Is this legal??

A friendly call to FDOT should help. Document that too. Also its your responsibility as a driver to not violate HOS... refuse to drive without ten off, let him ####can you and then sue. If you want to take it that far.

 

Advise him you can start 2 hours after his requested time because you will be in violation if you do not take that 10 hour break. The rules are very clear on that. I provided the link a few comments back. I would send that link to him. If you would like, I can crop it into a picture that shows you are to take a 10 hour break.

 

I had a serious déjà vu moment when I read your question. My old job had Reddaway had an identical issue. They lost two drivers and opted not to replace them since our senior driver "made it work" with those that were left. Enormous savings at the expense of running a skeleton crew operation where everyone was grossly overworked and things got extreme screwed when someone called in sick.

Finally the lead driver running the barn had this thing called "giving back to the company". He made you clock out on your 14, then finish working the dock for an hour or two, then force you to come in ten hours from when you clocked out. I refused to do it. I ended up contacting DoT and filed a complaint. Took them less than a day to go through our safety office and address my concerns. Terminal manager came down on our lead driver and put an end to his practice of making us "give back". The insanity never ended so I quit.

In your case, you are actually ahead of me since you have written documentation. If you get into an incident (regardless of fault), some of the liability will be placed back on your company and supervisor. You'll still be liable since you know when you are not supposed to drive. You don't have to hire a lawyer to bring an end to this. Just a formal complaint that you can file online like I did was enough. Best of luck.

 

Yes sir. If he told the supervisor what the laws are and that he can't coerce the drivers to go without 10 hours off, then either the supervisor genuinely doesn't understand the laws, or he is deliberately ignoring the laws. Those really are your only two options. Either way, if the OP is terminated and he has all the text message documentation, I would venture out and think that this is a pretty cut and dry case of driver coercion followed by retaliation for not running illegal. He could ride this out and definitely get lost wages and probably have his company reimburse the OP for legal fees. There is also a potential for punitive settlements that will discourage the company from doing this to other drivers in the future. Save the text. Screenshot them and then print them out. The way it sounds, the OP may very well have to refer back on those messages in the future.

 

From his last texts it appears he thinks there is some kind of ratio of work : rest and if you don't work a full 12 you don't need a full 10 rest. Weird.

 

So what's your next move?

 

Based on the texts, the OP supervisor seems to be oblivious to both federal and state law. I don't think he intents to make his drivers run illegally... But this clearly is a byproduct of being ignorant to the law.

The supervisor clearly doesn't understand the 14 hour window. It's one of those sand filled egg timers. You flip it upside down and that timer does not stop. You can work 4 hours, then take 8 hours off... But as soon as you come in you can only work another two hours. The only way you can get a full restart and get all your 14 hours of sand back is to take 10 consecutive hours off.

This sounds like a pure case of ignorance vs deliberate malice. Either way, I don't think your supervisor is properly trained to execute his duties.