FMCSA Issues Clarifying Regulatory Guidance for Personal Conveyance

I utilized this updated guidance on PC this morning. It was a beautiful thang the way it helped me out! THANK YOU, FMCSA!

 

The FMCSA just extended that fine grey line from an inch to a mile.

 

The line is not grey, it's clear as can be to me. It's not that difficult to figure it out.

 

When something is as vague as this it's grey, aka subjective. When I hear a DOT or state trooper chime in, I will feel better. Safe area is based on speculation. Your definition and theirs may be very far apart. Do you believe an exit ramp is safe?

 

Or a wide open dirt lot just down the street that just happens to be in a horrible part of town.
No bathrooms or food either.

 

No, I don't, which is why I don't park on them or on some dark back street in a city I'm not familiar with either.

 

I'll give you a prime example of how this expanded rule could of been utilized by a buddy of mine just day before yesterday.

He's a skateboarder. He showed up for a pick up late in the afternoon on Monday in the Chicago area.

He had around 3 hours left on his clock and asked the shipper if they could "guarantee" getting him loaded and out of there in enough time to get to a truckstop before his time ran out, if not, he'd have to come back the next day.

Well, they assured him they would try, but couldn't guarantee it. Since he couldn't stay parked on their property overnight he decided to drive to the nearest truckstop and come back the next morning.

It took him almost an hour and a half to go 18 miles!...

Now, here's what I thought was interesting. The 3 additional motivating factors for his decision were as follows:
1. He "knew" he was going to have to take a big dookie in the morning.
2. He was hungry and wanted some good restaurant grub.
3. He needed a shower.

In the morning on his return trip to the shipper (in the opposite direction) he hit rush hour traffic again.

Now his day is already starting off behind how he had planned his week as far as being able to maximize his revenue opportunities.

Last week he was telling me about listening to Road Dog Radio concerning the expanded PC rule, etc.

When I asked him why didn't utilize that expanded PC rule and have the shipper load him and just PC over to the truckstop, whether he was out of hours or not, his response was, "sheat! I didn't even think of that!"

Me thinks that the morning dookie, food and shower clouded his thinking and the whole rest of his week (revenue wise) will suffer because of it.

I personally wouldn't have hesitated to get loaded the afternoon before and used PC to the nearest and "safest" place. That's just me though.

 

These days the smart driver develops a "flight plan" for this load, and others in the immediate future. There are strategies involved, and one of them would be to make use of this flexibility. Problem being of course is Mr Enforcement going to see it that way. He only sees the last 7 days, cannot detect a pattern of abuse where this rule might be invoked by a carrier says 4 or 5 times a month, if they wished.
70% of carriers have less than 5 trucks, that is the prime area for liberal application of this "guidance"

 

I had a weighmaster redlight me on the scale early one morning south of Roseburg, OR.

He strolled out like he had something on me. I asked if everything was alright.

He informed me that according to the previous day's scale crossing at the southern most port of entry, there was no way I could of possibility completed a 10 hour break and arrived at his scale.

When I told him that I had not in fact completed a 10 hour break. Man, his cackles really went up.

I asked him (nicely) if he had ever heard of an 8/2 split berth. He thought about it for a second, gave me a wry smile and walked away. The green light turned on and I was on my way.

Sometimes these guys are so intent on finding something, they can't see the forest for the trees.

It takes being prepared, knowing what the guidance on any particular rule is and respectfully making your point.

I've never been one of those kind of drivers who is so afraid of rocking the boat that it ultimately effects my bottomline.

 

Keep a picture off Keep trucking as a proof..