Home time and drinking.

I like beer!

 

legal , yes.

have to remember , they don't know you. you could an alky, they have to be safe AND cover their butt.

my rule ,has always been, no drinking during the week,and if home ,I think of myself as on call.
BUT, when on set home time, that is my time, so I'll have a few or so.

also, I believe the law says no alcohol 8 hrs prior to driving. I set the time at 12 hrs, just to be safe.

 

Any dispatcher or company that thinks they will go ballistic on me wouldnt have to worry about seeing me again, I'd be done working for them immediately.

 

Wow your dispatcher sounds like a tool.

In my opinion, you werent on duty, you had no intent to drive the truck (the one that's in the shop, from the previous week, that's been there OVER the weekend) The only leg he would have to stand on would be if you were "on call" waiting for a spare truck or something and were unfit to go to work.

You did nothing illegal, you passed a bs test, now he can go pound sand. Put those middle fingers in the air and find a better place to work, or carry on driver. Dont sweat it, it's none of their business what you do when you're off. And dont volunteer information, especially if you're dealing with a wiener like that!

 

They can have you take a drug test at any time, even your day off or on your vacation but they can only test for alcohol immediately before, during or immediately after you perform a safety sensitive function.

Some people are kooks about alcohol, it's because they don't know when to stop and they think everyone is like that

 

There's beer?

 

either NEVER take the full word of the shop, or at least INFORM your dispatcher of what is going on. at anytime, they CAN put you into another truck, when they have loads to pick up or deliver. the shop may have gotten lucky, and got your truck ready with in HOURS after your dropped it off, miracles do happen...

you also made the mistake in assuming you did not have to call earlier.......

saying you were drinking, was a mistake..you know by the CDL manual, that you CANNOT have a beer with-in 4 hours of being on duty. if you had that beer 5, or 6 hours earlier, you were GOOD to go back to work. so you should have kept QUIET, unless that beer was less than 4 hours from that phone call, then all you had to say was, "ok, i can be there inside of 1.5 hours, i am tending to my wife, and i gotta call someone else".....


and YES, you can be ordered for a drug/alcohol test at ANYTIME...

lesson learned.

 

i like beer....i like lots of beer, i drink beer, and when i have too much beer...i boof one or 2 out......from all that built up gas.

 

Many people have no business being in a position of authority and your dispatcher is one of them. I know what I would have told him but I live in a country where dispatchers/employers have zero authority over what employees do on their own time.