I Got Fired For Discussing My Hours Of Service

This is true but 15min seems to satisfy everyone.

 

Driver manager sounds like a blankety blank.What did she mean by she's tired of playing games?Has this happened before?

 

i am sorry but you lost your job over this? that is ridiculious on your part. so instead of 10 hours you got 9:55 hours? if you are on paper logs 5 minutes can be found in a heartbeat.

 

http://ai.fmcsa.dot.gov/SMS/Data/carrier.aspx?enc=DG0lFiCjPlZM4oVxs1mKcQ==

 

I think he is a she..................

 

I have worked for companies that do require 15 pre trip and 15 post trip, but that is the company. With that said , I think you must be in the office complaining alot or refusing work alot, don't think this is your first time in front of her.

 

Sounds a tad strange, doesn't it?

 

For now but wait another yr.

 

By skipping the post trip and waiting until morning to do your pretrip, your work day starts when you begin your pretrip....now you are on the clock sitting around waiting for the tire to be fixed....if it takes the shop 3 hours to get you in and another 45 minutes to fix the tire, you now have only 10 hours left on your 14 before you'll have to shut down for another 10 hours. You've already lost an hour's driving time for the day. If you have to fuel the truck, load, unload, or anything else, that will also cut directly into your available drive time. Want to stop for lunch? You lose more drive time. All because you waited until morning to find that nail in the tire and wasted the first 4 hours of your day getting it fixed.

Had you done a post trip inspection and found the tire, you could have waited to get into the shop and had the tire repaired at the END of the day....even if it pushed you over the 14 hours, you are not "driving" so there is no HOS violation. When the tire is fixed, park the truck and take your 10. In the morning, you'll have a full 14 hour day ahead of you to get where you need to go.

One other benefit to finding the nail at the end of the day is that you can split your time....go off duty and get a shower & eat during the 2+ hours it might take them to fix the tire, then log 8 hours in the sleeper and you're ready to roll in the morning.

Not only that, but if you do a proper inspection, you going to be crawling around on and under the truck, and more than likely you are going to get a little dirty. I'd rather get dirty at the END of my day....and then go into the house and get a shower....instead of getting the clean clothes I just put on in the morning dirty right away doing a thorough inspection of the truck before I roll out.

I see no logical reason to skip a post trip. Anything you find at the end of the day can be fixed without cutting into your ability to work a full day the following day....you just need to get a 10 hour break before you roll out again. By waiting until the morning to try to find any potential issues, you're at risk of screwing yourself out of valuable drive time. I'm not saying a person should skip the pretrip either...just that when you go over the truck with a fine tooth comb at the end of the day, you don't have to double-check everything with a thorough pretrip. Check the things that might have changed overnight....fluid levels, tire pressure, lights, visually inspect to make sure nobody tampered with the 5th wheel or anything else on the truck, and make sure nobody backed into it while you weren't in it. One trip walking around the truck with a tire thumper in the morning after checking the underhood fluids and firing it up is all that is necessary when you've done a thorough post trip.

The only time I do a detailed pretrip is if I'm hooking to a trailer that I wasn't the last person to pull....because if I HAD been the last person to pull it, it got a post-trip inspection and anything needing attention was written up to be fixed while I was not using it. If I know I'm going to need a different trailer for the next day's load, I always try to pick it up on my way home at the end of the day....for the same reasons I do a post trip. IF I find anything wrong with the trailer, I want to be able to get it fixed WITHOUT cutting into my ability to work a full day the following day.

Seems like it would be common sense, but apparently not.

 

It'll take more than a year to implement any mandate...and any mandate they implement is going to go through the courts...and that also takes time. The only e-log mandate the FMCSA has ever attempted to implement (bad actors) was tossed out because the device could be used to harass drivers. There were 3 or 4 other legal points raised in the lawsuit which the court hasn't even bothered to look at yet, because the driver harassment issue was enough to toss the mandate.

Yes, unfortunately the new transportation law calls for a mandate. However, none of the currently available units meet the requirements of the law. Companies may OPT to use them....but they cannot be FORCED to do so. Before a mandate can be made that will stand up to judicial review, the manufacturers are going to have to develop an e-log that meets the specifications called for by the congress. If they don't, and FMCSA attempts to mandate their use anyway, it'll be tossed out.