mercer transportation

If you guys (and gals) have not looked at the ELD reports we can download from the Omnitracs website you should do that. There are three different ELD report formats. US, Canada, and US ELD. The US ELD report, which is the information DOT will see during inspection or audit, is much more comprehensive than the normal logbook view report. It contains every start/stop of the engine, every diagnostic event, every required 1 hour location ping while in transit, every instance a driver certifies log data, and more. You just might be questioned if you have start/stop sequences on your day(s) off yet are not on duty, be prepared for this type of interrogation, uh, I mean polite questioning. Also, miles at each data entry are recorded to 1/10th mile. So for example on the hourly ping as you go down the road, it is easy to see exactly how many miles you traveled in one hour. It had better not be more than the posted speed limit.

So review what is recorded and reported, and make your own risk assessment of how you want to do things. Better to be aware of these things now than find out roadside during an inspection.

 

radioshark, I think your right.
I have been doing this since 86 and was a lot easier. Thinking about getting out also.

 

Wait....u were 1/2 mile from where u were loading at. I assume he pulled you over? If you were inroute to pick up, you are to be considered to be on duty. If you were just tooling around, no violation.

 

There is actually some debate on that. We had written guidance from FMCSA during UPS season that we could us PC to bobtail to UPS to pick up loads. Their interpretation was we were "dispatched" once we were hooking up to a trailer and give a BOL. I had never heard of that before but they put it in writing for us. So the definition of being dispatched is now another gray area it seems.

 

I think that was a special case because the yard to ups is basically just a regular persons commute to and from work.

 

no different than anyone else bobtailing to a yard though

 

Amazingly enough I got through Louisville inspection without getting a single fix it item.

 

I went through last week and they gave me a couple of weeks to fix a pinion seal that was a little wet...I saw it a few weeks ago and had the new seal in the truck guess I’ll put it in this week

 

The FMCSA has guidance & it states " A driver may record time operating a CMV for personal conveyance (i.e., for personal use or reasons) as off-duty only when the driver is relieved from work and all responsibility for performing work by the motor carrier. The CMV may be used for personal conveyance even if it is laden, since the load is not being transported for the commercial benefit of the carrier at that time." There is no gray area!

 

No i was off duty.. Because i dropped my trailer as it had a Broken axle. So they had to reload it and that took 7 hours. So i left the yard and went down to the truck stop.