Is this legal?

That`s the answer there '14 was up' I have found this you be true: A dispatcher trying to get a job done in the middle of the night don`t care about you. No you are not stupid, question not asked is not a wise move. It`s your CDL, your reputation and YOUR responsibility to keep it clean. At the end of the day, it YOU and the COP. Operations will be somewhere else trying to trick someone else to fall for the same BS lines they try to get you to fall for. IF you EVER get burned, there will not be a question the next time. First time you get hit hard WILL be the last time. It truly PO`s me when I hear stories like this; they screw up and make it a habit to put it all on the driver caring less about anybody`s safety or health. And NO it is not legal to work after your 14. DON`T EVER FALL FOR THAT AGAIN.

 

Work work work, all day long....just don't drive past your 14th consecutive hour after coming on duty (unless you're splitting your log, and then for the love of kitten call safety first cause you're gonna mess it up)

 

When a driver begins working for a company, how he/she conducts his/herself in relation to DM's/dispatchers and management in general sets up their vision and expectations of you. When you go in "guns a blazing" they love it! But it may be short lived, why? Because eventually you won't hold up well to this stature you've painted of yourself, the he'll do anything for us guy/girl. But because they have this image of you and it benefits them to make their job easier, they steadily apply more pressure to keep you there even though you are burning out fast. You see, you have set yourself up by what is known as "Past Practice" and you'll never shake it off at any company that has come to know you this way, so learn and know your limits and learn to say no when necessary and be treated with some respect and this way you'll be able to drive forever or until you decide to give it up, not when your health fails due to being totally burnt out.

 

Most all your points I agree with, but that last one isn't true. You can work past your 14 (this is where new drivers are often confused), you just CAN'T DRIVE after your 14 hours are up...hence this is why you need to take a 10 hour reset if the shipper has held you there past your 14 hours...and this is why shipper/receivers and carriers/brokers need to voluntarily work now to deal with this kind of issue, before the Government decides to justify the reason they need to get involved.

This is one of the reasons I do prefer flatbed....most of the places I load/deliver, I can crash right there after loading/unloading, nobody messes with you....it's usually the van docks/warehouses and inner city delivery points for same that this becomes a problem for.

 

Well said! Sad part is it the newbies that don`t know any better and Operations know this. I have seen this for my own eyes and even some of the dispatchers are either so uncaring or dumber than a sack of rocks when it comes to this issue. So the ones who are seasoned drivers have to contend with such a dilemma usually with no other recourse other than to resign. Yet we can get caught up in such a scam that leaves a driver with not too many options. Sad part is many will take this kind of treatment leaving folks in Operations thinking in their finite minds they can do everyone like this.

 

My bad on the 14. Still...Anyone that has been up 14 hrs out on the road generally don`t wanna deal with these situations anyway as you said, you can crash there after loading/unloading. Too much of anything is a bad thing. No load is worth one health and even more importantly ones life.

 

If you are on paper logs, EVERYTHING that you do is legal. Just don't log it illegal. Count it as off duty time or sleeper time. If you are on elogs, everything that the machine does not record is legal.

Of course if you do not want to do it, you log it and report it to the DOT. I say make a federal case of it, lose your job, but stand on principle.

 

That`s what will eventually happen with most companies. If they got away with firing people for idle time not caring if one froze to death or passed fro heat exhaustion, why the hell should they care about the current DOT regs or for that matter if a driver just had enough for the day?
The Prez of the company will even tell you 'no load`s worth your life' the turn around and do a 180 and fire your bazooka tomorrow. With the rising cost of fuel and everything else life here in America is a free for all..All for oneself and God help us all!

 

I service the same group of customers all week and my breaks usually consist of sleeping onsite and at docks as I'm not required to load or unload.

The discussion can go many ways.. some drivers prefer 10 uninterrupted hours. Some of us prefer that 10 to get over ASAP so we can hit the road.. but anyone that stays on duty during entire load/unload times then starts their break afterwards must not like making money.

 

Most of the time the farthest I will move my truck is to a safe spot on the lot. If I am out of hours to drive I am not moving the truck except out the dock...period