I Got Fired For Discussing My Hours Of Service

Hi there Cozy, Im sorry it happened like that to you. Autocar your right you don't need to show the post-trip, so Cozy you were to blame for the error, however the manager lady didn't handle that as professionally as she could have. So do you have e-logs? If so, then here is an example of harassment by an employer ipso facto (big brothers little keeper creeper) just making all good drivers into obedient little , I'm tired of the reg's and BS, just give a burger flipper job, and welfare so I can say allah o obama allah obama.. just kidding, ohhh where's my rifle at? armed and ready to go. yeahaa!

 

What is required by law and by company rules may be two different animals. We are required to show a post and pre trip inspection every day with time shown on the bottom line. To fill out a safety report you have to be on the bottom line but with our EOBR we only show the actual time to do the inspections.

Since your showing time as in 09:54 it sounds like you have recorder of some type or they used the engine computer. If you are on paper logs, you would have to show driving until 10:00, with a 15 minute post-trip, which means your 10 hour break would have been over at 20:15 and showing a pre-trip inspection on a paper log would have put you at 20:30. But if you have EOBR than your end of day would have been at the time you went off duty not when you shut your truck off. If you had showed from 09:54 to 10:04 for your post trip than your break would have been over at 20:04 and a pre-trip of 10 minutes would have put you at 20:14 to start your next work period.

If on paper logs your company is mad because you failed to falsify your logs like some of the other driver do. Hopefully the FMCSA will investigate and will fine the company or shut them down.

 

So any update?

 

You ain't holding your breath, are ya?

 

I'm an ex-trucker (20 years of OTR/local experience) and now a safety director of a trucking company for over one year now. I know how fustrating it has to be when you talk to management and it feels like you are talking to the wall behind them instead; but I want to correct you on one point right now before you find out the hard way.

Per FMCSA regulations,
392.7 Equipment, inspection, and use
396.11 Driver vehicle inspection reports
396.13 Driver inspection
396.15 Driveaway-towaway operations and inspections
...the regulation do NOT spell out any time required either as a minimum or maximum amount of time that must be noted on your duty-status log. The fifteen (15) minute rule was an old industry standard that carriers normally expect a driver to take to do a proper vehicle inspection on the equipment. Most carriers mandate (not FMCSA) that the driver must show "at-least" 15 minutes on their logs to show that an inspection was done.

FMCSA regulations are silent on how much time is required to be shown on a driver's duty status log but most in the industry have accepted that anything less than 15 minutes "pushing" the envelope but can be done. FMCSA and the inspectors will cite a driver and/or a motor carrier is NO inspection of any type is shown on the duty-status log. Can a driver do an inspection in less than 15 minutes? YES...but then it all depends on the driver, the weather, the age of the equipment, trailer(s) attached or bobtailing, etc.

So PLEASE don't be citing regulations to OSHA as a fact since you will lose.

If you need any more assistance, driver contact me and I will try to help you further. I had to file and won each whistleblower claim I had to file in the past here too....so knowledge is power.

Good luck driver.

 

This doesn't make sense . All this over 5 minutes ? What would have happened if he was 5 minutes late ?
The dispatcher said she was tired of "playing games " . That sounds like there were previous problems .

 

I think her argument is this exact point, that there is no specified time so it was up to her how long she took

 

There may not be stated a time frame to do a pre or post-trip but if something happens, your fault or not, and it goes to court and you are asked if you did a proper pre-trip of equipment and if you say "yes". Than you had better be prepared to show the court that you are able to do a proper pre-trip inspection in that time frame on your logs.

 

I work for a mail carrier and our company usually schedules our trips pretty tight, but legal .now anybody dealing with the post office nose you always are going to get held up and run late ,but at my co. we run elogs and our owner has a fit with anyone going over hours. perfect example look at beam brothers out of Virginia. they just got raided by dot for making drivers falsify logs!

 

If it wasnt stated prior, want to ask why didnt you just split your log time and do a 8 hr break?