Is it legal to have alcohol ON a truck?

Just to better ground this topic most states will bust you big time if caught in a non CMV with an open container. I have been told that a 6 pack missing a can if found can be trouble. It really is not just trucks. On the other side of this discussion is the thousands of drivers that have cans of beer or bottles of liquor on board. I think some of this is a bit silly. Seems to me that the truck is your home away from home. Who is being harmed by a hand with a couple of buds in his cooler? Seems to me that as long as the driver is sober and the alcohol is in the sleeper who is being harmed?

 

Those cute topless waitresses across the street from the T/A in Youngstown for one.

Like the great American poet once said, "it's better to share a drink called loneliness than to drink alone."

 

Another great American poet said:

"I drink alone.

Yeah.

With nobody else".

Practically haiku.....

 

I used to pick up a couple of six packs of Long Trail Ale for a friend in Texas everytime I went to New England. He was from Vermont and loved that stuff. Way to thick for me. Buried it in my sidebox and never had an issue. I knew the risks.

 

I mean I can count on 1 hand the number of level 1 inspections I've had in 10 years. The most I've had my truck searched is getting onto a military base (if it can be opened,,, open it! Then they look under your rig with mirrors and a dog)

I have one of those setups where I only have a dog box on one side, so I could probably transport a case under my bunk in a toolbox and no one would know.

But the one time I'd do it,,,,

I did take some fireworks through a Turnpike tunnel once. A couple of laborers insisted on stopping at Phantom Fireworks on the way back from a job in OH. They even make you fill out a Hazmat BOL with your receipt. I buried them under a pile of moving blankets and drove like a little old lady the rest of the way home.

 

The reality though is truckers drink! Have any doubt about this go take a walk around a large truck stop after a lot of the trucks have left and you will see beer cans and bottles all over the place. The DOT know this too. It is one of the primary reasons breath testing is part of drug testing today. I know a guy that breath tests his drivers almost everyday. If you are on duty and register most any amount after being breath tested your busted. THIS is the larger problem, the DOT don't really care about a beer or 2, just don't have them out in the open and NEVER drink a lot during a 10. As a guide, it takes roughly an hour for the average size human to metabolize an ounce (one beer most of the time) out of your body. Drink a 1/2 case and your looking at a while to get back cold sober. I know there are going to be replies starting with moose your full of it. All I know is what DOT officers have told me over the years. They let the breath testing be their primary enforcement means. There might well come a day when the average DOT type as a matter of policy use a portable Breathalyzer at some point during an inspection.

 

There is truck parking everywhere if you try hard enough

 

Sweet only took 4 yrs to reply thanks

 

He had to wait until he was inside the HOS . . .