HOS new rules

I'm waiting for someone else to figure out the correct answer ha ha. It's not good when the ELD provider can't figure it out.

 

Ours explained it to me this way. If you come off a full 10 hr break and take the minimum of 2 off duty, it will not extend your 14. They said you can only start with the longer part of the split, not a full 10. Seems pretty ridiculous you have to take a shorter break to extend your day.

 

It's funny how every time they revise or clarify the HOS rules, supposedly to make them more driver friendly, this is the end result. More confusion. They'll never be able to make enough ELD rules for every little thing and the paragraphs written on interpretation will go on and on and on like the energizer bunny. ELD's don't work in the real world and no amount of bureaucratic rule making will ever change that.

 

If so, then it does not seem any different from the old rule where you also had the 14 hour clock shift to the end of the first break (either 2 hour or 8 hour).

If so, then you could say that neither in the old rule nor the new rule, there will be a situation in which a driver resuming his on duty activities (which involve driving) after at least 2 hour break will be allowed to exceed 14 hours shift unless during that shift at least 7 hours of continuous sleeper break will be included. Or to paraphrase it : A driver will not drive after 14 hour shift unless during his shift he will take a sleeper break of at least 7 hours and he has any driving time left on his 11 hour clock.

So if there is a combination of two breaks (3-7;2-8) the 14 hour clock will be calculated from the end of the first break, provided that the second break has been already fulfilled.
The only shift extension (or rather 14 hour clock pause) is when the first break of 7 hours of continuous sleeper berth is completed.

If I am correct, then there is nothing in the new rule vs old rule regarding 14 hour clock, that makes it different.

 

Here is article about HOS and it says if a driver takes the short 2 or 3 hour break first it won't extend the 14 hour clock. Unless you still take the 8 or 7hour break before the 14 hour limit or your driving 11 hour limit. So it sound like just sitting 2 or 3 hours won't extend the 14. Not untill you pair it with 7 or 8. If we take 7or 8 first that will extend the 14 hour clock automatically.

‘If I go over 3 hours on a break, does it count against my 14?’ — More questions and answers about new HOS regs

 

I did not take it to mean that.

They said that it is semantically incorrect to say that it extends your day. But it does pause the 14-hour clock. It is not extend it, it pauses it. Interestingly, they also said in that article it doesn't matter what combination of breaks that you take as long as they equal 10. They said that the regulation is written that those are the minimum number that you can take but you could take 5 hours and 5 hours if you want according to them.

But no matter how you take them the rule always works the same from how I understand it.

So if you started at 6 a.m. your 14 hours would take you until 8 p.m.

If you drove from 6 am until 12 pm that would leave you 8 on duty hours. You can figure what your drive hours are but I'm going to keep that out of this because I think it's simpler just to look at your 14-hour clock.

So if you stopped from 12 pm until 3 pm you would still have 8 on duty hours left.

So it really isn't that your day is extended, it's that your clock is paused.

Then if you take the 7 hour break your 14 restarts from the end of the first break which would be 3:00pm in this case.

So if you drove from 3 pm to 6 p.m. and then took your 7 hour break to complete the split cycle, your break would end at 1 a.m. . But your 14-hour clock starts over again from 3 p.m. so you're good to go until 5 a.m. .

 

That sounds about right. It’s just ridiculous that if you take your short break after a full 10 off duty that it doesn’t pause. You literally need to take a shorter break to be able to work longer.

 

Keeptruckin is doing another update to fix the split sleeper problem they have. Maybe this will make their system better

 

Wow! That means, at least after seeing the video, that the 14 hour shift can indeed be extended, however, the violation will be removed only after the second (7+ hour) sleeper berth break will have been completed.

 

If the Keep Truckin guy is right. And he had better be, then the following example is fully HOS compliant.

So on day 1. I start in Chicago and take 3 hour
off duty break in Des Moines, IA then fuel and drive at Midnight I approach Lexington, NE where in the old rules I should stop driving and take at least 8 hour sleeper break.
Since the new rules allow me to extend the 14 hour clock e.i. till 3 am then I decide to utilize my 11 hour driving to the fullest and drive past midnight 45 minutes, which by previous rules would be a violation, and it is assumed ( by Keep Trucking) to be violation (alleged violation) until after the 7 hour break in North Platte, NE is satisfied and the violation is nullified.
If that is correct then that's drastically different from what the previous rules allowed in terms of 14 hour clock and split break.