FCC--Fremont Contract Carriers

I will Midwest.

 

Agreed… this thread is what brought several of us to FCC. Nothing better than talking to actual drivers before making a jump.

 

Midwest it's priceless talking to the drivers.Whats your real name by the way? Mine is actually Mike

 

Not going to go find it but I’m pretty sure it was addressed recently. (I remember @RebelChick commenting about it not being enough time at home etc)

I believe that the official policy is 7/1 but it’s been fairly flexible as long as you are productive out here when you are running. And I shared what I do (6/1 or 4/mo) and that I’ve gotten extra days off randomly to make a 34 with family or friends that was unplanned but wasn’t able to say 3 weeks out and 6 days home would work but would be interesting to know how others run to comment.

but I don’t mind being wrong if I dreamt it all.

 

Back to the 2/8 issue…

so I am bumping up on my 14 now and then and a bit more than I’d like… vs hitting my 11 first…

so what you two are saying, if I am down for 2/3 hours during the day I can use a 2/8 or 3/7 to extend my 14 for that day of driving and maybe get a bit more of my 11 back for that drive session.

then take the 7/8 (more likely a complete 10) and that will reset everything to start over.

guess I’ve always thought of it as 8/2 and never fully considered the use of a 2/8 version.

I will have to test this out.

Thanks for enlightening me to new options.

 

Yes it was addressed recently within the past week or so when I was asking you guys a bunch of questions. But no, nobody gave what the official policy is because nobody knew it. RebelChick commented that she thought it was crazy when you said you "sometimes felt like taking 4 days off per month was too much" or something like that (you said something like that, not an exact quote). She never commented on the policy nor do I know if she knows the policy or has even worked at FCC in the past.

There were several people, I think at least 3 including you, who commented on the hometime that they take but like I said all of you seem for take just a few days off per month and none of you knew what the official policy was.

And actually that 1 day off for every 6 days work versus 1 day off for every week work makes a huge difference. Because when you go from 28 days OTR to 30 days OTR on that 1 day off for every 6 days, you get that 1 extra day for working just 2 more days compared to the 1 day for every week. Makes a big difference.

But like I said if Michael1771 finds out what the official hometime policy is (I'm not sure why someone wouldn't know that/ask that before being signed on but I digress) then please feel free to let us know.

 

A few things that I hope helps you:

1. For a split sleeper birth, the 2 or 3 hours can be either off duty or sleeper birth. It doesn't have to be sleeper birth. But the 7 or 8 hours has to be sleeper birth IF you want to do the split.

2. If you're just taking a full 10 hours off then you can log sleeper birth or off duty, it's the same as far as HOS are concerned. Because if you take a full 10 hours off then your split sleeper is essentially meaningless by the time your 10 hours off duty or 10 hours sleeper birth is finished.

3. It USED to be (for the split sleeper birth) that you HAD to take the 8 hours sleeper birth first before you could take the 2 hours sleeper birth. And I'm pretty sure if I remember correctly that BOTH HAD to be sleeper birth, off duty didn't count towards a split sleeper birth. So that's probably why you were thinking it as 8/2. And also the 7/3 or 3/7 split sleeper birth didn't even exist before the new HOS rules that came out last year.

You are both right and wrong in this sentence.

If you are in Off Duty or Sleeper Birth (and it has to be either or, it can't be 1 hour off duty and 1 hour sleeper birth it's got to be 2 or 3 full hours of EITHER off duty or sleeper birth), and you are in off duty or sleeper birth for 2 or 3 hours, then your 11 hour driving clock and your 14 hour day clock goes back to what it was after the 2 or 3 hours is finished. The easiest way to think of this is basically take a picture of your qualcomm HOS Summary Page as soon as you begin your 2 or 3 hour break for your split sleeper. Those will be your HOS when your 2 or 3 hour break is up, with the exception that obviously your 8 hour break will go back to the full 8 hours when your 2 or 3 hour break is up. But you're 11 hour clock and 14 hour clock will be the same. And the 70 hour clock will be the same unless it goes into midnight.

If you have Qualcomm, then there should be a box on the HOS Summary Page that YOU NEED TO MANUALLY CHECK YOURSELF! You just tap the tablet where the box is with your finger in that HOS Summary Page and I can't remember what it says (it might not even say anything about Split Sleeper Birth I can't remember if the box even had a label). Once that box is checked then your Qualcomm will AUTOMATICALLY update on your tablet EVERY TIME you are off duty or in sleeper birth for 2 or 3 hours. Therefore taking the "dummy work" out of it so you don't have to do any calculations yourself.

If you don't check that box on your Qualcomm then the Qualcomm (if it was like my old one) will give you the red triangle light on your qualcomm and will notify dispatch that you are in HOS violation, even if you're not. That's because that box isn't checked. So the easy way to see if you checked the box correctly would be to see if your 11 and 14 hour clocks go back to what they were 2 hours or 3 hours prior each and everytime you go off duty or sleeper birth for that long of a time.

So that's how that works when you take the 2 hour or 3 hour portion of the 7/3 or 8/2 split first. And keep in mind it doesn't matter which one comes first, 7 hours in the sleeper birth or the 2 hours off duty/sleeper birth. Same with the 8/2, you can do 8 hours in sleeper birth first or 2 hours off duty/sleeper birth first it doesn't matter.

As I said each time I've done the split except for just a couple of times I always took a 10 hour break after I took the 2 hour or 3 hour break. But if your Qualcomm is working correctly and that box is checked off then it will automatically update your HOS for you each time your 7 hour sleeper birth or 8 hour sleeper birth is complete. Even if you don't use the split your Qualcomm HOS tablet will update itself every 7 hours and then every 8 hours because the tablet will assume you are going to use a split sleeper birth split unless you go the full 10 hours off duty or 10 hours sleeper birth.

Hope this helps and that I didn't confuse you too much lol.

And please feel free to chime in if at FCC you don't have to check that box on the HOS Summary Page to make the tablet automatically update itself for the 7/3 or 8/2 split sleeper birth. I just know at my old company we had Qualcomm too and we had to check that box for the tablet automatically took the split sleeper birth into account every single time.

EDIT: In case I confused you:

Correct your 14 will go back to what it was when you started your 2 or 3 hour break

No. You will never get a bit more of your 11 back for that drive session for your 2 hour or 3 hour break. Your 11 hour driving time will be the same as it was when you went into off duty/sleeper birth 2 or 3 hours prior, whenever you started that break.

HOWEVER, you will gain time on your 11 hour clock if you complete the 7 or 8 hour sleeper birth break first.

 

Thinking you just summarize the very answer that you wanted…

most drivers here are either regional and home weekly (with plenty of miles) or OTR and don’t know the official as we all are productive to the point that we never hit the issue.

If most everyone here is running the number of miles that everyone is happy with (both company and driver) then miles are very good here to the point that no one seems to find the official policy a burden.

now, taking 6 days off for 21 OTR (7/2) seemed a bit excessive to me (but I’m just a driver here) and as no one else chimed in so thinking no one else had input on the issue.

So we have actually covered the answer to the question… at least as far as it impacts current drivers that choose to respond.

so, what’s more important? The official policy or driver reality? I assume most people asking questions here are seeking the drivers reality of a company vs official policy.

 

I will just find out the official policy for OTR drivers are when I put in an application it's okay. Or if that Michael poster wants to chime in that would helpful as well.

Thanks again for the help with my questions and I hope my HOS split sleeper birth response helped you with your questions as well.

 

Sure I'll let you guys know what the official policy is for otr. But like Midwest said sometimes that open for interpretation based on your reputation hometime.