I Got Fired For Discussing My Hours Of Service

that's because everyone has twisted the original post into a debate about who's right and who's wrong. and they missed the point about what i said. or rather only used parts of what i wrote. to use as an attack to make there selves look smarter. or feel more important. the point i made is: it doesn't matter about the regulations and laws the op was following. which lead to the loss of their job. and on the pre-trip and post-trip rule. it doesn't matter how much you cheat it and get away with it. it only matters what the investigating d.o.t certified offiser decides what they want to do. so for those who want to cheat the rule for a few minutes. those kinds of drivers will be put out soon enough to there own greed and or ignorance. so what's wrong with taking a full 15 minutes to do the pre-trip or post-trip. when in the long run. that is what the fmcsa,d.o.t.,and your boss wants you to do. they tell you that in orentation and when you are sitting there getting chewed out by safety over your logging technique. so again i ask. what is a few extra minutes on the pre-trip or post-trip. when it means your job,your life,or your freedom.

 

there is NO law requiring 15 minutes for a pretrip, or post trip.

She was terminated for not doing her job correctly, and arguing with a supervisor about it.

She Knew when the delivery was to be made, and accepted the load, and then screwed up, and was late... because of her misunderstanding of what she thinks the law says about pre and post trips, and her 10 hour break.

 

Wrong answer. Keep on flagging those pre and post trips.

 

Snowman, Tleaheart, reguardless, There is no time limits on any inspection and they regs were written that way for a reason. Can't imagine the gov getting suid cause they put time frame on any inspection if anything was to happen. You know what I'm saying? Personally I take more than 15 minutes, like someone else posted, not possible to do a full inspection of your tractor and trailer your hooking up to in 15 minutes. Safety departments over the years have made it policy, a minumum of 15 minutes for pre and post. These companies are allowed to make the rules stricter. It's their trucks, their liability. The joker that's saying it's just 5 minutes, make it work. Sorry yah shouldn't make it work for anyone. Why be an enabler, so the 5" is 20" than hours. Say that in a court of law as a defendant and your going down. Think the plaintiff's attorney won't find out, think again. The supeona everything. Video survailance from your stops, affadavits from recievers and shippers, and if it's serious enough highway survailance,credit card records, ez pass records and of cours qualcom. They will end up after their investigation telling you more about your day then you can remember. The liability is just tooo great. As far as his sup, the moment anything was said about hos, she should have worked on a solution instead of creating more of a problem. If she was working for me, I would be having a very long discussion with her. I wouldn't let anyone put my company in a bad position as far as liability. If she is doing it for 5 minutes what's to say she isn't pushing someone that only had an 8 hour break and the driver is to stupid or afraid to stand up for himself. All because she isn't doing her job properly. He goes down the road and an hour later someone crosses over and hit's him head on. Fatality, no problem right he fudged his logs to reflect a 10 hour break, no one will find out. What do you think? Think he's getting away with it? I bet you by the time their done with the investigation, the driver is charged, if not in jail. My company is now looking at some serious liability. It doesn't matter if it's 5" or 5', it's the same. Just talking with the IRB office in Albany, it's going to get even more serious than you think. Just look at this thread. Look at all the different interprtations, The dot can't even agree from one to another. The attorneys have a field day in court. It's like taking candy away from a baby and the trucking companies are the babies. We are proffesionals period, we get paid to be that way, to drive deffensively so we can avoid the unexpectant. to abide by the regs, and to ensure our equipment is safe no matter how long it takes or how many flags you put on your log. Autocar I'm surprised at you. Okay you pulled the rocket fuel to supply the 217' long booster that I pulled across the fricken country. You been around you seen it all. You know the game that's played from dispacher to driver. It's not like the old days.

 

I will add to this that I do NOT think the OP had just an isolated, one-time issue with her dispatcher. There's MORE to this story than is being put out here ..........has to be.

 

I got to agree.

 

There are 3 sides to every story.. Mine , yours and the Truth!!!

 

Assumptions will get you in court and fined and/or jailed.
The law does NOT state how long a pre or post trip takes. The law does NOT even require a post trip, just a report filled out.

Again, she accepted the load, and knew the time constraints, and she failed to make the delivery on time. Her fault, and then she tried to blame it on her understanding of the law, and argued with a supervisor... she has no case.

 

Ditto....This can not be the first rodeo those two had. I've had some flaky dispatchers and even challenged one to a fight but it was not a first time out of the box thing. It was an ongoing problem. BTW the fight challenge was made at Swift's HQ in Phoenix in the main dispatch room. No, I didn't get fired even though we swore at each other and we worked fine together after that.

 

The FMCSA CFR 396.11 requires that every driver report, and
prepare a report in writing at the completion of each day's
work on each vehicle operated and that report (DVIR) shall
cover the following parts and accessories:
(a) Service brakes including trailer brake
connections.
(b) Parking (hand) brake
(c) Steering Mechanism
(d) Lighting devices and reflectors
(e) Tires
(f) Horn
(g) Windshield Wipers
(h) Rear vision mirrors
(i) Coupling devices
(j) Wheels and rims
(k) Emergency equipment

Care to explain to a DOT officer how you managed to do this in less than the 8 min that would make you flag 15min or better yet demonstrate your superior inspection skills that allow you to hook up to the trailer and then run around the truck and then write this stuff down in that time frame? Is this just arguing for arguing's sake or do you really need to risk a ticket on 15min? The way this was explained to me by a DOT officer is that say you hook to a trailer in Atlanta for a trip to Yuma, AZ. You have to do an inspection when you hitch up to assure the trailer is in operating condition. If you do not drop the trailer for the next 3 days you do not have to do another pre-trip only the post-trip inspection. When you drop the trailer then you have to do a post trip and then another pre trip on the new trailer. Now, you can argue that the regulations say you only have to do all of this at the end of the day but if something happens then how are you going to explain not inspecting the trailer for say that broken brake shoe or the flat tire?
Seriously, is 15min that important to everyone here? It sure isn't to me if it's the difference between not properly checking the lugnuts on a trailer I picked up and having that tire fly off on the interstate taking out a van of children.