TMC Drivers

We'll see how it goes at the audit...

 

It will go well. You can log line 4 after 14 hours. You can not log line 3 after 14 hours.

 

He's gonna have a lot more hassels at the scales than he needs to is the point...I've never been inclined to look for ways to spend more time working so I guess I've never looked at it from his perspective.

I have been audited and have been dinged for being over 14 so I'll have to go with what experience tells me about how the 14 hour rule is enforced.

In my world the point is to use line 4 as efficiently as possible so as not to eat up my driving time...That means I make more money by resting when I'm waiting and not burning up my 70 on line 4.

If you want to burn up your clock on line four, Knock yourself out but you are going to be dealing with a lot of B.S. from the DOT and you're not gonna be making a lot of money if you're paid by the load/mile.

 

I too would not log that way. It will burn the 70, but it is legal. If you got dinged on the 14 then it was for driving or whoever did the audit does not have a clue about the HOS.

 

Most of the auditors that I've met are pretty clueless.....LOL!

Always remember though that the laws as written are subject to interpretation by the officer in the field. Sometimes you can beat the guy in court and sometimes you can't.

I don't have the time or inclination to get into a pissin' contest with the DOT over something like this!

If you log it like this I will still ask the burning question....Were you dropped on your head a lot as a child?


Maybe the 37 years has taught me when it's good to buck the system and when it's good to run with the status quo....

 

Let me be the first one to admit that I do NOT know everything about the HOS rules and logging your hours. I do know that logging the way I have been insisting here will eat up your 70. I'm not denying that, and that wasn't what the argument was about. Someone asked about TMC working you 16+ hours, then someone replied that you can only drive 11 hrs within a 14 hr period. I replied that was true, but you can actually work longer than the 14 according to the HOS rules. Perhaps if I mentioned logging on line four instead of just saying you can work, maybe I would have been understood better.

However, to say that you only work 14 hrs a day is false. True, you aren't going to log all that that extra time, but it's still there. For example, I had the pleasure of spending two weeks on a TMC trainer truck. We arrived at a consignee at 10pm one night. Their gate opened at 6am, we got in about 6:30, then we waited for an hour and a half while they loaded another truck. Then it took 1/2 an hour to get unloaded ourselves. Once we were finished, we started our logbooks (or I should say I started mine) by backing up 1/2 hour from the time they were finshed unloading and flagging that as our start time. Although I actually started working around 6, my logbook didn't actually start until 8ish and I was still good with my 10 hr break. That was a 16 hr day, but I only logged 14. So to say we don't work more than 14 hours is not being truthful. Of course, you always wanna keep your logbook legal, duh.

There were other times at shippers where we have sat for a couple hours waiting our turn. Instead of going to line four, we went to line 2 until we were finished loading or unloading, then we would back up 1/2 hr from that time, go to line four for a 1/2 hour, then go to line three. Is that 100% legal? I don't know, but I guess it's better than burning up your 70.

Notarps, thanks for backing me up. I was beginning to wonder if anyone was gonna understand what I was saying.

 

I understand what your saying now, my only reply to that is I will only log what is required by the company and or the DOT.

Make good use of your time when you can it will affect your drive line or better yet your home time.

 

I realize that a lot of company drivers "give away" a lot of time. I do not!

I log it as I do it...I don't back up my logs or average miles trying to save hours...I just log it as I do it and then I never have to worry about my book at the scales.

Every now and then a customer will take a long time to load me and then will say "It has to be there first thing in the morning", I just smile and say 'It took so long for me to get out of here that it won't be there till it can legaly be there".
If they say anything more I just tell them that they should probably get me loaded in a more timely manner if it needs to get there early.

I usually only do about 12 or so hours in a day...If I have to tarp, it takes a little longer.

 

Must be nice to have a job that pays that well.

 

I work for me....I haul loads off of the load boards and I have a couple of brokers that give me stuff that is never seen on the boards because of our long standing business relationship.

I don't ever haul "cheap freight".

I'm not rich by any means but I do pretty well.

Why would I want to give my money to the courts for an avoidable citation? The big secret to getting it done isn't a secret at all.

KEEP THE LEFT DOOR SHUT!