I am going to completely disregard the claims of Constitutional issues related to the workplace in the USA; more particularly trucking.
When it is necessary for me to decide to take a truck from say Garden City Kansas to Liberal 60 miles to the south to access fuel (Authorized stop, Im pretty sure you can get diesel in Garden City but Company fuel, keep in mind)
I know I will be off two to three days straight waiting on my load to finish in Garden City. So I am off duty. I happen to have a 18 wheeler, in this case Bobtail. It's my personal Car now.
If I am off duty, Dispatch is happy with the status of trailer being loaded, which will take time and has no other work for me to do there. Then I am literally with time on my hands, full tanks of fuel and a chance to take time off. I can do it in the tractor or I can do it in a hotel or... perhaps in 10 hours I can be home for a while. (It's only 650 miles, or in Bobtail terms 220 dollars in fuel one way.
Remember in my time companies did take money back to pay fuel. SO If I wanted to pay 200 in fuel to get home to take care of wife and chores etc for a day or two, that I will do. Better than say going to Denver and flying which costs more than that in time and money.
But for the immediate purpose, Liberal has become my home base for everything I need for several days. (Trailer is being loaded in Garden City) It will be time to take care of me and maintain a rest and ready to go when the trailer is loaded.
The very best situation is for DOT, FMCSA and all others to essentially leave the Personal Conveyance situation ALONE. That is me time. I happen to have a bobtail or sometimes a whole 18 wheeler. What do you want? A ramp to be added on to where the tractor is longer by say 10 feet and a personal car strapped and chained to it so I can literally take off in my personal car with no regulation at all other than rules of the road, insurance and licensing?
We may have to start strapping personal vehicles onto 18 wheelers somewhere. IS that what they want? There is no more clearer indication of Off Duty than that. Take off in a personal car.
If again DOT and FMCSA wants to make rules and start restricting, regulating or otherwise limiting my ability to take off on my own time anywhere in the USA, then we will never going to be able to define time off as truly such.
I could leave everyone with this thought. Personal Conveyance and Off Duty is not really the problem.
It's more productive to examine why it takes three days to load a reefer in Garden City going to say Sacremento CA for a Grocery Distribution.
It would be a best case use of my time, that of my company and so on to show up in Garden City, trailer is loaded in 1 hour and we are on our way to California within two. Not three days waiting around making nothing.
FMCSA adds frequent questions to Personal Conveyance page
Discussion in 'ELD Forum | Questions, Answers and Reviews' started by Dieselboss, Nov 12, 2018.
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Is your sleeper bulletproof? -
The issue! Can employees of common carriers use their personal time for conveyence when traveling to and from work while driving a CMV?
According to the DOT, NO!
When we use a personal vehicle, not a DOT registered CMV we are considered commuting and are not compensated. However, if you are deadheading in a CMV to pick up a load from you home, you are considered on duty and usually compensated for pick up and delivering a load. MTY or loaded, the miles we drive are part of doing business. Cost for deadhead miles is a deductable expense and employees are generally paid for MTY miles.
The rules and regulations are designated specifically as to imply a CMV is used for commerce. Thus the argument from some drivers is the need to use of said CMV for personal conveyance. Simply put the DOT has given and taken certain privileges and liberties of professional truckers. As they do not allow conveyance to or from home or home terminal to be considered off duty, but allow use of a CMV to travel unmolested when following their guidance regarding the use of a CMV for personal conveyance.Last edited: Nov 18, 2018
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By law they are going to have to start paying for the commute as it's required work now.
Check this out, sleeper berth paid as it's required by the regulators... Commuting will definitely be next now;
Truck Drivers: Is Sleep Time Compensable? | Herrmann Law
All of this nonsense is thanks to the FMCSA with their head up their ((*)) Regulations instead of allowing any common sense.
FMCSA keeps pushing boundaries until resistance will be met.. So far everyone just cowers to everything they spew , however ridiculous it might be.Timin770 Thanks this. -
I really don’t have much to add to this. Other than to say that a huge team of corporate lawyers have been wading through this mess for some time now.
Who’s team, I won’t say. But it will effect my job when they hand down their thoughts on the regs. I suspect, it won’t be in the drivers favor regardless. -
lol i bobtail home under pc multiple times a week. if i can get to the dc before that clock runs out, im dropping trailer and going home. not sleeping in my truck 30 mins from the house
fss99701, olddog_newtricks and Dieselboss Thank this. -
US is worried about fighting terrorists overseas, meanwhile we have domestic terrorists to deal with-DOT, cops
Matt43324 Thanks this. -
When I was working for Fairchild freight for an owner operator they were always wanting me to use personal conveyance.
I remember heading into Ontario California I was about a hundred and forty miles out and had about 35 minutes left on my clock the owner operator I work for told me it's okay just run a hundred and fifty miles loaded under personal conveyance. I told him Bull crap I can't afford the ticket if my logs inspected or worst case scenario is I get into an accident running loaded under personal conveyance 150 miles and destroy my driving career.kemosabi49 and Matt43324 Thank this.
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