Off Duty Driving ?

That is a misuse of personal conveyance.

 

The key to understanding personal conveyance is to follow the guidance provided by the FMCSA. JJKeller aka the authority on logging has published a guide also.

What is personal conveyance?

Personal
per·son·al

adjective
1.
of, affecting, or belonging to a particular person rather than to anyone else.

con·vey·ance
noun
1.
the action or process of transporting someone or something from one place to another.

Being said, in the use of : personal conveyance is only allowed when a commerial motor vehicle is used by a class a driver to transport him or herself while off duty. Being off duty means simply not being required to perform any duties associated with employment.

 

Unless unassigned and unladen...you may not drive off duty. Drop the trailer....bobtail to Wal-Mart buy you some food, drive back and connect your trailer and this would be considered driving while off duty or personal conveyance.

The key is you can not be going to pickup or drop off a load or under dispatch.

 

Incorrect. Unless he is saying that he is still hauling (which is unclear in his question.) But if he is released from the load and is heading home uladen, then he can use PC.

 

And if you own both units, then what? That thinking goes out the window.

 

Lol, worse than that. A message gets sent when driving off duty telling what not to use PC for.

 

Incorrect. The question asked is not unclear; the driver is on his way home on the return portion of a haul and at the end of his legal HOS. He is not "driving to home from the terminal." In the posted scenario, being empty is what a lot of drivers and companies are using to justify the abuse of PC.

Just because drivers are getting away with it for the time-being, it does not mean what you are suggesting as a response is not a misuse of PC. Nor does it mean it won't get addressed in an audit. I have no doubt that is what the FMCSA will address in the pending rule change.

 

If you own the wagon!

I don't see any reason you couldn't pull that home, wouldn't you agree?

 

I would think, but then I don't expect all Law enforcement personnel to have common sense. :-}

 

So for clarification... company driver, with company tractor AND trailer inbound to home terminal (which is where one of my personal vehicles is located) unladen (empty... No cargo at all). Still have 2 hours to drive to terminal, in which I will cross 1 state line, and 2 DOT scales, houred out and due for a 34 hour reset. Can I legally use personal conveyance to get back to terminal, or my own personal house (20 mins closer than terminal) for that matter... (maybe legal to go to my house but not terminal???)