Alcohol prohibited from trucks during down time?

During downtime, they could probably twist it and get you into trouble if they wanted to, but i've never had a problem. So long as some conditions are met,

A. The keys can't be in the ignition
B. You can't be sitting in the drivers seat of the vehicle while drinking, or under the influence of alcohol.
and;
C. You are on your 10, or 34 hour break.

If you're at a truck stop and the police come in to bother you, technically they are breaking the law because it's private property (assuming you are at a truck stop). This is over-ruled if the truck stop has given them permission to be there, or someone has called them on you.

It is illegal to have it in the truck with you if you are just going down the road, opened or not. However they would need probable cause to search your vehicle, or consent in order for them to find it. I never drank, but i was siting in texas one night with a bunch of drivers from the same company who were all drinking, and a trooper rolled in and asked them if they were leaving any time soon, they told him they were on their restart.. He asked where their truck keys were, one had them in his pocket and the other one had them in the sidebox of his trailer (i guess he had this problem before) and he went on his way, there was no issue.

I'm sure that if an officer was having a bad day he could have probably spent alot more time on it than necessary, and something probably would've came of it. But for the most part I think they leave us alone under the understanding that we technically live in our trucks while on the road.

Hope this helps.

 

Hello JB

You have two threads under the same title in two different places, the other one is under, "Trucking Industry Regulations".

The User CP (Control Panel), located on the tool bar, will list what threads you have replies to.

Have a great week