Food For Thought!!

[ecnalubma]

I live in Canada and work full-time as a Paramedic with a schedule of Tuesday to Friday day shifts every week. That leaves me with three days per week off every week. So, on some of my days off, I work part-time for a fairly large trucking company to make some extra cash.

A lot of the work I do is linehaul and I do travel outside the 160km (100 mile) radius meaning I have to complete a log book. My question is, "Am I required to complete a log book showing on-duty not driving for the on-duty time I perform on the ambulance??" The ambulances in my province do bear commercial licence plates and the company I work for is technically considered a motor carrier by Canadian standards and the regulations do state that any work performed for a motor carrier is considered as on-duty time but the regulations then state that emergency vehicles are exempt from the HOS regulations. I'm not saying that I want to push myself to the limit by driving when I am tired or anything like that... I see the results of that all the time... but, it would make things a lot easier if I could simply log off-duty for the four days I'm on the ambulance or actually off-duty. The funny thing about all of this is that even the folks at Vehicle Compliance (DOT) can't answer the question definitively.

Any thoughts??

[TK THE TRUCKER]

My question is, "Am I required to complete a log book showing on-duty not driving for the on-duty time I perform on the ambulance??"

As far as here in the States, yes you would technically have to show your time as a paramedic as on duty not driving if at your driving job you were required to run a logbook because you went out of a 100 miles radius. You would have to log all the time you were on the clock, not just the time spent on the ambulance. You might be able to get away without logging your paramedic time but if something ever happened you would be up a creek without a paddle.

As for the emergency vehicle exemption I really don't think this will help you at all. It is intended to work in a different way. 8)

[Red Clay Rambler]

In the USA, technically ANY compensated work counts against your HOS, i.e., flipping burgers at McDonalds, strange as it may sound. Hopefully Canada has a rule that makes a little more sense.

[allan5oh]

Yes you must include any type of work as on-duty, even volunteer work!