"FORCED to break-the-law!---"Elogs and the Catch 22???"

Ok, I'm sick of eating popcorn now. Phew!

 

I got held up at customers and drove to the truckstop after my 14 hours plenty of times.
It logs a violation and I take my 10 hour break.
Big deal.

 

Drivers have Personal Conveyace option if stuck at shipper or receiver and out of hours. You can go to truck stop and eat and drive back 10 hours later and start you driving again. You can go shopping or just about anything you want. Just make sure you return to the place you started Personal Conveyace.

I had shipper tell me last night if I was out of hours I could drop trailer and they would load the trailer and I could come back in the morning. This shipper is also 24/7 and they said I could even just show up anytime to load. They don't have appointments.

 

Currently eating cheese and crackers. I'll share.

 

There are two, and only two uses for personal conveyance as per FMCSA, and unfortunately going to a truck stop is not one of them.
1st is to/from home terminal and home
2nd to to/from restaurants and lodging (hotel) in the area

Here is the guidance from Regulations Section
Question 26: If a driver is permitted to use a Commercial Motor Vehicle (CMV) for personal reasons, how must the driving time be recorded?

Guidance:

a driver is relieved from work and all responsibility for performing work, time spent traveling from a driver’s home to his/her terminal (normal work reporting location), or from a driver’s terminal to his/her home, may be considered off-duty time. Similarly, time spent traveling short distances from a driver’s en route lodgings (such as en route terminals or motels) to restaurants in the vicinity of such lodgings may be considered off-duty time. The type of conveyance used from the terminal to the driver’s home, from the driver’s home to the terminal, or to restaurants in the vicinity of en route lodgings would not alter the situation unless the vehicle is laden. A driver may not operate a laden CMV as a personal conveyance. The driver who uses a motor carrier’s Commercial Motor Vehicle (CMV) for transportation home, and is subsequently called by the employing carrier and is then dispatched from home, would be on-duty from the time the driver leaves home.

 

Morally Subway shouldn't qualify as a restaurant but I think it'd count in this instance. Truck stops have food, I don't think anyone would be questioned too hard about that

 

Roger that!

 

Your buddy needs to uncouple from the truck stop. I can alway, always find a place to park be it an industrial area, walmart, etc etc. an hour to find a place to park. Give me a google satellite image and I'll be parked in 15 minutes anywhere in the country except maybe Manhatten.

 

Not sure why people act like there is a difference between paper and elogs. There isn't. You have to log exactly the same way on both. The only people who care are running illegally. Not that I care if they are or aren't. It's not the ELD people are mad about, it's that they can't run for 15 hours anymore solo and they need to either run a team truck or brokers will start passing them up for loads that need to be expedited and will command a premium rate. Simple as that.

OP, your friend is a #######. Tell the shipper, your company etc you can't and will not move that truck. If they threaten to call the police, tell them be my ####ing guest. When the police arrive, show them fmcsr hours of service requirements and again tell them that you aren't willing or able to legally move the truck and that to do so would be a violation of federal law(and entrapment on their part).

I have done this very thing and the cop said they had to let me stay. The shipper got all pissed off and said they were about to close. He said "that's his problem for having to stay here and it's your fault for making him wait 9 hours for 6 pallets." And he left. Then I left too, and drank a beer in a hotel room while my truck was locked in the shipper and I was collecting detention pay.

 

That's stupid there's no need for a study that's the way it worked when we were 8/10/15