FMCSA Issues Clarifying Regulatory Guidance for Personal Conveyance

But that's against the law.

It's nearest safe place.

This ammendment is rubbish.

 

"Previously we had said, ‘Do the best you can, but it’ll put you in hours violation,'” DeLorenzo said. “But when you analyze why you are making that move – to get to a safe location to get your required rest – that can be done during personal conveyance. Say I get woken up in the middle of the night because law enforcement wants me to move my truck. Again, the purpose of that movement is not to advance the load or get closer to where you’re going; the purpose is to get somewhere safe in order to take rest."

Gee whiz, some of you guys know how to make mountain out of a molehill.

Dave, take off your tinfoil hat, they haven't let the billionaires that own the shippers push them into a corner at the expense of the drivers.

Enjoy your rest

 

You still have yet to comment on the scenario or question I asked.
You can dance around it until hell freezes over with smileys, but it shows you don't think things through, much like the people that created this ammendment.

 

When I was driving for a certain carrier in Nebraska with blue trucks, I used to PC from Kalamazoo, MI all the way back to PA for home time.

Carriers like that one will abuse the absolute dog snot out of this. Mayne not the top brass, but for sure the dispatch and load planning departments!

Sit back and watch the accident counts due to driver exhaustion skyrocket.

 

And a lot of them will get away with it. But when they get inspected, the trucks gonna be sitting at the scale OOS.

 

Then we will have a one hell of a interview when I explain leaving Boston Mas on a Friday afternoon and nothing to park a semi legally anywhere until at least Knoxville TN int he old days of the logbook on paper. Once you finally got parked and have gone way over your HOS etc you simply stayed put long enough to get legal again with those paper logs. Provided they did not catch you first at the scales.

I have developed a number of places in every state where I can go to "My spot" and just park it go to bed and rested. No body will bother me there. New Mexico was a special situation in a season that is not rainy. You could pull close to a tiny dusty dead town, pull past the town limit and then straight off the pavement itself onto the dirt, flip your parking markers on and go to bed. Nobody will bother you and you had stones in pockets come morning to check for rattle snakes seeking heat from your rig.

Grissom Texas is another example. There is a two mile paved road, that is not exactly the best maintained that leads to the cross facility center. I have parked there so much when I needed to because people visit that cross and arent about to bother a 18 wheeler who is sleeping under it.

PENNDOT has improved and paved my favorite gravel spot by the winding Junitia River on US 322 a couple miles before US 15 duncannon and harrisburg. That particular location is one of the best ever spots to sleep. Just be sure that you position your rig in a position that no one can block you in. That means being at a slight angle with the left steer tire a few feet from the travel lane and a triangle protecting it.

If you are ever in Memphis to get sleep knowing the predator and hookers come around bothering everyone take a square of shop towel. Wet the middle of it. Wad it and toss it straight down next to your drivers window.

Any hooker will suspect instantly what happened and that you probably have shot your load for the night and will not be good business. They are not about to be bending over to pick up that paper. No way. That's a small trick in my bag for when there is a bad situaton related to parking. I even kept a walgreens pack of needles painted white model paint on the inside mixed with water to appear used and the metal of the needle with gloss red or battleship hull red to show clotted blood color. Bend the needle a little bit and toss that down onto the ground in certain really bad drug areas and you will not be bothered PROVIDED there is no police anywhere looking for those #### things. If they did see it and gave you a hard time for it, show them the model paint kit and explain how it's done and why. They will test it to judgement day and come up with simple model paint. And since it's not in a spray can it's legal most anywhere.

 

And no way I'm buying weather your hours are used up or not.

Why would you not PC everytime from every drop then to truck stop?

The first thing bear is gonna say is "You had hours available, why did you PC this?"

 

Ok, let's say I go back 24 miles to get a nearest legal place to park.

When the company raises hell about having to pay twice to cover a section for fuel and mileage purposes I'll just point to the nearest parking facility law And that will be that.

The company, if they REALLY WANT YOU TO STAY at the shipper should now buy land. 50 acres of field. Throw down a thousand loads of gravel all over it and nail a sign at the entrance saying company so and so. I think it's 20,000 dollars a acre for commercial use in zoning in my area. and between 5 to 10 thousand for residental non zoning acreage.

Land is cheap. That will solve everything when you are told to get off the property by shipper or reciever and drive a mile to the new lot and go to bed there that is built by your company for you. Anyone else wanting to pay a visit to that lot? 10 dollars please for the permission to spend a night there too.

My first post was meant to be difficult. But when you dug in and say that this would be the law saying the magic word Nearest place, then that destroys my position about backtracking and getting into trouble for it. Ive had company bosses or dispatchers that refused to give you permission to go from say Arlington Texas to Lancaster to fill your fuel because the wait that has not yet to be called for a dock has burned all your fuel.

I go anyway. When I show up at the Lancaster yard dispatcher will get mad enough to get off his desk and stomp two floors and out the door all the way to the fuel line where I am getting fuel and do some yelling about why i never follow instructions backed by threats to write me up to the DM who will then decide if i should be fired for it or not.

My response? Literally was to break out laughing. There has been times Ive been on the ground at the feet of the angry and now really mad homicidal dispatcher laughing at him. All this for a 10 miles drive to get 300 more gallons for the tractor and another 100 for the reefer because Americold has 200 trucks waiting for docks the last 28 hours? HA.

Next time just out of spite I'll let that tractor trailer run dry the reefer to quit dry out of fuel and then begin to lose it's required precool.

That would make a angry dispatcher quit his job finally. Hopefully.

 

The big carriers won't care. Its all about getting more freight moved with fewer trucks and drivers. Losing the occasional truck for ten or 34 hours will be written off as an "acceptable loss" in favor of the extra profit being made by other trucks hauling an extra load per week.

This will only hurt the company driver and owner operator. Because the other thing it does it take the faster, ungoverned truck out of the equation in terms of customer service.

A single 85mph truck can move one load. 100 65mph trucks can move 100 loads. The time difference now will be a after of a couple hours (if that) instead of an extra day on the slower trucks.

After all, my 65mph truck has actually beaten unconcerned O/O's in the past playing by the old rules. Speed won't be the name of the game in customer service anymore. Cargo capacity will rule the highways.

 

Dave, people will always try and stretch rules and laws to the limit, I don't care what it is.

You can present any kind of scenario you want, it really makes no difference to me.

There's a thing called personal responsibility. If an individual is too stupid to allow themself to be manipulated by an unscrupulous company, driver manager, whatever, that's on them.

I'm my own boss, the captain of my own ship and no one, and I mean no one, forces me to do anything like violating the HOS for their own gain, period.

I may not have as many years behind the wheel as you, however, in the dozens of inspections I've had, I've never had an HOS violation either.