Hours of service in California

Here is a thought, what if you had a load to a grocery store that had enough bleach on it that required a placard and the rest of the trailer was fruit and produce. What rules would you be under?

 

We don't go to grocery stores, thank God. Too much aggravation and not enough revenue.

I'll take a wild guess and say hazmat. There are regulations stating how much hazmat you can carry...in pounds, ounces, gallons, or cubic measurment and how much of each can be carried before placards are required. The only exception to that...that we haul...is Class A explosives. There might be others but I haven't had any experience with them. Any amount of Class A has to be placarded. If the amount of cargo requires a hazmat placard you'd run under hazmat rules until the product for which the placard is required is offloaded. If the hazmat was liquid or dry bulk like ANFO you still have to run placards until the tank is cleaned.

I sure hope that's right, 'cause that's the way we do it.

 

Just curious, at what point or how many trucks it would take to justify a position like that. How large is the overall operation in total?

 

It's not so much a question of size as it is a question of necessity. We're not a big outfit...twenty power units and thirty five trailers...but we haul a variety of things. Some of what we haul is our own product but we also do hauling for other people. We stay mostly in California but we go to neighboring states enough to make things that much more complicated.

We found that splitting the regulatory compliance paperwork between the two other ladies in the office wasn't working. Too many things were being overlooked or forgotten. Too many forms were not being filled out correctly or sent in late. That wasn't the office staff's fault entirely. There's just so much that two people can do.

When you're dealing with federal and state agencies that can and will assess penalties for honest mistakes...or at least take up a bunch of your time that you don't really have in explaining the mistakes in an effort to avoid the penalties...it's a no brainer that one person in your office who knows all the rules will save you time and money in the long run.

Our way might not work for everybody but it works for us. Paperwork gets sent in on time and correctly filled out, rule changes are kept up with, the drivers are notified and aware of any changes in their work environment, the shop guys are kept up to date on the latest BIT requirements, and the other two ladies in the office can concentrate on their own jobs.

I'm supposed to be retired but I came in to help out a friend on a part time basis and wound up buying a piece of the outfit. That was three years ago. Now I spend most of my time trying to get back to being retired. I never wanted to run a trucking company...and I still don't...but if you're going to run one you might as well run it right.

 

Kind of like what was said in post #5, imagine that.

 

You are mostly correct, yes you are an interstate driver, I never had any doubt of that (see my reply in post 10) but whoever at FMCSA told you there is no 16 hour rule for CDL drivers is incorrect, again see post 10, you are allowed 1 16 hour day if you meet all the requirements, 2 if you drive a non-cdl vehicle. The biggest qualifier is you must leave from and return to the same place every day, you can not use the 16 hour rule if you have overnight trips anytime in the prior 5 days. That is where they probably made their error in advising you, assuming you are away from home one or more nights a week by the nature of hauling interstate freight.

I wish the FMCSA would read their own rules and guidance when the answer questions, the rules I posted above in post 10 were copied and pasted directly from the FMCSA website, and this is a valid rule, I use it almost every week and have never had it questioned during roadside checks, and yes I drive a CDL vehicle, full sized tractor trailer auto transport in interstate commerce, I service a three state area.

 

False. The fmcsa has no jurisdiction on intrastate regulations -- just like they have no jurisdiction when you switch to Canadian HOS.

When you are hauling an interstate load, fmcsa rules apply. When you are hauling a California intrastate load, California rules apply. You can switch back and forth just like a driver crossing into and out of Canada.


Here is the source:

www.chp.ca.gov/pdf/media/06-04isr.pdf


I'm not saying a dot bear in OK won't write a ticket when he sees a 4-day old log sheet showing you drove 12 hours straight with no break. But he will be wrong for doing so if you were under a CA intrastate load and took at least 10 hours off before switching to federal rules.