Sleeper berth duty status

After nearly a dozen years here and over 2,500 posts, and this is a serious question?

 

I've actually never used sleeper berth outside of a split and I've been asked by inspectors, but never challenged. I tell them when I'm off-duty I'm not working. If I were to change to sleeper berth that would be doing work, which would technically be on-duty.

 

Gotta love splitting those hairs.

 

Maybe a good time to use sleeper berth is when you’re sleeping or actually in sleeper. It’s not that complicated ha ha

 

https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/regulations/hours-service/interstate-truck-drivers-guide-hours-service

 

I feel like they may give more flexibility now but in the past if you were in the passenger seat it needed to be logged off duty not driving. If you were behind the curtain you logged sleeper berth. Many years ago my team driver got a citation for sitting in the passenger seat while logged as being in the sleeper. He knew better and we usually climbed back in the bunk long enough to cross the scale not wanting to tempt fate. A female DOT at the port of entry in (I believe New Mexico) wasn’t having any of that lawlessness and gave his outlaw butt a ticket. She was ridiculous but he learned his lesson, I guess. It made me an hour of delay pay and I thanked her for the bonus on my next check when we left. We crossed that scale every week at the same time and day so I smiled and waved at her every week from then on.

 

I can tell you that Utah will bang you for not logging sleeper berth. A few years back I stopped in Heyburn, ID for the night and forgot to put myself in sleeper berth before going to bed. Got rolling the next morning and was pulled in for an inspection at the Perry UT Port of Entry. Truck & trailer passed inspection but he wrote me up for a false log for not logging sleeper berth during my 12 hours of off duty time on the previous day’s log.

 

This doesn't have to be difficult. Log it like you do it is the right way. The green book supports that. If you're taking a break in a sleeper cab truck always log it sleeper berth. Logging that as off duty and trying to argue some weird argument with law enforcement is just begging them to write you a ticket for falsification. Which is exactly what that is. If you need to cheat your logs at customers at least log some time as on duty not driving for loading/unloading/checking in/out responsibilities before logging any sleeper berth. Don't log off duty unless you're at home away from the truck or taking short shower or meal breaks.