Driving over 11 hours?

They are about ready to monitor our alertness as well. The new sleep apnea "guidelines" are in full swing now.

 

The 2 hour safe haven rule gives you an exemplary 2 hour window when caught in these type of situations to find a safe place to get off of the road and park.
I have had to use it a couple times in the past.
Understand, however; that DOT does not consider rest areas, truckstops, or Walmart as the only safe havens.
To them it could be an oversize cutout on the highway, a view area, a back street that allows parking, etc..
It is any place that you can safely get off of the road and stop, so as to cause no harm or potential danger to the rest of the motoring public.

 

Just saw this while I'm stuck at consignee taking forever to unload me because I'm late for my appointment; this load was already late when I picked it up from one of our yards.

I have Elogs, but it seems like if I leave empty I could use Personal Conveyance. It'll be late, at night, but I can get to a company yard to park.

On my Elogs, you select the Options Tab and the Change Mode to access Personal Conveyance.

 

CAUTION.
You cannot use personal conveyance if you are hooked to a trailer.
Wherever you start your personal conveyance is where you have to end.
Personal conveyance is only if you are bobtail in to say Walmart, the doctors, home, etc..
Bottom line is your next on duty status has to begin in the same place.

 

Go figure. When I select my Elogs Personal Conveyance, it lists requirements.

The first requirement is:
Unladen: empty trailer or bobtailing

That's what made me think it was reasonable to do that.

 

Sorry, but empty trailer should not even be on there.
It should be on a separate line by itself and can only be used when authorized by the company when moving from one location to another in conduct of business, like taking the trailer to a shop, or a location for another driver to pick up, but the company has to show the empty move.
Your personal conveyance is bobtail only.
You start at A go to B then C, and end back at A, hook back to your trailer, back on duty.

 

My dispatch said no overnight parking, but I see trucks sitting here that aren't docked. Maybe I'll just finish a 10 here.

 

That would be a very smart decision.
If dispatch says to move, move if you have to, but very next morning be on the phone to the saftey department.
They really love hearing, or should I say most of them, as to how utterly ignorant the dispatchers are.
Most saftey personnel hate the dispatchers almost as much as do the drivers, because their always the ones left cleaning up the mess.

 

I agree Empty trailer is NOT personal conveyance. NOT. NOT. and NOT.

Bobtail ONLY. And only return direct to where you left trailer (You put a kingpin lock on it and registered at the fuel desk right?) for personal transport. And generally in my time there was additional rule card in wallet that relieved driver of responsibility of equiptment when offduty AND provided a form letter permission to use bobtail as a personal car.

With certain companies paying fuel in cash on the weekends off I would run 5 states worth of bobtail on a whole tank of fuel. It never used very much. SO it was a valuable benefit. One company actually tried to prevent personal use of bobtail during holidays by having the eletronic display turned off on the dash via qualcomm remotely so that you had nothing to drive on if you wanted to go somewhere. I went anyway using a stop watch to maintain a one minute ten second mile which was approx 55 mph then. They were not happy. But there was no problem in the end. Alot of yelling though. One way and full of profanity.

The two hour rule was never used by me that I can remember, I was aware that it was there from schooling. But I cannot remember using it. I do however remember one particular lady ##### dispatcher who claimed a special power vested in her to authroized two hour over the daily limit, I laughed at her and told her ########. That is strictly a driver option in the logbook provided certain criteria is written in and matched the situation invoked for that event. She flipped at my backtalk. I don't know if I was wrong or right, but she sure hated having someone half her age telling her what for. It's a shame to be a desk bound spitfire filled with such negative emotions, she needed to get out of there more and enjoy life.

 

There are dispatchers who will sit there all night and count the hours and minutes you are in a particular spot. I remember one evening where I pulled into the old Somerset (*My name for it, it may not be a accurate name, actual location is the free non toll section of 70 west of the interchange with the actual tolled turnpike 76/70) 76 with the girlie bar on the hill above it. I parked on the hill because it was overflow and pretty wore out that day. Got to sleep in about 15 hours to feel put together again enough to be safe and drive some more. The dispatcher lit up my qualcomm complaining first about the 15 hours in that particular parking spot and then the commenting about the girlie bar on the hill. I told her to forget it, it has nothing to do with one or the other. If you checked the trip so far you will see about 1100 miles before stopping the previous day. I needed both the 15 hours not only to get myself caught up on sleep but to get the second logs squared away, should I call safety and invoke your name and reference this message???

Silence. Blessed silence that day.