Waiting at final destination

Somebody forgot to take his medication.

 

Either one. Since it will likely be close to two hours make sure you stay off duty/sleeper for at least 2 hours to leave the split berth option available.

 

You forgot the sensors in the urinals and paper towel dispensers.

 

As long as you have on your tin foil hat you should be ok!

 

You call a federal marshal!

 

Something that has not been mentioned is you are supposed to log off duty if hanging out in the seat. Which is far more likely given you only have a couple hours to kill.

 

Who made the error? I’d be trying to get compensated for my time.

 

Your 70 hour clock is your livelihood. I don't use on duty hours if it isnt absolutely necessary. And when it is required or necessary, I use just enough to show that I did something and then go straight to off duty or sleeper.

Example. I try to fuel in the morning before I leave out whenever possible. I am suppose to log on duty for a pre trip and for fueling. I will do my pre trip and fuel while my log says I'm still in sleeper birth. Once I'm done fueling, I'll switch to on duty. Then I will pull up and out of the fuel island (I know, shocking) and go inside the shop for my morning rituals (bathroom, coffee, etc.). That will usually take me 8-10 minutes. By the time I get on the road and the computer flips me to driving it will have logged about 12 minutes on duty for the morning. Now is 10-12 minutes a realistic time to do a full pre trip, fuel up, and run around the store? Probably not. Will a trooper make a big deal about something like that? In my experience, you wont ever have an issue. Now if your involved in a fatal accident, will a small "lie" like this throw you under the bus? In today's world, yes it probably will.

Now, in your scenario. I always log about 12-15 minutes of on duty when I first arrive at a shipper or reciever, and then log the rest as sleeper birth ... regardless of when they actually give me a door and start loading or unloading me. If I am loading or unloading myself, I will log on duty for about 30 minutes and then straight to off duty or sleeper.

If you follow the book 100% on what you are suppose to log as on duty, you will be needing a 34hr reset every week. I am as greedy with my on duty hours as I am with my money because to me, they are basically one in the same ... my on duty hours just haven't been cashed in yet. I've been on e-logs since I started driving 5-6 years ago. Ive had inspections when I first started driving where I would literally log nothing but sleeper birth, off duty, and driving. Nothing was ever said. Now a days, they usually glance at my HoS summary and leave it at that. As long as there are no insane violations, they seem to not care.



Having said all that, you must know. If you are involved in some big accident, even if not at fault, these lawyers can hang you for fluffing your logs. I knew a dude, who was facing jail time because he ran over a drunk pedestrian with his trailer tires while making a right turn. He fluffed his 30 minute break just before this incident. He spent 40 minutes delivering, but logged 20 minutes on duty and 20 minutes off duty. Then spent his last 10 minutes eating a quick lunch. They had video cameras of the drunk guy before hand barely able to stand up straight. The driver never ran his trailer on the curb, the drunk man fell over into the road as the driver was making his turn. The lawyers said that if the driver took his 30 minute break like he was suppose to he wouldnt have been at that corner at that exact moment and possibly might never had encountered the drunk man.

.... just something to think about.

 

I can't remember the year this happened. In my mind I think it was sometime in 2003. The company I was with had an OO to be involved in a fatal accident somewhere near Columbus Ga. That driver was clean. Nothing turned up on his drug screens and his logs were clean. All his supporting documents backed up his HOS. Still the family of the person who was also deemed to be at fault filed a lawsuit. Some shyster attorney out of Atlanta was hired to file this. Turns out this guy was actually offering people money to change their stories about that accident. My point is this crap is bad enough when the driver is fully legal. What in the hell do you think will happen when the driver is deemed to not be legal? Stay legal and shut your mouth when questioned by a cop!

 

Its one thing to log off duty or sleeper while waiting to get unloaded, which is perfectly legal. It's another thing entirely to try to save hours by not pepper logging a pre trip or getting fuel. Of those few minutes are actually going to make a difference in a good pay check and a bad pay check them you need to stop working so #### cheap. These type of guys are the problem with trucking and are why its so difficult to get a good rate our here.

 

And don't forget..they have your breath prints on file...