ELD and inspection.

It is not ilegal, you people are nuts. Next thing will be if you think about your truck you are on duty.

 

Driver on the stand in a court of law. Questioned by the plaintiff's attorney in a $6 million dollar wrongful death suit
Attorney: When did you discover the chaffed brake line on your trailer?
Driver: When I walked past my trailer and saw the air line sagging.
Attorney: Were you on duty at the time?
Driver: No sir.
Attorney: You do realize the regulation clearly states "All time inspecting...at any time" . What other activities do you incorrectly log as off duty when they are actually on duty? All time loading and unloading? All time waiting at your dispatch office? Clearly you, and your company is allowing a misinterpretation of the regulations, which led to the fatigue and caused the accident killing my client's mother.
Judge: Judgement for the Plaintiff. Sheriff, take this driver into custody for falsification of HOS of service records. And send a letter of cease and desist to his company, they are out of service until further notice pending a full audit of safety procedures. This court in now in recess. Bang goes the gavel.

 

By your logic, Im doing a 34., I walk past my tailer, a marker light has gone.out, bingo now Im on duty. In your Universe . My Universe, I continue into the unknown, After my 34 is completed, I fetch a marker lite from the side box, replace the defective. 1 Avoid geting pulled over and Doted, Safety is happy, the universe goes on , It becomes an isue when you dont repair the worn air line or air the tire up that is low. I have a few million miles in, I can count the times an air line blew on 1 finger.

 

The difference is intent. If you "take a walk" to do an inspections it's on duty time. If you notice it while coming back from returning what you ate at Iron Skillet it's not.
It's that simple. You can't be doing an on duty task and try and weasel out of it by making up some bs excuse as to why it's not on duty.

 

So, you are telling me that when you get up to use the restroom in the middle of the night and realize on the way back you left your lights on and your batteries are drained that you would log on duty for the three hours you are charging your batteries off your reefer?

I call b$ on the fact you would log on duty and that you would never leave your lights on

 

I am just pointing out how a smart attorney "The Hammer" would be successful in a court of law by presenting that regulation as evidence to a jury of 4 wheelers who likely HATE trucks.
If you have almost no on duty time during the course of your usual day, and those RODS (records of duty status) are scrutinized for any reason, it will demonstrate your disregard of the regulations.
Indeed, the entire reason the FMCSA wanted ELD's in the first place with a common data transfer was so they could summon those files enmass to their offices, compare them with computer algorhythms and determine which fleets are following the rules and which are not. All without leaving the comfort of their offices. Or even at home now....

 

You don't even have to think about your big truck to be on duty. If you are at home, decide to plow snow with your pickup truck for your neighbors and get paid for it, that is on duty time and must be logged as such.

 

Is taking out the garbage, cutting the grass , is that on duty?

 

Do you get paid to do it? If you work part time for a real estate management company and you are doing it for money yes.

 

Home time, the failure to do a honey do list, could lead to loss of rewards from the author of the list, I suppose thats covered in little green book.