Tarping off duty

It's also illegal to pull those tags off your pillow under penalty of law.
Just saying.......

 

Just like everything the goverment wants to use to punish citizens. Trucking is under totalitarian rules and regulations. The DOT has the power over every aspect of our livelyhood. And the fault lies with the voters who accept the reasons without question.

 

In both situations, you are correct. They would both be classified as worker comp.
But the difference would be in how you got paid.
If you were injured just getting out of your truck and say slipped on an icy step vs say getting blown off of a load.
Workers comp takes into consideration whether or not you were in the performance of your job related tasks.
The compensation is different as well as the time it takes to get compensation.
If they determine that it was a work related injury, you better darn well be properly logged as a truck driver.
That's why so many drivers get denied claims in insurance.
Their opinion is that you weren't on duty, so you got injured while doing something you weren't supposed to be doing.
Trust me that will come up in the insuring investigation.

 

To give you the right answer, yes it's illegal.
I've read all the posts to this question and have a few comments of my own.
1. DOT requires all functions required in the performance of duties related to the business for the truck be logged. That means if your actively involved in the loading process, tarping, securing, getting paper work, driving, whatever. If it relates to the business of the truck it has to be logged.
2. You'll hear everyone tell you, save your hours for driving and only log the bare minimum.
Under a paper log in days past, that might have been accepted. Log later, log shorter, so you can drive more.
Back then you made corrections then sent your logs in. No body saw them until you finished being creative, and it was pretty much excepted as gospel.
3. With today's Elogs systems, your 14 clock is in full sight of everyone and all corrections are scrutinized.
You can work past your 14 on duty not driving if you choose to, but the bottom line is that you still only have a 14 hour clock.
So this fallacy about saving your driving time went out the window a long time ago.
4. As soon as you sign in, your log department, your safety department, your dispatchers, your managers all have a visual view of what your doing.
In closing, I have always believed log what you do and do what you log and you'll never go wrong, you'll never have a questionable DOT inspection, you'll never have challenges with saftey or log departments.

 

Before elogs and the overly aggressive legal system these days, I paper-logged 15 minutes to tarp.

When elogs and lawsuits started becoming the norm, I logged 30 minutes to tarp.

If I were to return to pulling a flatbed and tarping, I would log as much time as it takes to tarp! As stated previously, it's easier to explain how I got hurt while on duty than it is to explain why I was on the bed of the trailer being off duty...

Let your conscience be your guide, maybe...

 

Not sure how comp would look at trucking but I had an employee at my repair shop tell me he sliped on the ice when he got out of his car.
There were no witnesses and it was 10 minutes before it was time for him to punch in for the day.
Comp covered the whole thing even though I told my comp provider that I couldn't verify the accident.

 

Tarp on duty then go back and edit some time back to off duty. You can edit all but line 3 for most e-log systems. I always show 30 mins to load and another 30 for tarp no matter how long it takes. Logs are not final until you approve them even electronic.

 

At your shop? it's a good thing nobody got sued.

 

I have never logged securement as on duty. Not once. I also don't log fuel or loading and unloading. What I will do is edit my logs so that I was on duty for detention if it comes to that.

Legally any time you're not in the sleeper or relieved of duty, it's on duty. In reality I don't think most people log it as such.

I do a very thorough post trip, but I don't even log one.