Stuck at a shipper with no driving time left

How crappy is your home if you don't want to be there. For me everything I love in this world is at my house so...

 

Some of us like and enjoy OTR...
Easiest job I have ever had...

And why would I need to be paid to sleep in my cab while they take their time to unload me?

And being paid hourly would only present other issues and uber micromanagement of us.

But I have always been paid to "get the job done" and not by the hour so maybe I just have a different point of view than others here.

{shrug}

Stay Safe,
MD

 

Never said it was crappy... I happen to love being on the road and seeing this great country.

Now I might be in a different place in life than others here, grown kids, but my wife is even thinking of getting her CDL and joining me on the truck. Then there is no reason to take "home time" at home and can take it wherever we wish to go and see anything we wish to see... All while being paid to travel there and back.

 

I was listening to the Sirius Road Dog channel, and the host had a guy from the FMCSA on, and a caller asked him this exactly question. The answer was basically that if there are negative consequences for refusing to move (threatening to call the cops, threatening to have you fired, threatening to not allow you or your company back on property, etc) then it should qualify under the safe haven exemption. Whether a cop and a judge will see it that way is not guaranteed, but that was the answer.

 

First off understand most of the companies use GPS to monitor the trucks movement. Second point don't expect every cop to let you play that federal law card. I saw several examples of cops calling wreckers after a trucker refused to leave.

Best advice is to call your company safety dept (use Qualcomm if possible) and inform them of the situation and leave. Most places know of a place close by where you can go. This has happened to me many times in every situation I left and logged the violation. It is frustrating to go through but most OTR drivers will face it at some point.

 

Out of hours. The shipper loads you and says no overnight parking. And you have elog.
A lot depends on how your company safety dept enforce log violations.
If you call any companies safety dept they won't give a straight awnser on what to do.

 

That is true. I have never seen the wrecker come but I have seen the cops threaten just that.

I saw a guy show up at the Sumner, WA Costco depot with refrigerated load and his 11 just about run out. He asked the guard if he could take his 10 there after the unload. That Costco depot does not allow that. He was insisting federal this and federal that his hours were up and he could not leave the property. Costco called the police. Police came, and more of this federal this federal that, all the truck stop BS you usually hear. You know shipper has to accommodate you when your hours run out. Police have to give you escort to move the truck. Police told him they don't care leave the property or the next step is off to jail and truck gets towed. By the time police backup and tow came he decided he would leave. Only before he got in the truck a officer had a summons written out for him. He left all pissed off, with his summons, and went to the Mustard Seed truck stop just around the corner.

I happen to talk to the guard the next day, he said when the guy showed up for his appointment later that morning he got turned away. Costco told them they don't want him on the property and they don't want the business of the company he worked for. He left with that refer still full. I don't know what happened to that load after that, but that guy never delivered it.

 

OUCH... lol

 

The thing is the sky is not going to fall and DOT cops are not going to come out of the woods just because you logged an HOS violation. Don't make a habit of doing it, learn to use those hours as resourcefully as you can. NEVER EVER FILE A FALSE LOG. Log it as you drive it. If you do have to leave a shipper in violation try to keep your drive under an hour and get into the closest safe place ASAP.