Why you don't stop on the shoulder!

You know how office people work. They have their playbook by JJ Keller. They have an answer for everything. These big backups haven’t been covered by JJ Keller yet and so, company policy ignores what is painfully obvious.

We had a problem running superloads through Kansas. 400 miles down a 2 lane road and we couldn’t pull over for the 30 minute break because, 1 no spot was big enough, 2, it was dangerous. The OSOW community all spoke up and the goobermint gave us a waiver.

Every serious accident is potentially leading to trucks having to shut down on the shoulder...even for a 30minute break...in order to stay compliant. Somethings wrong with that picture. I saw one, broad daylight, interstate 16...container yanker ran into a stick truck and got ejected (yes, he had the seatbelt on) gruesome mess. We were in a 10mile stretch with no exits. Quite a few of the trucks had to pull over to avoid violating the 30. That should never happen. Not for HOS, not for company policy, it should not happen, but it does.

 

it does happen but not due to hos, due to drivers thinking that black box is the end all and be all. Let the #### thing blare off alarms and simply make a notation of why you are showing to be in violation.

 

That’s what you do. Perhaps that’s not an option for others.

 

BTW, the desk jockeys have the same argument as you do...from the opposite point of view. You say, there’s never a reason to sit on the shoulder because of the HOS and they say there’s never a reason to violate the HOS with proper planning.

 

Im 99.99999999999999999997% sure WE DO NOT have the same green book if you honestly believe going over the 14 hour on duty time for any reason is at all legal. You reeeeeallly should go read your book again before some new driver takes your advice and gets hit with an hos violation. I can guaranty that'll happen before what you are saying is remotely true.

 

Aside from you being above the word of the regulations, did you log a 30 minute break before taking off from your 15 hour delay? Did you sleep at all for the delay?

 

So you are saying in the event of a true road closing accident/shut down, the fmvsa requires you to shut down and go of duty in the left lane of the George Washington bridge?
You can't honestly believe that.

 

There are many, many federal regulations that are absurd in many circumstances. Never think that because something doesn't make sense to you that it is not the law or regulation.

That's the one good thing about the elogs. The inability to fudge things a little points out just how absurd the HOS regulations really can be.

 

It was over 30 freaking hours not 15 hours. And i logged every single minute on duty not driving. The dot does not want you to take your 30 minute or 10 hour break on the interstate. including the time leading up to, and immediately after trying to get to safe parking this combined into over 40 hours straight with no logged break. Granted i got a couple cat naps over the steering wheel so i was in no danger of falling asleep while driving.