16 hour

Ok... I dug into it a bit more. Looks like I was both right and wrong.

§ 395.1 (b) Driving conditions -(1)Adverse driving conditions. Except as provided in paragraph (h)(2) of this section, a driver who encounters adverse driving conditions, as defined in §395.2, and cannot, because of those conditions, safely complete the run within the maximum driving time permitted by §§395.3(a) or 395.5(a)may drive and be permitted or required to drive a commercial motor vehicle for not more than 2 additional hours beyond the maximum time allowed under §§395.3(a) or 395.5(a) to complete that run or to reach a place offering safety for the occupants of the commercial motor vehicle and security for the commercial motor vehicle and its cargo.

In short, inclement weather or emergency driving situations do NOT extended your 14 work day to 16 hours... It DOES however extended your allowable drive time from 11 hours up to 13 hours.

 

Ok... And I also dug this up on FMCSA's FAQ:

E. 16-HOUR EXCEPTION E-1. What is a "duty tour" as the term is used in Part § 395.1(o)?The 16-hour exemption in § 395.1(o) is designed for one-day "duty tours." The duty tour is the interval between the time a driver comes on-duty and is released from duty on a daily basis. This period begins and ends at the driver's normal work reporting location and may only be used following 10 or more consecutive hours off-duty, 10 or more consecutive hours in the sleeper berth, or a combination of 10 or more consecutive hours off-duty and sleeper berth time.

E-2. If a driver is "on duty, not driving" during the 15th and 16th hour of his duty tour and does not drive after that, has he used the 16-hour exception in § 395.1(o)?No. Example: If a driver was on duty 16 hours on Wednesday, but didn't drive after being on duty 14 hours, could the driver use the 16 hour extension on Friday and be allowed to drive after the 14th hour as long as all other conditions and regulations (11-, 16-, and 60/70- hour rules) were met?In this scenario, the driver may choose to use the 16-hour extension on Friday as long as the driver meets all of the requirements for the 16-hour exception outlined in Part § 395.1(o) and also remains in compliance with Part § 395.3(a)(1) and Part § 395.3(b). Although the 16 hours on-duty on Wednesday will count toward the driver's 60/70 calculations, the driver has not utilized the 16-hour exception unless the driver has actually driven after the 14 th hour.

E-3. May a driver having more than one work reporting location use the § 395.1(o), 16-hour exception?As stated in § 395.1(o) and current § 395.1 Interpretation Question 15, a driver having more than one work reporting location could use the § 395.1(o) 16-hour exception; however, its availability would be limited by the requirement of § 395.1(o)(1) that the "carrier released the driver from duty at that location for the previous five duty tours the driver has worked..." A driver alternating between two normal work locations on a weekly basis would not be able to utilize the exception unless he worked six days per week, and then the exception could only be used on the sixth day.


I have no idea what the above actually means. If someone can please explain it for the rest of us, I'd also appreciate it. My carrier never invokes any of these rules and exceptions since we have no less than a one 34 reset per week.

 

a big technical jargon headache as usual.

 

Yeah... No kidding. You almost need a law degree just to understand half of these regulations to do your job. They made even more adjustments to the HOS regulations for June 2013. Those new rules also got me puzzeled.

It is sad when the OP asks a simple question on clarifying a rule... And the answers to those questions that the FMCSA provides are so complex and confusing. For what it is worth, hope I could help.

 

situations like this are why i am so glad i still run paper logs.

 

One thing to keep in mind about the 2-hour "adverse conditions" allowance: It does NOT apply if the conditions are as they were predicted to be. In other words, if a snowstorm had been in the forecast for a week and you end up having to drive through it, you should have known it was going to snow and planned your route accordingly so no extra drive time is permitted. It ONLY applies to unforeseen situations which might arise while you are en route.

That 2-hour adverse conditions allowance is also completely different from the 16 hour rule. In order to use the 16 hour rule, you MUST be a local driver...starting and stopping each of your previous 5 days at the same location. Obviously if you drive OTR, that probably isn't going to happen.

Also, the 16 hour rule applies to your work day. You are STILL limited to 11 hours of driving. The 2-hour adverse conditions allowance extends your 11 hours of drive time by up to 2 hours in order to reach a safe place to stop. Keep in mind that it is UP TO 2 extra hours of drive time. That allowance stops when you reach a safe place to stop. If you just drove past a truck stop with 50 empty parking spaces, you are no longer driving legally because you are over your 11 hours of driving and have driven beyond that next available safe place to stop....unless you are a local driver trying to complete a run which SHOULD have been able to have been completed in a single day in which case you are allowed to use those 2 hours to complete the run.

 

and these guys wonder why we prefer paper logs

 

The 16 hour exception is there to allow the driver who usually makes it back to the terminal every night to go home the opportunity to make it back to the terminal to go home if he happens to be delayed somewhere along the way. For example, if you have a run that typically takes 13 hours to complete, and always end each shift at the same location as you started, then if one day you blow out a tire and spend 2 hours sitting on the side of the road waiting for a tire shop to come put a new tire on the truck...that means you'd be at 15 hours for the day by the time you'd make it home...and you would be in violation of the 14 hour rule if not for this exception.

Suppose you make it back home at the 13th hour...just like you do every day....but during your post trip inspection you discover a problem that needs to be fixed...say a light isn't working. You try replacing the bulb, but the new bulb isn't working either. After 3 hours, you've FINALLY found the bad spot in the wire and fixed it. IF you are logging LEGALLY, you have been on line 4 for all of that time you've spent working on the truck. However, those 3 hours were in addition to the 13 hour day you had already put in completing your regular run...so you are at 16 hours for the day. Since you have not DRIVEN after the 14th hour, you have not utilized the 16 hour exception. The 14 hour rule only states that you cannot DRIVE after the 14th hour until you have had a 10 hour break...it doesn't say you cannot WORK past the 14th hour. So, when you are done fixing the problem, you take a 10 hour break and you're good to go the next day...and you still have that 16 hour exception to use if you need it.

You have to be released from duty at the same place for the previous 5 days. If you work part time for 2 different companies, you would have 2 different locations from which you are released from duty. If you work the one job M-W-F and the other job T-R-S, you would never be allowed to use the 16 hour exception because you have not been released from duty at the same location for the previous 5 days. However, if you worked one job M-T-W-R-F-S one week, and the other job M-T-W-R-F-S the next week and alternated working a week at a time at each job, you would only have the 16 hour exception available to you on Saturday, because until then you had not been released from duty at the same location for the previous 5 days.

Hope that helps.

 

Awesome!!! Thanks a lot!!! That actually directly applies to me since I am a LTL linedriver that starts and ends the shift at the same terminal each day. This helps out a lot!!!