70 hour rule

[tdriver1959]

I have been driving for almost 20 years and have always used the 60 hour rules. A friend of the family is just starting to drive and they use the 70 hour log. My questions is can you do 70 hours of on duty time in five days IE Monday thru Friday. :?:

[Sgt_D]

the way I understand it is you use the 70 hour rule if your company runs trucks 7 days a week no matter how you run...

[Fozzy]

Thats the correct definition. It's really the odd duck company anymore that uses the 60 hour rule. And remember that the hours are all about the driving hours! You CAN certainly WORK after being on duty after 70 hours. You just cannot DRIVE again until you get the proper break.

[Uturn2001]

My questions is can you do 70 hours of on duty time in five days IE Monday thru Friday.

It is possible. If you work and drive (line 3&4) 14 hours a day you will hit the 70 hour mark in 5 days.

Now if you are thinking about running 70 hours for your current company they need to be in operation 7 days a week. If they are not then you can not do it. Also even if your company is a 7 day operation the company may still choose to operate a 60 hour work schedule which they may do if they choose. So check with your company on what they will allow.

[tdriver1959]

thanks

i wasnt sure if you could run 70 hrs in 5 days and then they have 2 days off

They have another division under a different name that runs 7 days a week but not there division

[golfhobo]

Also, under the new HOS rules, you wouldn't HAVE to take 2 days off. If you worked 14/day for 5 days ending on Fri night, you only NEED a 34 hour restart to get all 70 hours back. i.e: You COULD be back to work SUNDAY morning if you wanted to or were made to. Then your 5 days would run out on Thurs night, etc.

[Sealord]

I thought it's sixty hours (lines 3 & 4) in seven days, or seventy hours (lines 3 & 4) in eight days if a driver wants to keep rolling? BOL

[PhuzzyGnu]

I do 70 in 5 all the time. I like weekends off.

It's funny, back before I was a driver those 8 hour days (+1 hour lunch) at Home Depot killed me. Now, if I finish my day with "only" 9 or 10 hours it feels like a vacation- and I feel cheated out of 3 or 4 hours of money.

Of course, my company generally only dispatches M-F. I'll occasionally have a job where I come back on Saturday morning or have to leave out Sunday night. either way, I almost always do my 34 hour restart on Saturday-Sunday.

I am also blessed because our transportation manager has told us to log our full 14 if we are out of town. In his view, we're away from our homes and/or familes and the company owes us. They pay for everything but sleeper berth. I've tacked 6, 7, or even 8 hours on at the end of the day on a two or three day run. As long as we have the hours to get the job done we pad that line 4 all the way to the end.

We're also allowed to get a hotel room if we are out more than one night- say we are dispatched on a run M-W we can get a room Monday night or Tuesday night- and log on duty while soaking in the tub if'n we want. I've been on a 2 week run where I slept in a hotel every night. Plus per diem.

Gotta love it- I'm blessed. I'm sitting in my 2007 truck with 18,476 miles right now getting paid to type this.

And I'll make $70,000 this year as a company driver.

-p.

[Rev.Vassago]

I do 70 in 5 all the time. I like weekends off.

Sorry to break it to you, but you're in violation on any week where the carrier isn't running trucks 7 days a week.

Question 1: May a motor carrier switch from a 60-hour/7-day limit to a 70-hour/8-day limit or vice versa?

Guidance: Yes. The only restriction regarding the use of the 70- hour/8-day rule is that the motor carrier must have CMVs operating every day of the week.

Question 3: May a carrier which provides occasional, but not regular service on every day of the week, have the option of the 60 hours in 7 days or 70 hours in 8 days with respect to all drivers, during the period in which it operates one or more vehicles on each day of the week?

Guidance: Yes.

[Rawlco]

But if he always runs Monday to Friday, and sometimes Saturday, and sometimes leaves on Sunday then as far as I know that covers all the days of the week. :?

I am sure that given any carrier with more than a couple trucks that at least one truck will be running every day of the week.

[Rev.Vassago]

I am sure that given any carrier with more than a couple trucks that at least one truck will be running every day of the week.

I've worked for many who never work on weekends - 30+ truck fleets.

But if he always runs Monday to Friday, and sometimes Saturday, and sometimes leaves on Sunday then as far as I know that covers all the days of the week.

As the regulation states, only on weeks that the carrier has a truck running every day, can they use the 70/8 rule. "Sometimes" is not every week.

[PhuzzyGnu]

I do 70 in 5 all the time. I like weekends off.

Sorry to break it to you, but you're in violation on any week where the carrier isn't running trucks 7 days a week.

Question 1: May a motor carrier switch from a 60-hour/7-day limit to a 70-hour/8-day limit or vice versa?

Guidance: Yes. The only restriction regarding the use of the 70- hour/8-day rule is that the motor carrier must have CMVs operating every day of the week.

Question 3: May a carrier which provides occasional, but not regular service on every day of the week, have the option of the 60 hours in 7 days or 70 hours in 8 days with respect to all drivers, during the period in which it operates one or more vehicles on each day of the week?

Guidance: Yes.

Well I guess the DOT audit my carrier had a couple of months ago missed that... Heh heh. As did all the coops I've been in.

My terminal has 6 class A drivers and 6 class B drivers. Other terminals have similar structures. On an occasional weekend we might not have anyone running as most of our customers are M-F. But we do (and I have) run 7 days a week.

So there we are. We have that option. I believe neither the letter nor the spirit of the law requires my company to switch everyone to the 60/7 on the fly one occasional week just because none of our customers required a truck on that Saturday or Sunday. Maybe everyone made it back from their runs by 11:59p Friday and it was Labor Day weekend and no customer had a pickup that required a driver to head out before 12:01a Monday. Should everyone be switched to 60/7? Nah....

In summary, we as a company with our various terminals are prepared to, and most often do, have drivers running 7 days a week. Therefore we legally run a 70/8 log.

-p.

[Rev.Vassago]

So there we are. We have that option. I believe neither the letter nor the spirit of the law requires my company to switch everyone to the 60/7 on the fly one occasional week just because none of our customers required a truck on that Saturday or Sunday. Maybe everyone made it back from their runs by 11:59p Friday and it was Labor Day weekend and no customer had a pickup that required a driver to head out before 12:01a Monday. Should everyone be switched to 60/7? Nah....

Actually, the law is quite specific on this, that you are not required to change to the 70/8 rule, but it is an option for those carriers who run trucks 7 days a week. It is like an "added bonus" for those who are a full week operation.

In summary, we as a company with our various terminals are prepared to, and most often do, have drivers running 7 days a week. Therefore we legally run a 70/8 log.

Only on the weeks that the company runs trucks 7 days a week. But as long as the company has trucks running every day of the week (even if each individual truck isn't), then the 70/8 rule can apply.

[LOAD IT]

I've had 2 full blown DOT audits in my life and on one two years ago, the auditor asked if we were a 7 or 8 day operation. I said 8, and then they started the log audit, all of my drivers that use up their logbook reset after 70. We run 7 days a week most weeks.