Hours of Service Local route drivers

You don't have to maintain logbooks, if you stay within 50 miles of your home terminal, but you are still regulated by DoT, and subject to Hours of Service (HoS) rules. Check the side of your trucks. If there is a DoT number, there, you are subject to regulation and HoS. If there isn't a DoT number, there, then you are already operating in violation of DoT regulations. If that's the case, start looking for a new job, before your paychecks quit clearing the bank. People who operate like that, do so throughout their business, and there is no telling when the hammer may drop from the IRS, INS, some sort of law enforcement, or who knows where? Guys like that are magnets for trouble, and not afraid to throw the people around them under the bus, if it will so much as reduce their own sentence.

 

Using the 100 Air-Mile Radius Exemption
Under the “100 air-mile radius exemption,” the rule states that the driver must be out and back within a 12-hour period. What if a driver goes over that 12-hour period for one day?

All drivers are required to make a Record of Duty Status (RODS), or a log, or log sheet of their activity (or status) during each 24-hour period. About half of commercial motor vehicle (CMV) operation are local or under 50 miles of their origin. Under 395.1(e) Short-haul operations, a CDL driver is exempt from the logbook requirements (but not any other of the Hours-of-Service rules — the 11-14-60/70 hour rules). Specifically, the exemption allows simplification of the paperwork form of Hours-of-Service documentation, for short-haul operations:

(e) Short-haul operations—(1) 100 air-mile radius driver. A driver is exempt from the requirements of § 395.8 if:

(i) The driver operates within a 100 air-mile radius of the normal work reporting location;

(ii) The driver, except a driver-salesperson, returns to the work reporting location and is released from work within 12 consecutive hours;

(iii)(A) A property-carrying commercial motor vehicle driver has at least 10 consecutive hours off duty separating each 12 hours on duty;

(B) A passenger-carrying commercial motor vehicle driver has at least 8 consecutive hours off duty separating each 12 hours on duty;

(iv)(A) A property-carrying commercial motor vehicle driver does not exceed the maximum driving time specified in §395.3(a)(3) following 10 consecutive hours off duty; or

(B) A passenger-carrying commercial motor vehicle driver does not exceed 10 hours maximum driving time following 8 consecutive hours off. A CDL short-haul driver can use the above exemption for any of “the three overs,” if he goes:

• 1. Over a 100 air-mile radius;
  
  
• 2. Over 12 hours from the start of work or the shift;
  
  
• 3. Stays Over-night, or away from his starting location.

#3. Drivers must leave and return to the same work reporting location to qualify for the exception. If not, they should have log sheets for the day they left, and any day(s) they have not returned to their regular reporting/starting place of work. Note: some states (i.e., Texas), have what is called “tolerance” to the Hours-of-Service rules and may allow a 150 air-miles radius, or a longer work-day, for local, short-haul, or in-state operations.

DOT Interpretation & Guidance: Question 20: When a driver fails to meet the provisions of the 100 air-mile radius exemption (section 395.1(e)), is the driver required to have copies of his/her records of duty status for the previous seven days? Must the driver prepare daily records of duty status for the next seven days?

Answer: The driver must only have in his/her possession a record of duty status for the day he/she does not qualify for the exemption. The record of duty status must cover the entire day, even if the driver has to record retroactively changes in status that occurred between the time that the driver reported for duty and the time in which he/she no longer qualified for the 100 air-mile radius exemption. This is the only way to ensure that a driver does not claim the right to drive 10 hours after leaving his/her exempt status, in addition to the hours already driven under the 100 air-mile exemption.

Non-CDL drivers have some other rules under Under 395.1(e):

(2) Operators of property-carrying commercial motor vehicles not requiring a commercial driver’s license. Except as provided in this paragraph, a driver is exempt from the requirements of §395.3(a)(2) and §395.8 and ineligible to use the provisions of §395.1(e)(1), (g), and (o) ifi) The driver operates a property-carrying commercial motor vehicle for which a commercial driver’s license is not required under part 383 of this subchapter;(ii) The driver operates within a 150 air-mile radius of the location where the driver reports to and is released from work, i.e., the normal work reporting location;(iii) The driver returns to the normal work reporting location at the end of each duty tour;(iv) The driver does not driveA) After the 14th hour after coming on duty on 5 days of any period of 7 consecutive days; and(B) After the 16th hour after coming on duty on 2 days of any period of 7 consecutive days;(v) The motor carrier that employs the driver maintains and retains for a period of 6 months accurate and true time records showing A) The time the driver reports for duty each day;(B) The total number of hours the driver is on duty each day;(C) The time the driver is released from duty each day;(D) The total time for the preceding 7 days in accordance with § 395.8(j)(2) for drivers used for the first time or intermittently.

What is required on the exemption sheet form?

(v) The motor carrier that employs the driver maintains and retains for a period of 6 months accurate and true time records showing:

• (A) The time the driver reports for duty each day;
  
  
• (B) The total number of hours the driver is on duty each day;
  
  
• (C) The time the driver is released from duty each day; and
  
  
• (D) The total time for the preceding 7 days in accordance with §395.8(j)(2) for drivers used for the first time or intermittently.

Breaks

Short-haul property-carrying CMV drivers are not required to take the mandatory 30-minute break within eight hours of starting work. Drivers exceeding the distance or time limits that qualify them as short haul drivers, however, are subject to complying with the break requirement:

Question 33. If a driver using either short-haul exception in § 395.1(e) find sit necessary to exceed the exception-limitations for unforeseen reasons, is the driver in violation of the § 395.3 rest break provision if more than 8 hours have passed without having taken the required rest break?Guidance. No. A driver using a 395.1(e) short-haul exception who-finds it necessary to exceed the exception limitations for unforeseen reasons, is not in violation of the § 395.3rest-break requirements if 8 or more hours have passed at the time the driver becomes aware of the inability to use the short-haul exception. The driver should annotate the record-of-duty-\status to indicate why the required rest break was not taken earlier, and should take the break at the earliest safe opportunity.
Issued on: December 12, 2013.

If a driver is claiming the short haul exemption, is there any type of documentation required in the vehicle?

No, the driver only has to say to the inspector is that he is claiming the short haul exemption.

Summary

Hours-of-service rules, if certain provisions are met, allow the use of an exemption sheet (sometimes called a time card), in lieu of a RODS or log sheet. If a driver goes over that 12-hour period for one day, over 100 or 150 air-miles or does not return to his normal work reporting location, then the driver:

• (1) needs to make and attach a RODS or log sheet for the respective day or days the provisions are not met;
  
  
• (2) take the mandatory 30-minute break at the earliest safe opportunity; and
  
  
• (3) annotate the record-of-duty- status to indicate why the rest break was not taken earlier.

 

Over 10k pounds you must follow all logging rules. This includes all clocks. 8/11/14/70 all have to be followed.
The short haul is simply a logging exemption. I.e. no need for the graph log, just a timecard.
You need to meet three criteria for that exemption.
1. 12 hours max a day.
2. 100 air mile radius.
3. Start and end at same location.

Oh, and btw, sounds like with what you are saying you will need eld's come Dec. 18

 

Do you stay inside your state? If you are engaged only in intra state commerce then you need to look at your state laws rather than federal.

 

...and I wouldn't be surprised if there is an exception to the rules for propane trucks delivering to homes for heat in the winter. Politicians hate fielding phone calls from angry constituents...and can you imagine the phone calls if people were running out of propane and their pipes were freezing up and bursting while waiting for the driver who couldn't quite make it there before his clock ran out?

 

https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/sites/fmcsa.dot.gov/files/docs/Drivers Guide to HOS 2015_508.pdf
see section §390.3(f)(7)

 

I've been having this problem at work too. My boss called cooperate and they are saying the 11/14 rule applies. I spoke to an attorney, he said the same. We do not have logs, stay under 100 mile radius. I'm not sure what to do as I read the rules I still believe the 12 hour rule applies to me. So confused now!!!

 

All clocks apply. Well 30 minute break is exempted.
Basically it says 395.8 and 395.11 are exempted if you qualify.

(e) Short-haul operations—(1) 100 air-mile radius driver. A driver is exempt from the requirements of §§395.8 and 395.11 if:
§395.8 Driver's record of duty status.
§395.11 Supporting documents.

You can read the regs here: eCFR — Code of Federal Regulations

 

So while I have never done this but I came close many time. My work weeks from May to about October are 7 days a week (unless I am broke down or need the day off) 8 to 10 hours so that is 70 hours or less. On occasion say the other contractor truck is broke down, the company I contractor haul for set up to much stuff, or a customer being a-whole. I have had to work few days in row doing 12 hours. Let say I had to work a full week like that I can't work 84 hours?