Elogs Violation by just a minute

The OP is on ELD... not paper

 

Again, I emphasize that's it's a grey area. Nothing says (that I found anyway) that you must be bob-tail in order to use it. The stipulation is that you must not be under dispatch, that is work.
If you don't know what you're doing next and empty out and drive a "reasonable" distance to a location to sleep legally (that is, not on a street or off ramp) you are technically off duty. You are relieved of all responsibilities.

Once you start your next shift, you start driving from that location.

Here's what I found:

The 126 text-laden pages of the electronic logging device (ELD) final rule are full of specs and particulars, but the ones that consistently seem to raise the most questions with motor carriers deal with personal conveyance. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's (FMCSA) enforcement and compliance chief discussed the topic and made an important announcement in that regard.

Note that the ELD mandate didn't create personal conveyance — the rule just brought it into the spotlight. "It's not really an ELD issue, but it does become an issue because of ELDs," pointed out Joe DeLorenzo, director of the FMCSA Office of Enforcement and Compliance, at one of the final sessions of PeopleNet's and TMW Systems' in.sight conference.

Concerning that FMCSA announcement, DeLorenzo said that so many questions have come up from carriers about personal conveyance, the agency is going to release additional guidance on the topic. He said that's been in process now for some time and that he's "hoping within a couple of months we'll have something out there."

However, DeLorenzo asked that certain elements of the discussion not be published because they're being addressed officially in the coming, and not yet finished, guidance document. That information will not be included here. But he also outlined a common sense approach to personal conveyance to help shed some light on the issue, and it's one that many fleets clearly have questions about.



What's personal conveyance?
You can start by simplifying things and cutting some syllables: "personal conveyance" also appears in the ELD final rule more plainly as "personal use."

Personal conveyance is one of a few special driving instances that don't count against a commercial truck driver's available hours of service. An ELD is meant to capture all movement of a commercial motor vehicle and assign it to a driver — thereby recording when and how long that driver is behind the wheel — but there are exceptions, such as a truck being moved around a terminal's yard.

So "yard movement," which is more straightforward, is another special driving instance that could be selectable in an ELD and doesn't tick down a driver's available on-duty hours. "Personal conveyance," however, first has to be allowed by the motor carrier, and it refers to a driver doing things like taking the commercial truck to his or her home while off duty.

DeLorenzo emphasized that personal conveyance isn't new. It's just that prior to it coming up in new regulations — and becoming more measureable — with ELDs, no one paid it this much attention and it wasn't as scrutinized.

"Suddenly, this has become a big issue," he told listeners. "When you just put down 'personal conveyance' on a line in your [paper] log, there's no way to really tell — but now we're going to be able to tell. So, suddenly, we're getting a lot of questions about this."

ELD specifications in FMCSA's final rule call for GPS data to be accurate to within 1 mi. indicating where a truck is while a driver is on duty. To allow some privacy around a driver's personal whereabouts, GPS data must be accurate only to within approximately 10 mi. showing the truck's location while the driver is off duty/ in personal conveyance.

How do you tell if it's...?
Prior to FMCSA's guidance on the topic being issued, DeLorenzo discussed with the in.sight audience his own informal method of telling whether drive time is personal conveyance or not.

"I'll give you my common sense approach to personal conveyance," he said. "If the driver is operating at the direction of the motor carrier, it is not personal conveyance." That is, if a commercial driver is under dispatch, that's "on duty" time, not personal conveyance.

DeLorenzo gave an example of a driver driving the truck from being off duty at home in to work at the carrier's terminal, picking up a load, then driving the load on to its destination. He explained that in that particular case, only the part of driving the truck from home to the terminal would be personal conveyance.

However, things can get subtle with personal conveyance, and that's where some confusion arises — for instance, a trip home isn't always necessarily personal use/ conveyance. "So if the driver gets dispatched from the terminal but heads home on the way to wherever he or she is going and then continues on, that's not personal conveyance," DeLorenzo emphasized.

That's the basic setup he advised following. "If the driver is off duty and decides to go to a restaurant, visit a relative there or whatever — again, not at your direction — that's okay, that's personal conveyance," he said. "But if the [truck] move is done at the direction of the motor carrier, then that is not personal conveyance."

By this method, note that if a driver is deadheading from one delivery location some distance to pick up the next load, that's not personal conveyance — the driver has been dispatched to both the locations and is on duty the whole time.

Further points
A number of questions came up from the audience, with most laying out this or that outlier-type scenario and asking if the truck's movement would be personal conveyance or not. DeLorenzo fielded them, but reinforced that those exact scenarios will be addressed in FMCSA's forthcoming guidance.

::But a few further "matter of fact" elements did come up with personal conveyance:

(1) Personal conveyance does not need to start and stop at the same location. An audience member posed this question: "If the truck driver takes the truck home [under personal conveyance], does he have to start his day at the same point where he ended his day [on duty]? Or could he deadhead from home on to a shipper [to pick up a load]?"

To that, DeLorenzo said that personal conveyance need not start and stop at the same point. In the above scenario, he said the driver indeed could begin on-duty hours straight from home, having been dispatched to a shipper. "He's under dispatch at that point in time" and is going on to pick up a load, DeLorenzo pointed out.

(2) U.S. rules do not specify a distance or time limit to personal conveyance. As it stands, the ELD final rule places no such limit on what a carrier can allow for personal conveyance, but does note that the carrier can choose (1) whether to allow it in the first place and (2) that the carrier's authorized safety personnel and safety officials will need to determine if specific examples of personal conveyance are appropriate. And that's another point that could create some confusion, particularly for cross-border trucking: DeLorenzo noted that Canada's equivalent rules covering personal conveyance actually do place distance and time limits on it.

Right to the source
It's not hard to see that in the day-to-day of commercial trucking, the issue of personal conveyance is full of nuance and could create confusion. It might be worth a look at the reference material — the ELD final rule, in this case — to see what it says. Read on if you'd like to explore some government regulatory lingo: here's what the rule actually contains on the matter, with the term in bold and emphasis added on some key points.

1. Personal conveyance can be a manually selectable driving category on the ELD:

"In addition to the information that the ELD records automatically, both the motor carrier and the driver must input manually some information in the ELD. The driver may select on the ELD an applicable special driving category, or annotate the ELD record to explain driving under applicable exceptions, includingpersonal conveyance if configured by the motor carrier."

Again, open to interpretation. If you get stopped and questioned about it, your explanation and attitude will definitely play into whether that DOT official cites you or not. Prove your case. Show that you didn't have a pre plan at the time you did it. Remain respectful the the officer attempting to do his/her job. Have company safety director contact officer and let then know that they instruct drivers to use line 5 in those certain situations.

Now if you drive an excessive amount to get to a parking area, that will probably meet with a citation. A 10-20 minute drive with calm respectful interaction will probably get you out of a ticket.

If your company has no stipulation, then you can't do it.

Again, grey area.

 

Yes I know lol, it was meant to be funny.

 

An empty trailer is an unladen trailer so would be legal to log off duty driving with it. Now there has been documented cases of DOT writing up drivers because they interpreted the trailer itself as freight or having 'laden' the tractor by being attached. This is a rare interpretation and should be fought and beaten every time.

 

I'd put you in the brazen bull for such a heinous crime.

 

This is a direct result of poor trip planning.


























lol

 

Some parts are a grey area like "unladen" like you say, and distance. The reasons to use PC though are not. There are only 2 reasons it can be used. Let's look at the guidance from https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/regulations/title49/section/395.8

I bolded the restrictions...

The two uses are: "time spent traveling from a driver’s home to his/her terminal ... from a driver’s terminal to his/her home" and "time spent traveling short distances from a driver’s en route lodgings ... to restaurants in the vicinity of such lodgings"

So PC's from a customers to a truck stop is not valid usage of PC.

 

I agree this regulation is very fuzzy... but, to use it from a shipper/consignee to a place to park would be pushing the "meaning" behind the regulation.

If you are now "empty", but are "under" another load, but yet to pick it up, then you cannot use this line 5.

It will all be on how the LEO will see your case. If you are at a truck stop and wish to go get something to eat with a loaded trailer, then this could not be used.

So traveling to home from the yard with/without trailer not under a load it can be.
Going to eat with an unloaded trailer, but under a "load" you would not be.
Going to eat with an unloaded trailer, but not under a load you could be allowed.

common sense.. even though you are not loaded if you have a load assigned you are considered under a load.

https://www.jjkeller.com/learn/news/082016/What-is-personal-conveyance

 

@ZVar I disagree.
What is the difference in going from a customer's yard to a restaurant or from a truck stop to a restaurant?
There is also the notation where a driver is not required to start his on-duty shift at the same place he began off duty driving, so long as when he started he was not under dispatch, and when he fires it up again he is under dispatch. To me that reads, "I got empty at the receiver. I do not have a next load lined up. I am going to the truck stop for food" that would be legal. While at the truck stop my next load assignment arrives. Am I to be expected to return to the customer to begin my on duty time? That is absurd.

I am going to do it anyway when the time comes. This will be my defense.

 

The simply fact this regulation is very fuzzy and it will be used in the wrong context.. Drivers will not know that if they are under "load", but the trailer is empty then they cannot use line 5. I agree more definition needs to be added to this regulation.

It is like "Safe Haven", so many drivers think that they can use it to get to a parking spot, rest area, or truck stop if their hours run out. Google FMCSA Safe Haven and you will see it only applies to Class 1 Hazmat. Yet ask other drivers and you will get "Oh, I use that to get to a safe haven since I ran out of hours".

Google is a great friend,,, just add FMCSA in front of it.

But personal conveyance is fuzzy beyond fuzzy..