Beer in the sleeper?

I see no problem with it. Your hubby does not have a breath alcohol level, the bottle has no alcohol in it, at that point it is no different than any other can or bottle you would have in the truck.

 

I get this question quite often. If your in your sleeper at a truck stop or wherever. I doubt you are going to see me. But you can not consume alcohol within 4 hors of going on duty. You can not have any detectable presence of alcohol. If you plan on not doing anything for quite a few hours and can consume alcohol and get it out of your system it will be hard for someone like me to catch you with alcohol in the truck. Before you take to the road, remove the alcohol and ensure that you have no alcohol in your system or truck. Here's the regulation:


§392.5 Alcohol prohibition.
(a) No driver shall—
(a)(1) Use alcohol, as defined in §382.107 of this subchapter, or be under the influence of alcohol, within 4 hours before going on duty or operating, or having physical control of, a commercial motor vehicle; or
(a)(2) Use alcohol, be under the influence of alcohol, or have any measured alcohol concentration or detected presence of alcohol, while on duty, or operating, or in physical control of a commercial motor vehicle; or
(a)(3) Be on duty or operate a commercial motor vehicle while the driver possesses wine of not less than one-half of one per centum of alcohol by volume, beer as defined in 26 U.S.C. 5052(a), of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954, and distilled spirits as defined in section 5002(a)(8), of such Code. However, this does not apply to possession of wine, beer, or distilled spirits which are:
(a)(3)(i) Manifested and transported as part of a shipment; or
(a)(3)(ii) Possessed or used by bus passengers.
(b) No motor carrier shall require or permit a driver to—
(b)(1) Violate any provision of paragraph (a) of this section; or
(b)(2) Be on duty or operate a commercial motor vehicle if, by the driver’s general appearance or conduct or by other substantiating evidence, the driver appears to have used alcohol within the preceding 4 hours.
(c) Any driver who is found to be in violation of the provisions of paragraph (a) or (b) of this section shall be placed out-of-service immediately for a period of 24 hours.
(c)(1) The 24-hour out-of-service period will commence upon issuance of an out-of-service order.
(c)(2) No driver shall violate the terms of an out-of-service order issued under this section.
(d) Any driver who is issued an out-of-service order under this section shall:
(d)(1) Report such issuance to his/her employer within 24 hours; and
(d)(2) Report such issuance to a State official, designated by the State which issued his/her driver’s license, within 30 days unless the driver chooses to request a review of the order. In this case, the driver shall report the order to the State official within 30 days of an affirmation of the order by either the Division Administrator or State Director for the geographical area or the Administrator.
(e) Any driver who is subject to an out-of-service order under this section may petition for review of that order by submitting a petition for review in writing within 10 days of the issuance of the order to the Division Administrator or State Director for the geographical area in which the order was issued. The Division Administrator or State Director may affirm or reverse the order. Any driver adversely affected by such order of the Division Administrator or State Director may petition the Administrator for review in accordance with 49 CFR 386.13.

Now for the Interpretations. Pay attention to question #3, which I believe is a fine line. Some guys claim this, in my experience, but are under loads and not relieved of duty.

Question 1: Do possession and use of alcoholic beverages in the passenger area of a motorcoach constitute ‘‘possession’’ of such beverages under §392.5(a)(3)?
Guidance: No.
Question 2: Can a motor carrier, which finds a driver with a detectable presence of alcohol, place him/her out of service in accordance with §392.5?
Guidance: No. The term ‘‘out of service’’ in the context of §392.5 refers to an act by a State or Federal official. However, the motor carrier must prevent the driver from being on-duty or from operating or being in physical control of a CMV for at least as long as is necessary to prevent a violation of §392.5.
Question 3: Does the prohibition against carrying alcoholic beverages in §392.5 apply to a driver who uses a company vehicle, for personal reasons, while off-duty?
Guidance: No. For example, an owner-operator using his/her own vehicle in an off-duty status, or a driver using a company truck or tractor for transportation to a motel, restaurant, or home, would normally be outside the scope of this section.
Question 4: Would an alcohol test, performed by an employer pursuant to 49 CFR part 382, with a result greater than 0.00 BAC, but less than 0.02 BAC, establish that a driver was in violation of 49 CFR 392.5(a)(2), having any measured alcohol concentration while on duty?
Guidance: No. The FHWA believes that a 0.02 BAC is the lowest level at which a scientifically accurate breath/blood alcohol concentration can be measured in an employer-based test under part 382. The FHWA further believes that this use of a 0.02 BAC standard is consistent with FHWA’s long established zero tolerance standard for alcohol. This guidance in no way impedes or precludes any action taken by a law enforcement official because of a finding that a BAC level was less than 0.02 BAC.

 

You know Doc back in the day. Long before smoe of these good folks were born. I was at that truck stop and did the same thing. We called them parkinglot parties. Everyone would pich in we would have a couple grilles going and a trash barrlw full of cold drinks adult and otherwise. I'm not saying that there weren't people that didn't leave after dringing but it was very few. I think the Cal. vehical regs state that you are not suppose to have any alcohol with in 24hrs of going on duty.

 

Ok I dont drink alcohol or beer anymore, my choice. I don't care if other drivers drink when they have time off or a 34 reset, hell it's THEIR business. I just hope that everybody uses common sense and makes #### sure they are sober and rested before they take the wheel. It's bad enough that we ( truckers in general) don't get "QUALITY" rest, dont muddy it up with a hangover thats all I'm saying.

 

so its been made clear what the LAW says about this topic. the next part is what does your company say about it?

i know the company i work for will fire me for even having a beer at lunch. and i do nothing more important than answer phones. company rules are many times alot stricter than even the laws regarding such things. i'm pretty sure the Police could care less if i down one beer at lunch provided i'm under the legal limit.

 

Thanks for putting that on there that should help some people UNDERSTAND, It is NOT Illegal to Sit in the RACK drink a cold one sleep for your 8 or 10 get up (throw out the trash) and Run down the ROAD.


TO that Big Rigger Guy,
I really wish you would read an entire post and not skim it take out what you wish to pick at and then comment.
So to answer your post back to me, If you recall I said Being Stuck in Ontario for the Weekend on a Friday, any Driver who has been out here for more than months knows If you are stuck in Ontario after 5:00 pm on Friday and You have no freight Lined up you aint gettin squat till Monday. But then Most Work for Companies with Travel Agents. I am fixing to work for a company with Travel Agents for the First time in a Long time, I am used to using my phone gettin a load call the Boss and telling who/why/where and What, Big Difference from many of the steering wheel holders on the road today, Up until about 2 months ago (and for the last 7) I worked percentage, booked my own loads, and made a great living. Before you say it Company closed due to Owner not making payments on equipment putting the money up his nose.

And Just so This gets read real clear,
Any Snitch Trucker out there who gets his jolly's being a Rat, Your Balls will fall off.
If any of you ever see me out on the open road and I am fudgin up tell me, do not call be human.
But If I am Parked, sitting out behind my rig or across the street in a Bar, and you walk up and tell me I should not be drinking, you might just learn the hard way. I will never tell another GROWN person what he or she should not do on their own time and I would expect that if you do not have enough to worry about with your own life and truck, that you will go ahead and drive mine for me. Just send me the check in the mail.
I come from a school of thinking that If it ain't hurting you and it ain't known of my business I just carry on.
That is one of the Biggest problems with trucking, everyone is more concerned with what everybody else is doing except minding their own business.
As for the rest of you who would walk to the back with your own, beer or if you did not have one ( I would give ya one) come on back and take a load off your feet and mind.

And for the record I am not saying get bombed and drive 8 hours later, Be a responsible adult have a couple eat good live good we work hard enough without having the Trucking Nazi's playing truck stop narcs telling on us.

 

(a)(3) Be on duty or operate a commercial motor vehicle while the driver possesses wine of not less than one-half of one per centum of alcohol by volume, beer as defined in 26 U.S.C. 5052(a), of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954, and distilled spirits as defined in section 5002(a)(8), of such Code.

There's that pesky "on duty" thing Brickman mentioned. Logged off duty? Not on duty. Seems simple enough that I don't see the confusion.

 

Doc,

I'm not saying that it's legal, I put the regulation out there so driver's could read it. Your companies have policeis as well. My suggestion is don't have it at all. But if you do, don't possess it, or have it contained in the vehicle when you hit the road. Don't have a detectable presence while operating a truck. Most of the guys I get with alcohol, do just as you wrote. They will drink in the rack and wake up and want to get a early start. I'll stop them, some will have it in the truck, some will have thrown all the trash out. However the driver has the detectable presence of alcohol on his breath and person. At that point, the field sobriety tests are done, then the breath test. Most folks do not understand the process that occurs for alcohol to get out of your system. On average, the average person loses .015 BAC (breath alcohol content) per hour once the individual stops drinking. So to make it easy, every 2 hours the average person loses .03 BAC. So if a guy or gal is a .15 BAC at 9 pm. By 0500 hours the average person will be .03 BAC with normal metabolism of the alcohol and no other factors. Each person is unique when it comes to how much alcohol it will take to get them "intoxicated." But in this scenario, the driver would be in violation of the 392.5 regulation but not at the DUI threshold. It's not what each and every person will be, but it is a representation of the average person with normal metabolism. It can be a good example to show you how, someone can think they have "slept it off" but in reality they are not legal to drive, even after 8 hours.

The best advice I have heard from the driver's on this thread is, don't do it while on the road, wait til hometime. Why risk everything for a beer?

 

My ex brother in law was a city cop for Cleveland, Ga. One Sunday morning he stopped a car from Atlanta heading south out of Helen,GA party capital of the North Ga mountains! He wound up having to give the guy a sobriety test and of course the guy blew a 1.2. The sad part was Helen, Ga closed the bars at 12 midnight and that's when he went to his motel bombed out of his mind! His thinking like everyone else is I went to sleep and now I'm good to go. Yep right to jail!

As Diesel Bear said and showed us it takes time to get the funny juice out of the system! Don't fool yourself with the hours game of 4 or 8.

And Doc put it wisely, you're an adult but why take a chance! The same I keep saying. That POS plastic card in your wallet cost you an awful lot of money not counting the schooling and BS you youngsters put up with now to get put into a truck! One or two beers and hit the sack might be ok but why take a chance? I too enjoy (or did till radiation and chemo screwed up my taste buds!) a good beer but I NEVER had more than one when I decided to have a sip! It just isn't worth the problems!

I've also watched police at Dallas Pike, Jacksonville, FL Atlanta, GA and someplace up in PA pull a driver out of the truck after watching him come from a bar and haul him away after blowing on the straw!

You have to remember that the FMCSA is good but if LOCAL law is harder than federal then local law prevails! Have one, enjoy it but don't risk a night anywhere except someplace you'd rather be as jails, as I've found out over many years, are not that much fun and they are way overrated! Especially if it's not the one at home!

Use your common sence when enjoying a drink while out on the road,
Rollover