Delivering Utility Poles in a Storm Situation...legal to go over HOS?

Doubt a load of utility poles will constitute an "emergency" unless a state of emergency has been declared by the governor of that state. DoT will temporarily suspend the HoS ruling to allow key supplies into the affected areas.

If your husband reports to and from the same terminal on a daily basis and only operates within 100 air miles of his barn, he could qualify for a once a week 16 hour exemption under the short haul ruling. Let me look at the laws again, but he may be able to drive up to two additional hours as long as he doesn't go over his 16 (and he hasn't done so in the past 7 days). I just dug this up from the internet.

16-Hour Short-Haul Exception §395.1(o)

For drivers of property-carrying commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) who drive locally, there is an exception to the 14-hour rule (which requires that drivers of property-carrying CMVs stop driving upon reaching the 14th consecutive hour after first coming on duty). The so-called "short-haul" exception allows these drivers to extend the 14-hour period by two hours once per week, under certain conditions.

A driver can drive a CMV after the 14th hour after coming on duty, but not after the 16th hour, IF he or she:

• Was released from duty at the normal work reporting location for the previous 5 duty tours, and
• Returns to the normal work reporting location and is released from duty within 16 hours, and
• Has not used this exception in the previous 6 consecutive days, except following a 34-hour restart.

Drivers claiming this exception remain subject to the 11-hour driving limit, but they essentially have an extra two hours in which to complete that driving.

Note that a 34-hour restart will allow a driver to use this exception more than once every 6 days, but a restart will not affect the requirement that the driver must have returned to the normal work reporting location for the previous 5 duty tours.

Short-haul drivers who normally use the 100-air-mile exception and do not complete a standard grid log will have to complete a log on days when they use the short-haul exception, because they are working beyond the 12-hour limit (see the 100-air-mile-radius driver topic for more information).

 

Sometimes governors will issue a specific order in specific situations that authorize specific industries to be exempt from normal rules and regulations for a specific time frame to accommodate specific "emergencies" . This happens more often then you may realize. I don't know if something like this applies in your case or not.

https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/emergency

http://www.npga.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=832

http://www.gobytrucknews.com/3-states-suspend-hos-regs/123

 

If he was driving within 100 air /115 statute miles of his work location the 16-hour short-haul exception could apply.

What Is the 16-Hour Short-Haul Exception?
If you usually come back to your work-reporting location and go home at the end of your workday, you might be able to use the 16-hour short-haul exception. This exception allows you to extend the 14-consecutive-hour driving window to 16 hours once every 7 consecutive days. In order to use this exception, you must do the following:
• You must return to your work reporting location that day, as well as for your last 5 duty tours. A duty tour is the period of time from when you come to work to when you leave work. It is your “workday,” the time between your off-duty periods of at least 10 consecutive hours.
• You must be released from duty within 16 hours after coming on duty.
• You must only use this exception once every 7 consecutive days (unless you took 34 consecutive hours off to restart a 7/8-day period).
You may not use this exception if you qualify for the “Non-CDL Short Haul Exception” explained earlier.
This regulation is found in Section 395.1(o).
See this pdf page 9: https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/sites/fmcsa.dot.gov/files/docs/Drivers Guide to HOS 2015_508.pdf

 

There is another ruling that allows OTR guys to drive an additional two hours if they are caught up in "adverse weather conditions". That is another loophole you can pull (let's say he had to spend an hour chaining up and could have made it back legally had the weather been fine).

To be perfectly honest (and I am now giving you bad advice) if I was an hour out from home, I would dig under my seat and pull out my second log book and make myself legal again. But that's me.

 

No there is no suspension of hos because we have not had a natural disaster, so he has to abide by the hos regs no matter what. And don't run illegal with a second book, the excuse won't fly with msp, they will inspect the cab if they suspect anything,

 

This ruling only applies I believe if you have already started the run and the bad weather hits and for some reason you can't find a legal place to park. If you know it is going to be bad already and go anyway, then you will be in egregious violation (according to their lingo) if you have to use the safe haven ruling, because you already should have known it was going to be bad and made plans on where an what you were going to do legally on HOS.

 

He should have drive time avail unless he drove 100% of the time with no pre-post or stops to unload/load.
Even with the extra run thats 12 hous so 1 of those hours should have been on duty not driving. Depends on his run though.

P.S. Get those poles delivered! I've been without power since Wednesday @ 10:30 am.