Can a company mandate using sleeper status during 10 Hour Break

Simple if you fall asleep at the wheel. They look at your logs and for the past 7 days its all off duty. Expect the question and liability of saying you never logged sleeper berth time. You ### is most likely going to prison by people on the jury not buying the fact you never use the sleeper berth. See Tracy Morgan and WalMart crash.

 

i went thru the same thing a few months back. i argued a bit, but just said screw it and started logging 8 hrs regardless. I just log 8 hrs, in on-the-hour increments so they're easy to add up. So now it's kind of a joke among us drivers .. We write up trailers, they don't get fixed, we just say hey, as long as we log that 8 hrs SB , that's all that matters.

Funny thing is, I had a level III when I was logging 10 off duty and no SB, and DOT (KY) never said a word about it, complemented my neatness and sent me on my way. Got a level III after I started logging SB, and DOT (OH) asked if I was really in my SB where SB was logged. Go figure.

 

The company can require anything of you, unless it is explicitly not allowed by the regulations. If they require you to do something that is against the rules or illegal, then you can say no. Logging sleeper when you are in the sleeper berth is not illegal, therefore they can require it as a condition of employment.

 

And keep this in mind: Your company's rules can be more restrictive than federal regulations. While you might be right in interpreting the regs your way, go against what your company requires enough and you will be right ... and unemployed. Getting a 'refused to follow company policies' on your HireRight will not help you advance your career.

 

Are you sleeping in the front seat? Are you exiting the truck to find alternate sleeping accommodations? If not, you are in the sleeper berth and need to log your time accordingly.

This isn't a word game. Log it as you do it. It really is that simple.

 

I guarantee the judge will have a better understanding of the regulations than you. In all honesty, you'd probably have a better chance convincing uneducated jurors to buy into your interpretation...but even that is a long shot.