70 hr rule

Its 70 hours and 8 days... once you've hit that 8th day, the hours from the first day drop off of the 70-hour total. Take a look at the "recap" section in your logbook - it should have some instructions for how this works...

Now if they want you to exceed that 70-hour limit before the 8th day, then you have a valid concern. Hit the DOT cops (like the Commerce City clowns out there on Quebec St) and you'll be the one paying the price for that. You can call the state department of transportation, and let them know about the situation. Be sure of what is going on, and double check that you aren't misunderstanding how the "recap" works before you do this. OSHA rules cover "whistle blowers" and do prevent them from firing employees, but you might want to check with an attorney dealing with labor issues before you go that far.

 

I was scratchin' my head about that too. If he's not going beyond the local mileage limit, he's just required to keep track of his hours...

 

Whoa... you don't need to take a 34-hour restart (at least on the OTR side) - the hours from the 1st day vanish - get subtracted off of the total at the beginning of the 8th day. Totally legal.

 

Well, what Ironpony said, if your doing 70/8 days then your hours from that "1st day" will automatically drop off, or 60/7 days whatever the case may be and that is totally legal. But say you were on your 5th day of work and they wanted you to drop that 1st day then yes that is illegal

 

You better check on construction/agriculture differences! there are exceptions to the rule...and not necessarily by FMCSA but by local/state authority...it depends on the state and what kind of work you are doing.

We had an 88 hour exception for 7 days in CA...hauling asphalt to a road construction site...I too thought it was illegal, but DOT said it was good with specific exceptions due to the weather/temperature/and other issues.

Best pop into the DOT bearhouse on your own time and find out for sure! If they are asking you to falsify a log illegally...the local bears might want to know about this!

 

Good point about the exceptions. Now I want to know how to falsify a log legally as opposed to illegally

 

Don't you mean after the 8th day or am I misunderstanding?