An FMCSR question

Yup, an hour for a shower.
Why rush it, especially when it happens only every 2-3-4 days?
If I have to add to my stress level just to shower, I'll wait until tomorrow so I can enjoy it more.

And I've been doing things the same way for 1.5 years.
I am still here at Swift.
And even if I have a high idle time, or have a high refusal rate because of unreal Plus-1 schedules, or I am 'out of route' too much because I went a better way, I am always told "Good job, keep it up and we appreciate your good work" at each monthly review.

Yes, I do call the shots - within reason.
That is exactly what I do.
I accept those loads that I can do safely in the stated times, and I refuse/adjust the loads that I can't.
And by 'safely' I mean, what I can do safely in my own time frame.


I get there on time, and I deliver on time. 0 service failures.
That, bottom line, is what matters most.


This is an industry that relies on the drivers more than anything.
If we can't get the product to the market at a certain hour the consumers might have to wait a bit.
But if we push it too much to make that deadline, someone might die as a result.
Many have.

Which is worse?

 

When I drove for CFI, they gave us that card. My current carrier prints it on the front cover of the logbooks they provide us.

 

There is no requirement to allow meal time. It's for when you do eat a half hour lunch you are relieved of all responsibility of the regs. In other words you are a free man for a 1/2 hour.

I do believe your employer could work you without the meal break tho...... fair labor regs don't apply to us scumbag truckers.

 

i worked for an LTL company, that would do an automatic docking of 30 minutes for lunch each day. however, if you worked through that 30 minutes, they would pay you. many guys would work all through the day, then just leave that 30 minutes early.

 

That's hillarious.

 

I had to recheck, because I wasn't sure if I had this properly stated, but apparently, as part of the new HOS rules Effective July 1 2013 (unless otherwise challenged and changed, again), you will be required to take a half hour break.

- Hours of Service LOGBOOK Examples, February 2013 FMCSA

So within that 14, if you drive the full 11 and/or work the full 14, you will be required to take a 30 minute minimum "lunch break".

Hope this helps further clarify.

 

So, in other words, instead of fueling, pulling up, and grabbing a subway sandwich, and going. You're going to have to go around and pray there's a parking spot because the lot is full of every other driver "taking their mandatory 30" and staring out the windshield staring at their watch ... stupid, stupid, stupid reg if it stands. Parking issues are bad enough as it is but 10,s of thousands of trucks having to find parking only for a half hour mandatory break is going to make a bad situation worse. It's probably a reg that was pressed by the fast food franchise owner's association trying to get driver's to "go in and eat since they have to be there anyway", instead of fixing a sandwich on the side of the road inside of 15-20 minutes.

 

We shouldn't be pulling up blocking other drivers at the fuel island to get a sandwich anyway, STexan, but you're right.

This is one rule we could have done without, but I suspect there may have been more of an influence from California on this one than the fast food association, since California likes it when the Feds approve their liberal law making efforts.

 

They do?

News to me!!!!!

Even the courts can't make a decision on what a reg is and what it's PRECISE meaning is.....try and get the same "interpretation" of a single reg even from 2 separate coops (let alone in different states)!!