Very Starange Log Book question for you experts.......

If your company is in the business of interstate commerce AND the truck will
ultimately be used in that fashion then the FMCSA rules apply to your travel
to the truck pickup point & naturally thereafter as well.

In playing Devils advocate, I could see where the goobermint could & would claim
that your trip was in furtherance of company business.

I can see a on duty not driving scenario on the way down because you won't be in
a CMV on the way down.

You can be on duty not driving forever but the hours do count.

It's sort of splitting hairs unless something happens along the return trip.
That's when the logs will be examined with a fine toothed comb.

You could say you & the mrs were on vacation there & just happened across a good
deal on a truck but it can be shown that the truck deal was in progress before
you went there...If a problem on the road causes an action for the cops to look closely at your logs.

Go with what you know.

 

If the minivan is a company vehicle and you are driving, you are to log it as on duty not driving! If you arent driving and it is a personal vehicle you dont have to log anything! I mean come on man I commute in my pick up 45 minutes each way to work. I am not supposed to log that on my book. If your in your personal vehicle your good to go!

 

In continuing to play devils advocate, let me pose that while in your pickup, you are not performing company business.

But, if that tractor is being purchased for company business, he's performing company business thru the action of buying & transporting it.

I doubt there'd be any problem with the trip down. It's only if there's a problem on the way back that might cause the investigators of the FMCSA to construe his logs as false because they would see the whole trip as perfoming company business.

 

Log it off duty. You could have rode a bus.

 

I would log it as on duty...better safe than sorry.

 

In a mini van pick up or what have you, if your driving a company vehicle, deemed necessary by a company official, it is to be logged on duty not driving. This question was just brought up on transport topics and answered by a state trooper who read the reg right out of the FMCSR.

 

If you are not responsible for a commerical vehicle or load your off duty.(line1)
Techincally, I suppose your arrival at that truck dealer is where your responibility start so this is where you would go to line 4, including time for pretrip, then line 3 when your actuly ready to drive the tractor off the dealer.
I would probably log 30 to 45 minutes for initial inspection then driving.

 

I don't generally take the answers from State Troopers too literally.
They are prone to misinterpreting the rules as much as anyone.

I don't take the word of an FMCSA investigator as gospel either although I consider them less prone to misinterpreting the rules than the average cop or state trooper.

The only person who will have the last answer to the question is the Judge this gets put in front of.

This doesn't mean it'll be the correct answer or even the fair one...Just the last one.

There's many rules/regs that are poorly written & left open to interpretation.
I don't know why this is.
One would think that with all the lawyers in the fed goobermint, there'd be better written rules/regs.

I can only conclude that the rules/regs were not meant to be so literal or so narrowly focused to the point of how they're used today.

I can see with the advent of advanced electronic logging &/or Black Box technology thrown into the truck, there's going to be a lot of court cases stemming from minutes of time.

 

YOU ARE GOING TO NEED ALL THE HOURS YOU HAVE. NO ONE WOULD EVER EVEN ASK BUT IF THEY HAPPENED TO I'D SAY THE WIFE DROVE AND I SLEPT. (EVEN THOUGH I WOULDN'T HAVE A WIFE, I'M NOT THAT KIND OF GIRL) HEHEHE!! YOU CAN BE CREATIVE WITH YOUR LOGBOOK AND STILL BE LEGAL, OR ATLEAST LOOK LEGAL. IF WE ACTUALLY LOGGED EVERYTHING EXACTLY HOW WE DO IT WE WOULD DEFINITY MAKE BELOW MINIMUM WAGE. GLAD I CAN JUST BE OUT HERE FOR THE FUN AND NOT HAVING TO WORRY ABOUT MAKING THE BIG BUCKS

 

He quoted the answer from the FMCSR! It was not opinion it was fact. What Deb said is the smartest answer Ive heard yet!