Personal Conveyance Rule change

So what? It's not the TS' problem. I hate it, too. Prob is the scumbag drivers who booger up the Wally lot without buying anything and the same trash that pees all over the ts lot and then tosses their garbage out the window. No one who visits this site would ever be guilty of such transgressions but you know who your neighbor is.
I'd pay every night if I had to. I make good $$$ but if they put a refer next to me

 

Thanks to the eld mandate, the big truckstop operators know theyve got you where they want you now. Ooops!

 

If ever confronted, just tell the cops the only "safe parking location" is home. I like rules with subjective interpretations. LOL.

 

Here is the question I am not finding an answer to:
If you off duty out, to a restaurant say, do you have to be on duty to return to your starting point?
The FMCSA says "a driver may use personal conveyance to a restaurant or..." It does not say to and from.
According to the Compliance Manager at my company, the DOT regulator told him, "because the language says only to and not to and from, drivers may off-duty out but must be on-duty to return.

This sounds ridiculous to me but my company insists that their policy is identical to FMCSA guidelines.

 

Compliance manager at your company is an idiot. You can PC for anything where you're using the CMV for personal use. If you had a car parked at the truck stop and drove it to a restaurant, would you drive the car back? Then it's PC if you do the same in a CMV. If you're under a load and find a place to drop the trailer while you run some personal errands (restaurant, grocery store, movie, etc...), you can stay on PC until you get back to the trailer to hook up and continue under the load.

The only time that wouldn't be the case is for hometime and similar situations. If you are released from duty and PC home (or to a truck stop or hotel), and then you're dispatched from that location, you'd be on duty when you left out again even if you were simply returning to where you had been released from duty.

 

I'm in compliance at my company and have spoken with OOIDA and someone from DOT about this. Personal conveyance is to and from, in regards to restaurants and such. It is not a one way deal.

 

Our problem is the vague language of the FMCSA guidelines.

 

So, just clarifying this. I'm taking my restart at a TA right now about 500 miles from home. I've got a load due tomorrow morning. I need groceries. So in the middle of my 34 I can drop my trailer and head to the grocery store under PC and come back and continue my 34 uninterrupted? I was going to Uber but certainly don't want to.

 

"So in the middle of my 34 I can drop my trailer and head to the grocery store under PC and come back and continue my 34 uninterrupted? "
Yes, that's exactly right! Just be careful and check your ELD and make sure it stays on PC after your stops.If not put it back on PC before proceeding and for the return to your trailer.

 

Exactly. Just leave it on PC until you're done, and make sure it has remained on PC before moving the truck again at each stop you make. I've heard of at least 1 company that only allows ONE move under PC per day...so if you get where you're going and change to "off duty", it won't be available to use to get back. Solution is to leave it on PC until you are done using it...even when you're out of the truck doing whatever.