Logging Off Duty Instead of Sleeper Berth

General attitude seems to also play a big part in how nitpicky an officer will get during an inspection.

I’ve had a fair amount of interactions during my time out here. If you have an assumption it’s going to go one way or the other then you’re probably right. Being a professional usually helps even if the person you’re dealing with may not be. One example, Utah used to call us in to check our overweight permits. If you took everything in like you’re supposed to do they’d check your permit and you’d be gone. We had guys that would only take the permit in and then cry when they had to go back out for the rest of their paperwork and deal with an inspection.

Shoot I even had a run in with the infamous St Louis truck cop a couple weeks ago and came away with no violations. I suspect that officers can sense who will be an issue same as we drivers can tell if we can joke around with an officer or not.

 

All of this just makes me like driving a day cab, even going OTR in one.
Off duty, Driving, On duty.
At the end of the day, motel time, tv, shower, free breakfast and no smelly parking lot to wake up in.
Winning!

 

Any thoughts here.

I've looked at tens of hundreds of inspection forms. We all know there are things that will be overlooked in an inspection, sometimes even blatant violations. DOT doesn't usually wear out a pencil during an inspection unless you've really been a DA.

Sometimes flats, lights out, flat spots, etc. Usually small, but what could be OOS violations depending on severity.

But they see this simple violation on a log sheet that means squat. Yep, logged off duty instead of sleeper. "I'm gonna have to write you up for that, and make sure you get that light fixed"

Maybe? IDK, but I've seen trucks that shoulda been hauled in for scrap at a scale house, and I was there to fix a simple air leak

 

No one logging 3 minute pre trips can demand someone admit they're wrong on something they're not wrong about. Go crawl under and look at your wheel seals for the first time in a year like an adult

 

That's not what it says at all. It says log sleeper berth for all off duty rests periods within a sleeper berth. Quite possibly the most cut and dry regulation in the entire green book. And it is a regulation, as you repeatedly demanded.

 

That's true. There's a monetary motivation for most violations not being fixed immediately. Or a reason, such as a poor pre trip or happened while rolling down the road and driver is unaware. There's no good reason to not just move a finger 5cm further down and click sleeper berth instead of off duty if you're resting in a sleeper berth other than hardheadedness.

Its free of charge, more descriptive, more clearly indicates rest, and I'm no lawyer, but I interpret the regs I posted yesterday as it being a requirement (could be wrong about that).

There's no reason to raise eyebrows unnecessarily.

And as a side note, I've incorporated off duty more often into my logging if it more accurately reflects what I'm doing. Why? Cause it's free of charge and there's no reason not to. Same way there's no reason for me to not log my sleeping last night as sleeper berth.