Quik stops

To be "perfectly legal", you are supposed to draw a line down, or "flag it", and record the nearest town and state, but I think that most people who take a quick duck into a rest area, and are back on the road in a matter of a few minutes, don't bother with it. It would tend to clutter up the remark's section if you did this, and you have an overactive bladder or something, so I don't see any need to sweat that small of a break.

I'm doing this from memory, because the FMCSA site is down at the moment, but unless I am sadly mistaken, under that scenario, it is considered, on-duty, non-driving almost universally, according the the guidance section of the rules.

 

I use quick stops to help hours sometimes,

Say i dive into the rest area at 0635, leave at 0645, I gain 5 minutes of driving, if I record this as sleeper or off duty.

Can also use this to preserve hours on a day you dont have to run hard, shaving off 5 min 3 times saves you 15min of duty time for a later day....

Also whjen leaving truckstops if I leave at 0553 it is legal to say you left at 0600 as it is within 7min and closer to 0600 than 0545, and can save your log a little when it takes 5 min to get from truckstop to the freeway.




K

 

anything that can be completed in less than 7.5 minutes does not legally have to be mentioned on a log. but as mentioned, sometimes its worth it to help keep your hours a little lower.

 

Look at it this way....If you stop for a restroom break and spend 6 minutes in the rest area and you do this say 3 times a day that is eighteen minutes but if you log it as 15 per stop that is 45 minutes...45 min = about 40 miles....40 miles times your mileage rate...just how much are those breaks costing you.

 

If you are in ny or me or pa,nh, the dot are watching alot in these states and rest areas also va.,if they time you or watch you and check you,if you flaggeg and it was 15 mins or more they will write you a violation,between 80 and 100. i believe. I haven't been caught,like I said in another post log that 15 minsor flag if less,I put it down as a safety ck, I aways take a minute to kick the tires. I have been told by dot when you do this little bit,it looks good to them and helps you in the long run. like earth brown said,it also helps your driving time. If you get caught driving over 11 or 70 you can pay up to 1000. fine. All it takes is an accident and your screwed and caught dead wrong.

 

I don't log any short breaks when I stop at a rest area, or pop into the mini mart for a soda or some chips. The stops are usually short enough that they aren;t worth logging. My other reason for doing so is that the time slowing down, actually stopped, and getting back up to speed lowers my average speed. So if someone wanted to get really cute and figure from my log exactly what speed the truck is rolling, this lowers my average speed down a bit.

Now, no one where I work does this, so it isn't a really big concern, but as much as possible I like to keep the average speed down, and if I am running 5 miles over and make no stops, then that might show when a DOT guy checks logs.

 

Ahhhhhh the days of paper logs...