Can a company mandate using sleeper status during 10 Hour Break

There are no problems with logging on duty at a customer and nearly no problems with logging off duty.

Umm... no. An alibi can only help you if it can be corroborated. Your log is written by you so your alibi is basically that you were in the bunk because you said you were. That isn't going to do a lot for you as far as proof goes in defending yourself against a murder charge.

No, you have uncorroborated evidence.

1. In the event you die in the bunk, the ONLY way your heirs would get any money from your carrier would be if they could prove negligence i.e. the carrier refused to fix an exhaust leak that led to asphyxiation. And if they could prove negligence, the fact you logged off-duty when you should have logged sleeper won't mean squat to the judge or the jury.
2. It is highly unlikely that logbook status would have any bearing on life insurance policy in the event you die in the bunk.

 

Can you prove this?

 

Not being a smart-***, but unless the shipper/receiver allows you take your 10hr break on their property, what else would you be doing there if you are not, in some way, involved with the loading and unloading?

Barring breakdowns or other situations where you unable to press the accelerator and move the truck, of course.

 

Another question since I am genuinely curious to know, how many of you that like to say things like "log it as you do it" actually log the time spent getting loaded or unloaded as "on duty, not driving"?

I have read on here that most drivers will put generally log 15mins for that. Is that really the unspoken industry standard?

 

When I drove, I was 100% no touch. My only involvement with loading and unloading was swinging the doors and bumping docks. Once I swung the doors and bumped the dock, I had absolutely no responsibility for operating the vehicle nor any requirement to remain 'in readiness to operate' the vehicle until the loading or unloading was completed. I was completely free to pursue activities of my own choosing during that time. By every definition and guidance the DOT provides it was perfectly legal for me to log off-duty during that time.

 

I log line 4 from the time I leave the house in the morning until I get home in the afternoon on the days where I meet the requirements to claim the 100 air-mile exemption. Basically instead of a RODS, it is a record of hours worked. On the days which extend past the 12th hour or go beyond the 100 air-mile radius, I am either on line 3 or line 4 (except for the 30 minute break) until I get home again. Yes, I have logged a 3+ hour stretch on line 4 while the trailer was in the shop and I was sitting in the driver's lounge at the company terminal BSing with other drivers. I have also logged 8+ hour stretches on line 4 while I was laying under a shade tree taking a nap waiting for the guard shack to call my cell to notify me that it was my turn to load.

I always figure if I can't make enough money M-F, working Saturday ain't gonna help. When dispatch starts calling folks at 4 pm on Friday demanding you give up what you had planned for Saturday to cover the loads they SHOULD have had covered during the week, all I have to do is say "I've only got 3 hours available...not enough to do anything" and the conversation is over. They don't care if it is your wife's birthday, grandmother's funeral, or kid's graduation....THEY look bad if they don't get the load covered and so they are going to try to tell you that work comes first and that you're obligated to work if you've got the hours available. So, I just make sure I don't have the hours available and problem solved.

Years ago when I was still a company driver, I got into it a bit with a fellow company driver. He was upset that I was showing 6+ hours on line 4 after the seal on the PTO went out while unloading my tank trailer and dumped all of my transmission oil onto the ground. The entire time I was waiting for the wrecker to arrive, as well as my time riding in the wrecker back up to the yard to get my pickup, I showed on line 4 even though I'd had a friend pick me up and we went out to eat since the wrecker wouldn't be there for a few hours. This other driver was complaining about how he doesn't show more than 15 minutes for loading or unloading and the rest of the time he's in the sleeper or off duty to save his hours....and that he hadn't had a day off in 4 weeks. Sucks to be you, buddy.

A load has got to pay a pretty good chunk of change before I'm willing to give up my weekend...unless I voluntarily took a day or two off during the week to take care of personal things or to have work done on my truck. If my sitting during the week was dispatches doing? Well, if the load needed to be run this week you should have put it on me the day you had me sitting at the house. Sorry 'bout your luck. Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine.

 

I am entirely referring to logging OFF-DUTY at a shipper/receiver during my 14. Within the 14, if I am not invovled in the loading or unloading in anyway, including remaining in readiness at the controls of the vehicle to move it for the purpose of loading/unloading, talking to dispatch or trip planning, but instead I am relieving myself, eating, reading a book, surfing the internet, on the phone with family/friend, resting my eyes, etc, all of which have nothing to do with the performance of my job, then I log OFF-DUTY.

I pull a flatbed and ALOT of the shipper/receivers that I frequent allow overnight parking. ALOT.

 

With very few exceptions, I am not involved in loading or unloading the trailer. I may have to hire a lumper, but usually I'm trying to finish my paperwork, get something to eat, and/or catch up on my sleep. If I'm in the sleeper, its almost all on line 2. 10 or 15 minutes on line 4 is more than adequate for handing the receiving clerk my bills, negotiating an unloading price (if necessary), and retrieving my bills when done. Exactly how much time can you spend walking to the office, mumbling a few words, and returning to the truck?

SLDC is a different story. If I'm on dock supervising un/loading the trailer, then yeah, there'll be a lot of line 4 time involved.

 

I guess then by his knowledge of sleeper berth, if I were to close up all the blinds and curtains in MY ENTIRE house, then I have extended my bedroom square footage as well?

WOW, will I ever make out good when I go to sell my house!

 

I understand your logical sarcasm, but when the cab curtains are drawn, the cab cannot be used for operation, so IN A SENSE, the sleeper birth has been etended. I keep some things in the overhead compartment that I retrieve. when I am in my pajamas, change stations on the radio, adjust the heat/AC, etc. The cab has no operational purpose when the cab curtains are drawn.

IF you had wide french doors on your bedroom and left them open and had all your windows and blinds closed in the house/apartment, you could go all over the place with......now I am thinking dirty. I digress.