Made to use PC to leave shippers/receivers to benefit the company

Is it just your dispatchers telling you to do this to suit them? Is your safety department aware they are doing this?

I used to work for a company where I was a local driver based in southern Wisconsin, so I often delivered in Chicagoland. Once in Chicagoland, the dispatchers would sometimes get a little carried away and have me do a shag run or two in Chicagoland before bouncing back home. This would inevitably destroy my HOS and I would end up staying in a hotel.

This didn't necessarily bother me, but one day when this happened I was having a conversation with the safety guy over an unrelated matter, and when I mentioned that I was in a hotel and why, he became irate that the dispatchers were doing that and they got a big arse chewing the next morning. And I never had to stay in a hotel again after that LOL.

 

I have been surprised over the years at the level of bull #### some of the safety managers must have used to get into thier position.

 

I like the title of this thread. It gives an insight into what the OP really means.

Every company I've worked for I've had to use PC to leave somewhere at least once or twice. But it was not a regular thing. But as the OP notes, it is something he always has to do, I would bring this up with safety. That's not why PC was created.

As far as saying "You can't use PC if you have HOS available" That's not true. Because the moment you run out of drive time you may not be in a safe place on the road to pull over and switch to PC. I know with the Omnitracs you had to park the truck to switch over from On duty driving to PC. Well, if I know I will run out of on duty time before I hit a parking spot, I'm going PC from the get-go for safety reasons. Now I use Samsara and can change over on-the-fly so its different. I would say whether or not to leave the facility PC would depend on many factors, one being nearest possible parking, amount of on duty time left, and if you can switch over from one to another on the fly without having to stop the truck.

This also depends on if you're under dispatch. If there is no trip on your truck, you can ALWAYS PC away from shippers/receivers even with drive time available. Because you are not advancing the load as you have no load to advance or advancing an empty trailer to a new load as you have no new load on your truck, you can do what you want. Set the reason as "shop" and park near a convenience store. You're done. There is no rule that says you MUST leave shippers/receivers on duty if you have no trip and are simply leaving to go park. That would be just like if your company tells you after getting unloaded, take a 34. You would have no trip on your truck thus could PC out and go park.

 

I've never met one who ever drove a truck for a living, and I've never met one whose first concern wasn't the company's bottom line instead of the driver's safety. Every big organization has people whose job it is to tell the people who make money for the company that they're doing it wrong.

 

That's interesting. You're probably right, but the safety guy I mentioned in my earlier post was one of the good ones. He had been a driver for decades and knew his stuff. He was the real deal. Guess I got lucky there.

 

That should be a basic qualification for the job, but it isn't at the places I've worked.

 

Much of what you wrote is patently untrue. In some situations, being dispatched may affect the ability to use PC, but not always. Unless your receiver is where you normally park your truck, you must drive away from there. The only times you're allowed to PC when you must drive is when you move the truck at the direction of law enforcement and when you have no drive time available and must leave a shipper or receiver because they won't let you park there. From the guidance under not allowed; "7 time spent traveling to a motor carrier's terminal after loading or unloading." Allowed would be; "2 time spent between the driver's terminal and his or her residence, between trailer-drop lots and the driver's residence, and between work sites and the driver's residence." None of these apply when leaving a receiver to go find a place to park when you have hours available. That's line 3, on duty driving.

 

My company takes HOS rules very seriously and strongly frowns on us using PC at all, and forbids it for anything that could be considered advancing the load.

I did work for a charter bus outfit back in the paper log era who would occasionally try to stretch a trip and expect me to fudge it, but I just started logging the violations (at least the lengthy ones) and when they freaked out, I told them to quit trying to make me a liar.

These days with the split sleeper rules and the ability to stop the clock for any stop longer than two hours, I never even come close to trouble.

 

That is simply not true. If you are driving on duty that means you are performing work for the motor carrier. If you are not under dispatch and are going find a place to park, you are not performing work for the motor carrier, thus you can PC out. Because going shop is a valid reason to PC anywhere, it doesn't HAVE to be from a truck stop, it CAN be from a receiver. As long as you have no known trip on your truck, you are a free agent. I know this is perfectly ok because I have a head dude where I work who looks over our logs and micro analyzes our use of PC and he's seen me do this many times and never said a word. He just checks what time the dispatch was sent to my truck and what time I PC'ed away. As long as the PC was first, I did it as a free agent and could do what I wanted to. It's just like going on a 34 reset.

What you quoted has NOTHING to do with what I specified. I never said anything about traveling to a terminal, or from a residence or between work sites. If you don't have another trip, then you don't have a 2nd "work site." What two work sites are you moving between? So you aren't between work sites. "Work sites" are for trucks like dump trucks and such, not OTR drivers. But even if you want to stretch it and call our pickup and drop locations "work sites", if you are under dispatch for another load, you can't PC out unless you go in a direction that does not advance your empty trailer. But without dispatch, YES YOU CAN PC out of a receiver to go park even with time left. There is NO requirement, written or otherwise, that states that you may ONLY use PC to find parking if you don't have time left. Because if their was, PC wouldn't even work on these Elogs unless your time had expired, yet it does. Its all about advancing a load or an empty. If you aren't under dispatch, you CAN'T possibly advance your trailer. Advance it where? You have no idea, north south east or west, where you are going next. You can't advance a trailer to a location you don't know yet. Not on purpose, anyway.

You do not have to stay after being unloaded, even if the receiver lets you park. That is NOT a requirement, thus if your dispatcher is sitting on his hands to send you a trip and you want/need to get out of there and have no idea where to go next, its only FAIR that you can PC out because let's say you do what you say to do, and go on duty. Ok, what about if I drive 30 miles to park, and it turns out its in the wrong direction once I get a dispatch? Now I've wasted 30-40 minutes of on duty driving to park out of my 11hr driving day that I don't paid for. Not to mention I have to drive 30-40 miles BACK just to get to where I was before. You're wasting drive time that you don't have to waste.

If you ever read what lawyers look for if you get into an accident while on PC, its always IF YOU ARE UNDER DISPATCH or if you are advancing your trailer in furtherance of your motor carriers benefit . ABSOLUTELY do NOT advance your trailer, laden or otherwise, under PC. But any half decent lawyer would easily be able to see that you were not under dispatch so you were making a personal move. You were not working for the motor carrier at that point. Nothing they can do.

By definition if you are moving the truck not under instruction from your company or following a dispatch, you are moving it for personal reasons. Simple as that. You can use on duty driving all you want, but that's not going to save you if something happens. I've driven bobtail not under dispatch over 600 miles to go get a trailer. But I had to do that on duty because I was told to do that by my company. That's just like a dispatch. So that counts, too. Instructions on where to drive your truck count, verbal or written. It all has to be on duty.

 

See all that drama would not be necessary, had that stupid ELD mandate been prevented. Have the fatigue driving been eliminated? Are there any less CMV at fault accidents? Just more costs for carriers and 3rd persons making money off of this industry..If FMCSA cannot give a straight answer for the OP's question, so how can anyone? On paper logs, I'd just get out of there, sleep till rested and good to go.