Can you, legally, drive 11 hours in a row.

No... that is how they taught it in school. It all changed once I was in a real truck doing a real run.
It took me about a day and a half and a $1.75 (if I remember right) to get it through my head that the way I was taught isn't the way it is done.
My trainer, who was great, charged me .25 everytime I said "in school we were taught to do it like this" LOL it got the point across, and I learned more off that $1.75 than I did with the $5,000 for school!

 

You have a point there . Much of the nonsense drivers deal with is company policy , not Federal regulation . The 150 mile tire check was done away with . You check your tires during normal stops . When you cross the scales that is not a duty status change . If you are pulled over for a roadside inspection and remain in the truck while the inspection is done you are still at the controls and not changing duty status from driving .

 

I am here to tell you that yes it can be done. I have done that and more on a few occasions. I don't recomend it though.

I used to do it when I first started. Had my own little truck and pulled wedge hauling cars. I was dang near dead when I stopped. Could not walk hardly and was all bent over with stiff legs etc.

The last time I did it was when I was on my way to detroit with a load of cars. On the way I got a call saying my mother was in the hospital in comma. I got to detroit that night, dropped my load and burned back. Drove straight to Grand Forks ND non stop. had a 12 cooler full of sandwich meat and other foods, 2 thermoses of coffee and a big wide mouth detergent jug. I don't even remember how long it took because I did not log it and did not care at the moment.

Now adays I stop and take a break in the middle somewere. My boss tries to setup schedules sometimes that leave no time for breaks and are 700 plus mile runs (68 mph truck). He gets mad when I don't make the schedule but too bad.

 

Hmmm...That depends....
I got pulled in SD one time and the trooper told me to flag the time he was inspecting...never got out of the rig.....
In NV on the 80..the same thing happened and I asked the trooper about it and he said "Why?.....you're still at the wheel..."

 

I received a level 3 several years ago. The officer instructed to record the stop as on duty not driving. This is because the change of duty changed when the vehicle was placed in park, brake set.

 

Guess it depends on how they interpret the regs. If you take it exactly as it's stated anytime you are behind the wheel in drivers seat you are supposed to be on line 3 regardless if you are moving or not.

 

Anytime that you are sitting behind the wheel, and the vehicle is not moving, they can state that you are on duty and not driving. This includes sitting there in the truck stop watching life go by.

 

Granted, they would, but I have had them calculate the time to the miles on their computer to actually see if the truck stopped or not.

 

Yes , the FMCSA and carriers have software to give the actual driving time needed between locations . This factors in normal traffic through urban areas . One of our terminals sent one of their drivers to an orientation class the day they were covering logs claiming the driver needed more instruction on logs . They said he had a dedicated run a little over 300 miles each way but he kept running out of hours . The instructor entered the starting and stopping points in ProMiles . It showed 5 hours and 40 minutes each way . The driver was right . It took more than 11 hours driving . A daily speed average is no longer accepted . Drive time between duty status change locations is also checked .