Hours of service questions and answers

There is no federal requirement to have a letter from your carrier relieveing you of responsibility for the truck and its contents to permit drivers to log off duty. This "myth" has been around for a LONG time. Most carriers simply add a paragraph in their driver manual about logging off duty.

If anyone wishes to challenge my assertion I suggest you read the regs and post the exact section that refutes my statement.

 

If you're getting paid for it, log it. You're not losing anything.

 

There is nothing in the current, or proposed Federal regs, to back that rumor. Possibly a state issue, but not Federal.

 

Cept for your job when you end up running out of hours all the time.

 

His boss is well aware of his hours, remember, he's getting paid by the hour to sit. Compensated hours are "on duty" hours, per the regs, which his boss is probably well aware of.

 

You lose hours off your 70 . Say you stayed on duty 3 hours one day when you could have logged off duty . At the end of the week you have 57 hours and there is a trip avAilable that requires 15 hours. Not logging off duty cost you a lot more than 3 hours.
There have been times when a receiver made me wait overnight to unload . I stayed on the clock collection detention time but was off duty because I remained outside the gate and was free to go to a truckstop or whatever.
Some receivers don't allow us to remain in the truck while unloading. Company policy is we can log off duty if we leave the keys in the truck and there is someone able to move it in an emergency .

 

Nope, that's not how it works. What happens when you get layover? Do you log on duty all day all night since you're getting paid? No, that's ridiculous.

I had one company tell me that while taking the road test with another driver, before they hired me and while they weren't paying me, I was to log off duty or not at all. Problem was they sent us, with me driving, down to the rail yard to pick up a load and deliver it to the customer. By your definition, and theirs, I was off duty since I wasn't being paid. Good luck trying to convince the DOT bear that you're not on duty or driving while pulling a load down the road.

 

Not sure which regs you're referencing, but...

 

I wouldn't say it's a "myth". Most likely, drivers (and companies) are getting confused regarding the regulations that reference short off-duty stops, such as meal breaks, made during their working day. The regulations, as written, don't help disspell any confusion.

#3 is a typical example of regulatory helpfulness (sic); the directive must be made known to the driver in writing before the driver's departure, but there is no requirement to have such written instruction available either in the CMV or at the carrier's office. Okayfinethen.

 

In case anyone is interested. There is a "Driver's Daily Log" app for the iPhone. I have been playing with it and it highlights in red as you log your hours when you will run out of your 11 and 14. It works with the split time too. Makes logging soooo much easier. It's almost fool proof. Just a thought. I don't know if they have one for Android yet. I will be using it as a tool to help keep me legal.