Question about 16 hour big day short haul exemption 395.1

Yup. You can either wait a week OR reset for it to become available to you again. If you do neither, you must stop driving @ the end of hour 14...and if you aren't home, you'll have to get home on your next 6 (that's tomorrow getting home from wherever followed by 5 days leaving AND returning home) before it is available again, with or without a reset.

 

I have someone telling me the 26 hour exception only applies if you are driving a day cab. True?

 

By "reset" you mean take your 34 hours (or more) off? Or reset this stupid e-log I'm trying to learn?

 

Not true.

 

I'm assuming that's a typo and you meant 16 instead of 26...but either way, there is nothing in the FMCSA regulations that specifically single out day cabs for any exemptions. The advantage comes in that it is easier to convince an officer at the side of the road that you go home every night when you don't have a sleeper. That doesn't mean you can't be home every night in a sleeper truck, just that it is more difficult to convince an officer of that fact...especially if you keep the bed made and a few supplies in there "just in case". If the sleeper looks "lived in", it gets less believable that you never stay in it.

But I digress...

The 16 hour exception only states that you had to start and stop at the same location on each of the 5 previous days that you worked in order to claim it. You can't use it more than once per week, unless you've had 34 hours off to reset your 60/7 or 70/8 week total. You must be released from duty within the 16th hour.

Side note: Everywhere else, the regs only state that you cannot drive past the 14th hour...but they say nothing about working past it on line 4 (not driving). On any day that you need to drive past the 14th hour to make it back to your home base, you have to do more than simply "make it back"...you have to be back in time to be "released from duty" by the 16th hour. What that means is that while it would be perfectly OK for you to arrive back at hour 13 and put in 5 more hours working the dock working beyond the 16th hour, that is because you did not drive past the 14th. If you need to use the 16 hour exception to make it back to home base, arriving at the 15th hour, then you have 1 hour left before you need to be released. Try working past that and it could be construed as a log violation because you were not "released from duty by the 16th hour".

But anyway, long story short as long as you meet the requisites to claim the 16 hour exception, it doesn't matter if you have a day cab or a sleeper. If you go home at the end of every shift, the 16 hour exception is an option that is available to you.

 

We "borrow" road trucks for local work sometimes.

Otherwise, Exactly.

 

Spot on, even the part about convincing roadside enforcement you are local with a sleeper. I do just that and have had a hard time during a few inpections. I run a small sleeper so I have somewhere to change into clean dry clothing after loading my car hauler in the rain, and occasionally I do decide to crash in the truck instead of deadheading home just to come right back past my primary auction the next morning.

I successfully use the 16 hour day quite often, usually two or three times a month, and we have used the short haul (no log book) in our wreckers that had sleepers. That was easier to explain given the random and unknown nature of that work, plus we used the sleeper to haul extra passengers when towing team operated trucks.

 

I am all confused.

1. Sorry to bring up this old thread....
Hopefully someone can help with my problem.

So 99% of my stuff is short haul. Last several wks I've been starting from and ending at same location. I have 10 hrs off.

Now, I'd like to drive 7 hrs, drop and hook and drive 7 hrs home. That's 14 plus a break or 2 here or there would be pretty close to 16. Is there any reason that wouldnt work?
Thanks in advance.

 

When you say "drive", is that actually 7 hours behind the wheel each way? If so, no it won't work since the 16 hour day only extends your 14 hour clock not the 11 hours of driving time.

 

Yes, there is a problem with that. You cannot drive more than 11 hours before you need to take a 10 hour break.