Knight/Swift New Move From AOBRD to ELD Feb 2019

Swift has a fleet using their new software to make the QualComm MCP200 a compliant ELD.

Yesterday, we could move the truck up to 20 mph or 1.5 miles or 5 minutes before it would switch to the drive line. If it switched to the drive line on you, and you were under 5 minutes, you could drop it back to off or on duty. So you could play with the time. At 4 minutes go on duty for a second, then back off duty and you could drive at 19mph until the 9 minute mark, but watch your distance. A 5 minute gap of sitting anywhere in that mess reset it all. You could check in at a shipper, drop your trailer, pickup next trailer, move over to office and get BOLs, send your messages, move to gate and check out. Go to the drive line manually as you left and it was all on or off as you chose. None of it counted as driving time.

FMCSA has said that this time moving around in the yard is on duty/yard moves. So, if you used on-duty instead of off duty you should be good.

However, Swift isn’t letting us have that option. Yard moves isn’t there as an option and they are telling us what they are doing is federally mandated. OK, part of it is, but yard moves are definitely allowed by FMCSA so to claim a federal mandate on all of it is just dishonest.

From what i have learned in my few minutes with the new software is that you go under 5 mph it won’t trip to driving. Not sure how far or how long but I’m sure to discover it tomorrow. When I get to the receiver tomorrow, I figure I have 2 options. Go 4 mph everywhere, or go as fast as I can because that’s my drive time and I’m not wasting it because someone thought denying us yard moves was a good idea.

I know what everyone on here thinks of Swift drivers. Even the ones who are working to get away from Swift. Right now it’s only some of the drivers who are using the new software. That’s only temporary though. Think about what this lack of yard moves is going to accomplish. Swiftys are gonna be going too darn fast or too darn slow. Either way is a hazard. Think about what this is gonna do.

 

It is not a hazard. I like the fact that you can drive 5 mph without tripping the drive line.....for guys that like to deliver loads on the ten hr break, totally helpful.

 

You just have to not use that creep function on main roads

 

FMCSA is bi-polar on the subject of yard moves.

On one hand it's an optional duty status with ELD's
§395.28 Special driving categories; other driving statuses.
(a) Special driving categories—(1) Motor carrier options. A motor carrier may configure an ELD to authorize a driver to indicate that the driver is operating a commercial motor vehicle under any of the following special driving categories:
(ii) Yard moves.

On the other it's specifically in the guidance as Driving.
Question 9: A driver drives on streets and highways during the week and jockeys Commercial Motor Vehicles in the yard (private property) on weekends. How is the yard time to be recorded?
Guidance: On-duty (driving).

As the definition of driving did not change with the ELD mandate Swift is likely just covering their bases based on the definition of Driving

§395.2 Definitions.
Driving time means all time spent at the driving controls of a commercial motor vehicle in operation.

 

I use yard move all the time...
I check in at my receiver they tell me to go to the staging area, wait for pager. It goes off I go to the dock go my thing, takes maybe 2 hours to empty and paperwork in hand, back to parking area go back to sleep. Just leave when rested don't throw garbage or otherwise be an idiot.

So am I supposed to tell them sorry. I can't move from here to there (.5 mi) and back to deliver this load because I am out of hours? I arrived within hos limits. It's all on private property. Yet since it's to be recorded on line 3 that's a violation? Give me a break.

Thought this is what yard move is designed for.. I'm not hiding any of my time. Jesus just let me do my job.

If driving means "all time spent at the driving controls of a commercial motor vehicle in operation" then what the heck is yard move defined as??

 

That's the point. It's not defined.
And I'm not saying you are wrong. I'm saying FMCSA needs to not be bi-polar on the issue and actually either get rid of yard moves or redefine driving and / or add a yard move definition. (I would prefer to see a redefine of driving.)

 

Well... I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing...
I do usually have the option of taking 8 or 10 hour break at nearest suitable truck stop (90 miles/2 hour drive) away... but then it's cutting it close to be late or not. If late, come back in 2 days, if on time, in and out, one of those places. There are closer options for parking but generally very poor options/always full. So I like to use customer's yard. Sometimes they take it before appt time. They do not allow you to demand you wait for appt time if checking in early. Can't win. :/

 

I don't see any bipolarity, only that we all choose to falsify the logs to make the job possible.
Indeed, a yard move is "all time spent at the driving controls of a commercial motor vehicle in operation" at a yard - area that does not belong to the official grid of streets with names, highways, etc. If someone moves a truck on a public street and shows it as a yard move, he falsifies the log, or I should say E- LOG.
If a swift driver goes under 5 mph or even 20 mph at a Walmart yard in order for the truck motion not to be detected and then shows it as off duty/sleeper berth, he also falsifies the log.

My point is that not everything obvious needs to defined; a yard is a yard, a street is a street; a truck moving on a street is either logged as PC or line 3; the sleeper time is interrupted always when a driver sets the vehicle in motion, etc.
There are areas where warehouses and public streets intertwine. They tell you to move 1 mile from building A to building B - the same facility but two different buildings and you have to use an official street to get there. I always log it as a yard move, but I can see that some idiot cop can question it or ...perhaps according to some harsh HOS enforcers, maybe not such an idiot because it was technically not a yard move but the very driving.

 

But should a yard move be logged on line 3 or 4?

 

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