Logbook rules

I agree with dptrucker if you are dispatched to pick-up the trailer (operating a CMV at the direction of a motor carrier)

 

I routinely use off duty driving between the house and the yard since I can't take the trailer to the house. If I'm bob tail, I'm not conducting company business. The yard is my assigned reporting location whether I'm under a load and stopping at the house on the way through, getting dispatched at the house and going there to pick up a t-call, empty, whatever. To and from the house is personal conveyance.

 

I must disagree with tony. Compensation is not the determining factor with regard to duty status.

Question 1: A company told all of its drivers that it would no longer pay for driving from the last stop to home and that this time should not be shown on the time cards. Is it a violation of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs) to operate a Commercial Motor Vehicle (CMV) from the last stop to home and not show that time on the time cards?

Guidance: The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs) do not address questions of pay. All the time spent operating a Commercial Motor Vehicle (CMV) for, or at the direction of, a motor carrier must be recorded as driving time.

Question 10: How does compensation relate to on-duty time?

Guidance: The fact that a driver is paid for a period of time does not always establish that the driver was on-duty for the purposes of part 395 during that period of time. A driver may be relieved of duty under certain conditions and still be paid.

 

Not necessarily.

If you're under dispatch going to pick up your trailer, then you're 'on-duty'.

Please read and understand the rules before posting inaccurate information.

 

Right. The only time compensation definitively comes into play is with a secondary employer who is NOT a motor carrier.

 

The key to compliance is to understand the written regs as well as the interpretations.

I routinely drop laden trailers at a company terminal. Drive 25 miles home and then return that 25 miles to the terminal to pick up a trailer and continue a run after my time at home. I also will drop a loaded trailer at a customer and bobtail to a restaraunt while the customer loads or unloads my trailer.

In the above examples I am returning to the SAME location I dropped my trailer. Therefore I can easily justify using the truck as a personal conveyance in the event I am stopped.

Now IF dispatch were to call me at home and request I bobtail to a customer to secure a trailer then YES that would require I log my time bobtailing as driving rather than off duty.

 

thanx windsmith.. this is what i was implying. i use a phone for everything so i'm unable to back what i say with regs. unfortunately, swift doesn't allow line 5 for company drivers

 

You can use personal conveyance when pulling a empty trailer. "laden" doesn't mean "trailer", or "empty trailer" or any variation thereof. It means whether or not you're dispatched under a load assignment.

Driving home would be personal conveyance. Driving to a yard to pick up a trailer would NOT be personal conveyance, because you are dispatched under a load and heading to a rally point.

 

Who says you have to be dispatched to go pick up a trailer?

 

You pick up trailers on your own? Without your dispatchers or companies concent? Drive it like you stole it!