Werner - Not What I'd Heard (Thank God.)

Regarding riders permits. I talked to safety today at Omaha. Here's the deal:

If you are a newbie CDL driver, you have to wait 3 months after going solo.
If you are an experienced driver, new with Werner, you have to wait until after 30 days solo driving.

Any further questions, call safety.

 

I did this just yesterday, had no hours, was not under a load, was not avaliable for a load, put mac 52 in, checked to drive short distance from shp or consignee to eat or take a break, and Werner logs aporved this. So there is some misunderstanding to this. Mabey O/O can only do this, I don' know, but Werner logs let's me do it when needed, and I have never been told I can't.

 

As you know, I dont know the macros and other half is asleep. Is 52 for personal drive time? Ill check more on this tomorrow when people Im more familiar with are in the office in Omaha. (And I'll keep it all under the cuff.) What I'm suspecting is that its not "suppose" to be done however, it can be done based upon whoever is working in logs/dispatch.

As for driving on personal time, yep I know of quite a few instances where a driver was out of hours (not Highlander), and was say 150 miles away. Dispatch (not logs) approved for personal drive time for the entire 150 miles, bobtailing, and got away with it quite a few times, just to get the driver back for another load. Needless to say, I know that person was terminated from Werner, however I don't exactly know the reasons behind the termination, but it did have something to do with logs.

I think we are dealing with "official" answers (what is suppose to be done) and "unofficial" answers (what can be done) here. The bottom line however, is that if you get pulled over by DOT, you're prolly gonna get screwed on the personal drive time. Know what I mean? But I'm curious as to how it shows up on the logs. I'd look at Highlanders logs, but he hasn't asked for personal drive time in forever and a day so I probably don't have an example of it. Do you have one (excluding the dates and times, just the lines)?

 

Personal drive time does not show up on your logs. I gey my logs sent to the house and when on personal drivetime your on line 1 because your off duty and not available for a load. My fathers company had a paperless log and he could also do this to get home for the night. Last month I drove 11 hrs to the cons. And went on personal drivetime for 175 miles to go on hometime. I will ask a officer I know in California, he does education with all the carriers in the state about new laws and regs. He also talks at a lot of the truck schools in the state. I have his cell phone number, so ill try and get ahold of him soon. I have a feeling this is one of those "grey areas" noone wants to make a call on, lol. Who says we can't have a great debate on these fourms,lol. Get back with you soon.

 

I asked Highlander how it was logged, and he said that he's never asked for personal drive time when he's out of hours, so he doesn't know how its logged. He says if hes within 15 minutes of a destination, he takes the log violation rather than do something he doesn't want to do, which in his opinion, is breaking the law using personal drive time when hes out of hours, whether that's true or not.

Needless to say, I called the local yard and never heard so much stuttering, and defensive words before in my life on any matter, with answers to my questions being questioned back as to "Who wants to know" (yet they know me pretty well and I identified myself to them), "Why do you want to know", "Why do you need to know this" answering that it was a discussion on how it is handled and being eventually put on speakerphone. So I asked how is it logged and trying to understand this process, and got questioned again. Needless to say, I finally did the yes or no question. The answer was "No, we never give personal drive time when a driver is out of hours, and I have to go I've got another call coming in" and then hung up on. I know for a fact this has been done before, as I've been told by several local drivers it has been, including the one that was terminated. And I learned the longest that driver went on personal drive time was from Portland Oregon to Las Vegas Nevada, without stopping to sleep, not under a load, but as soon as he was back in Vegas, he got assigned a load with hours gained on his clock. And this driver was being dispatched out of the same office I called above. Need I say more on that. (People really need to learn to be more nice to me...)

But I think this is how it works, and it is within the law, kinda. If you are out of hours, meaning your 11/14 or 70 is at zero, you have to be Line 1 for this to work, because you are not suppose to be "officially" driving, and Line 2 well.. thats obvious. However, if you DONT have a load, you can be considered not "on duty" (FMCSA thang) and thus free to do as you wish. Werner is ALLOWING you to drive their truck for personal reasons, thus it does not count on your clock. This means you are driving on Line 1, for personal reasons, as long as you are not assigned a load. This is NOT a "safe haven" rule or law, this nothing more than "Werner cares about the driver and their personal life" and a favor from Werner to use their truck for "personal" reasons however, it is in their best interest to let the driver drive for 15-20 minutes and get to a place to stop if one isn't available. It also means that the system flags you to not be nailed for a log violation because you are out of hours by keeping you on Line 1, yet the truck is moving. That makes sense. And I have a feeling this can be allowed by dispatch, totally bypassing the log department. However, using the example above, it can very easily be abused.

 

I think I've just proven that it is one of those "gray areas" with my above post. This isn't a FMCSA law, State DOT law, but a "courtesy" from Werner, with a lot of room to play with.

Have a great debate on these forums without name calling, bashing, and slams? SAY IT ISN'T SO! NOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooooooo!

 

O.K. I looked in the Werner driver hand book and what iam talking about is in the "Logs" section, page 9.5 under Short distances. What iam getting at is if you can make it to your consignee within your hours but run out of hours before you are unloaded and you cannot park there, you send in your empty message, put you are not available for a load, then put in macro 52 for personal drivetime to go a short distance to park. This is done on line 1 on your logs because you are "off duty" Here is the catch, when you get to your safe haven, you send in macro 63 to let the logs department know you are now parked, then and only then your 10 hour break starts.If you are going on personal drive time to go home,Then it is different.

here is how the last part reads in the handbook,

If you are apporved for personal drivetime, you will be considered "off duty" Your Off Duty time begins when you are released from your load and ends when you are committed to the next load. The logging system should not create driving records for drivers during these periods. You are responsiable for sending macro 52 indicating you are "Off Duty driving"

If you are 30 mins away from a shp or cons and you are out of hours, thats on you, you cannot by law go on personal drivetime. If you can make within your log hours, after you are unloaded and have no hours and are not commited to another load, and not available for a load, you can use personal drivetime to go a short distance.

 

You do things in a similar vein as does techiekate, the Central Refrigerated driver. You found quick and effective solutions to problems, and made a good experience out of your career. I'm glad to see posts like yours. Thanks.

 

YOu posting that motivated me to sweep the floor, which I had been putting off for a couple of days. I now have a cleaner floor. I still need to get a good vacuum cleaner, though. I have an all-rubber floor and I've found that Simple Green wipes work great to get the rubber cleaned off on tough spots.