Alcohol prohibited from trucks during down time?

FAA regulations require 8 hrs. I’m not sure where he came up with 24.

 

I can't break things down state by state, but places like malls and truckstops often treat their parking lots like public property and allow local law enforcement full and free access.

 

Alcohol is prohibited in the cab of a commercial vehicle with the operator in control of the vehicle. Interpretation of this can vary...best to just not have any period.

 

There is an exception in the green book, when the driver is off duty driving, they may carry alcohol in the cab.

 

Lot of problems with hair testing and frankly the regulations. Mary Jane is legal in many states with more coming. The idea that a driver can be fired for something he did months ago that was perfectly legal is BS. A new driver could finish CDL school and be denied work for doing something perfectly legal before he even decided to drive a truck. As far as all these drunk truck drivers you imagine are out there you ought to take a look at the data. The percentage of drivers in post crash testing showing any drugs or alcohol in their system is a fraction of 1%. And even they might not have been impaired while driving. Could have smoked a joint on the weekend. The vast majority of truck drivers take safety very seriously.

 

Cannabis is illegal at the federal level and interstate truck driving is regulated at the federal level, which means that with respect to truck driving, cannabis is never legal at any time, anywhere.

 

True. But if you carry a CDL increasingly traffic courts will not allow you to plead down or take driving school and an overzealous LEO can ticket you for "impaired driving" even if you blow under .08 and screw you up anyway. Sure you can hire a lawyer and maybe win depending how corrupt the judge is but that CDL is a real liability even when you're driving a car. I got an open container violation for having a 12 pack on the back seat of my car with a couple beers missing and a state trooper decided was a menace to society. In the state of Illinois any alcohol transported except in it's original unopened packaging is an open container violation even if the can is not open and you blow 0 BAC. Because I carry a CDL I could not take driving school and have the charge dismissed. I had to hire a lawyer to plead it down or lose my job. This was 10 years ago and even then the judge was very reluctant to accept the deal. These days it would be game over. The day I finally retire from this miserable profession I'm gonna walk into the DMV and go back to a D license.

 

Truck driving is the job of last resort. Go back to cartography.

 

I know this post is several months old. I was planning to make this post then but forgot. This is really not on topic and I will not post any more links to CFR 14 on these boards. I just posted this one because I have seen several comments that are actually wrong with regard to aviation over the years.

This is from 14CFR part 91. I am not going to post the entire section. Pay attention to what 91.17 (a) (1) actually says. 8 hours between the bottle and the throttle! You drink ANY AMOUNT of alcohol and you can't legally fly for 8 hours. However, it is (2) (3) and especially (4) that gets pilots in trouble. A .04 is about 2 drinks for the average person. More pilots get into trouble with (4) then (1). They can drink so much that even after 8 hours their levels are still over that .04 maximum.

§91.17 Alcohol or drugs.

(a) No person may act or attempt to act as a crewmember of a civil aircraft—

(1) Within 8 hours after the consumption of any alcoholic beverage;

(2) While under the influence of alcohol;

(3) While using any drug that affects the person's faculties in any way contrary to safety; or

(4) While having an alcohol concentration of 0.04 or greater in a blood or breath specimen. Alcohol concentration means grams of alcohol per deciliter of blood or grams of alcohol per 210 of breath.

 

I am not going to quote some of these comments because some of them are 10 years old. However, I have taken note of some errors made. One that stands out is CDL holders when driving a POV are exempt from actions taken against their CDL. This is in serious error! I think people need to go take a look at the tables in 383.51, Look VERY carefully and closely. Right on table 1 the 2nd row from the left AND all the way to the right, look closely at the wording!