at that point?

I have tons of log book questions, and DDL doesn't help much in learning the log book, or at least I can't understand allot of their examples. I know, most the log book training will occur when you are out with the training time, company based, but want to have a better understanding before that time.

 

No, the truck is personal conveyance at that point... so you can log off-duty driving. When you get the call and get dispatched after your time off, though, you log "driving" (allegedly).... don't know many who would abide by that, except for the "black helicopter" and "they're watching us" crowd.

Ask away on the log questions, knowing a few of the folks posting here, you'll get some good information, and links so you can verify, see for yourself, and arm yourself for truckstop arguments.