Can you use a cellphone/tablet while the service/emergency brake knobs are applied

Why come here and ask if you are not going to like the answer? If you are behind the wheel on a road. And on duty driving, Stopped or not, DOT defines that as being at the controls.

If you are in a parking lot sitting and parked in sleeper or off duty. Then you are fine.

 

Make of it what you will.

Question 25: When a driver experiences a delay on an impassable highway, should the time he/she is delayed be entered on the record of duty status as driving time or on-duty (not driving)?

Guidance: Delays on impassable highways must be recorded as driving time because §395.2 defines “driving time” as all time spent at the driving controls of a Commercial Motor Vehicle CMV in operation.

 

The regulations prohibit using a handheld device while driving. They specifically state that the ban includes the exact scenario described by the OP.

eCFR — Code of Federal Regulations

 

Point, set, match. Thats the ball game folks.

 

If you are on a public roadway, you can not use a cellphone. Checking your phone at a stoplight, for instance, will get you a ticket. The LEO isnt going to ask if your brakes are set. And it would be an effort in futility to attempt to use that as a defence in court. If you use your phone, without a one button dial, hands-free device, and get caught, you will get a fine. The law is worded such, that there are no exceptions or loopholes.

 

I would say its still illegal. A guy here got a fine for texting while in line at a drive thru.

 

That Twitter/ Facebook account must be really important to jeopardize your CDL. If using the phone is that ###### important, find another profession.

 

It's not Twitter or Facebook that's important. It's how big that little green number titled Alerts gets.

 

With available technology why would you need to do that in the first place? I hardly ever touch my cell phone and use it frequently.