Off duty, driving Tractor ONLY home, DOT Reg??????

you aint seen nuttin yet

get a load of the new regs

mandatory 30min break, they may as well drive the truck for us


and soon, some braindead drivers will call you an outlaw if you drive 8.5hrs straight

 

Companies will be sending messages or calling. How dare you take a 30 minute break. The load has to get there today.

 

No, if you are at the shipper or receiver, you are ON DUTY.

If you are in the driver's lounge, you are on duty because you are at the shipper/receiver and you are remaining in readiness to operate the CMV if/when they finish loading/unloading your trailer. The ONLY way you can log off duty (line 1) is if the carrier has released you from duty...which if you are going to have to move your truck as soon as the shipper/receiver is done, you have NOT been released from duty. Unless you are resting in the sleeper of your truck, while your trailer is being loaded or unloaded you are supposed to be on line 4.

 

And do you actually follow this to the letter? And why would you put so much effort into making sure that we all have such a clear understanding of what is on duty? With that, who is going to actually know if a driver was technically on duty or not? Is anyone actually checking this stuff to see what you did or did not do and whether you were technically on duty or relieved from duty? Next, does anyone really care? I don't.

Next, I regularly take full 10 hr breaks at many of my customer locations (have many good customers who allow this). Who is to know when the load was actually loaded at the end or beginning of that break? There is no requirement that being on a customer's physical property constitutes ON DUTY. On duty has nothing to do with locations, but the activity that is going on. If I am off to the side of a customer's property, taking a full 10 hr break, there is no requirement to log on duty. And since it only has to do with the activity, who is going to track to the minute that you were still unloading or loading? Time stamps, if they are done, have to do with time of arrival and time you left. It does not state the times you were actually doing something, or the time that you were responsible for the load or in "readiness". Just because I arrive at the customer 10 hrs in advance of when the time I was supposed to be there, does not constitutes "being in readiness at the customer". It just means I showed up early and took a break, or took a break after being unloaded. So who is to know when that changed to "being in readiness"? Not you. No one is checking the bunk to see if you are in there or off taking a dump. And taking a break at a customer location does not require all time be in sleeper.

But go ahead. Live out these regulations to the letter as you see them. Don't use what God gave you between your ears to ascertain what constitutes being within the spirit of the regulations as opposed to over interpreting them in favor or one position or the other. News flash.... no one is watching anyway, just like no one is sitting at a display and watching when you are driving on an elog, and it is probably the most difficult of all positions to prove whether you were actually on duty or qualified to log time at a customer off duty. Like I said, time stamps on a BOL do not show actual time you were involved in any qualifying activity.

I really feel sorry for those that look at things so anally.

 

I'm kind of a dick, and I dont enforce things that strictly.

 

I never worry about Safety.

I am more concerned about the dot and their various interpretations for revenue.

 

I don't even worry about DOT I worry about lawyers.

 

If you spend 10 hours resting in the sleeper berth, you have had your break. It doesn't matter where your truck is parked...a dock, customers property, etc...you are in the sleeper.

...and yes, I log every minute I spend at the shipper and receiver on line 4. Unless I stop for personal reasons (i.e. grocery shopping on the way home, etc.) I am on line 3 or 4 from the time I leave my house at the start of my shift until I get back home at the end of my shift. I have no problem burning through as much of my 70 between Monday and Friday because that means I get Saturday and Sunday off. If I have hours remaining at the end of Friday, I might be called on to work on Saturday...and I like having my weekends off. So yes, I use the log book to my advantage and log it precisely as the regulations state my time should be logged.

...and as far as making sure people have a clear understanding of EXACTLY what is considered "on duty" time, whether a person logs it as such is still up to them, but they should know what the regulations state. If they CHOOSE to falsify their log, that is on them. You might drive 50 years and never have a problem logging off duty time at a shipper or receiver. You also might be involved in a wreck 6 days from now, and the lawyer for the person you hit will do some digging and discover that you SHOULD have been logged on duty for the 6 hours you spent waiting for your truck to be loaded today...and those 6 hours of time if logged legally, would put you over your 70 by 2 hours meaning you shouldn't have been on the road, and you're now up a creek without a paddle.

Like I said, it's up to you how you want to log it, but you should at least know what the regulations state in order to make an informed decision as to the extent to which you are going to falsify your log if you are so inclined.

 

i must say, truck drivers never have to go on strike, all they have to do is log everything, to the letter

we would never get any work done

 

Just thinking how people swear by the E-log but then say how they don't have to "really" follow the regulations to a "t" since nobody is really checking anyway. Anyone that goes and takes a "dump" while logged into sleeper berth is in violation of the 10 consecutive sleeper berth provision technically. I don't agree with it but technically E-log guys are driving even though they are in violation. Illegal is Illegal as there isn't any difference.