I messaged a gentleman who is a DOT Officer with the questions in a scenario: His response follows my request for information:

From: Skywalker
To: John Q. Public
Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2007 2:01 pm
Subject: Hi, a question for you....

Hi, hope all is well with you and yours!!

I have a situational question. This has come up in another forum, and I'd like your take, and even an official opinion if you could. If not, I'll be satisfied with your opinion.

Here is the hypothetical situation:

A driver is dispatched with a load. He begins his 14 hr day at 2000 hrs ET, runs all night to a receiver, arrives after having only driving 10 hrs of his 11. He arrives at 0800 hrs ET, which is his appointment time. He clears the gate, contacts the receiving office, and unloading begins, but then a problem comes up with the load. The resolution of the problem is not found until 1030 hrs ET.

The driver is now past his 14, and cannot drive. He has contact the receiver and the company and security have informed him "that he CANNOT stay on the property to take his 10 hour break, and must leave immediately".

What is legal for the driver to do?

Thanks in advance for your time and thoughts!!

Rob

_________________
Forrest Gump was right......ever so right. People prove it every day......

So I like what I do, you don't, too bad, get over it. Get on with your life, I am.

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His response:

From: John Q. Public
To: Skywalker
Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2007 10:09 pm
Subject: Re: Hi, a question for you.... Quote message
There are several possible scenarios:

1. If the driver is stopped departing the property an officer may cite the driver for the 14 hour rule violation. Depending on the officer's attitude and the driver's attitude the officer may allow th driver to proceed to the nearest truck stop to complete their OOS. I have allowed drivers to proceed from the EB Carlock Scale on I-74 to the TS in Bloomington, IL to serve their OOS. A follow-up is usually performed after I complete my day.

2. If a review is performed at the driver's employer in the six months following the incident, the violation may affect the carrier's safety rating. The DOT doesn't expect zero HOS violations; however, the violation percentage must be kept below 10%. Five drivers checked for 30 days each = 150 records checked allowing a maximum violation rate of 15 11 or 14 or 60/70 hour rule violations or no logs or false logs.

Private property is private property, there is no regulations I know of that mandates shippers offer a safe haven to drivers to avoid HOS violations.

Keep in mind there are degrees of culpability and circumstances that serve as mitigating factors in the degree of violation, i.e.:

1. Does the driver have a history of violating the HOS? First offense or forth time in one month?

2. Was the driver over the HOS by 15 minutes or five hours or somewhere in between? Remember only driving time is a violation of the 14 hour rule, not on-duty time, if the driver drove 30 minutes to a truck stop or did the driver drive 2.5 hours to finish a run to get home? One would result in a fair warning the other could result in prosecution.

Ultimately it is the carrier's responsibility the driver avoids HOS violations. One violation is not the end of the world.

Hope that helps.

Mike

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This fellow is the DOT man that posts as John Q. Public on truck.net. He's a very reliable source for information, and I have called on him for it on a number of times. 8)

 

Well inmate1577, I guess it's back to law school for you. I've said it numerous times here that you can't trump a property owner's rights.

 

My choice like mentioned above would be line four out the gate across the street to the big dirt patch. My guess the Qualcomm does not know if you are in the far corner of the receivers lot or out the gate across the street so if you aren't stopped or don't run into something I would think you could pass a log audit no problem if you can park very near the receiver.

If you are no longer under load would not line one be acceptable since you are not laden? Line one to the truck stop?

 

The accuracy of of the Qualcomm is limited to approx. 50 foot.

That being said the Qualcomm would have to be set to GPS mode before this would come into play.

kc0iv

 

This is where electronic logs over the Qualcom makes life miserable. There's no way to re-coop that lost time.

 

While a dry van, reefer or flat bed driver "may" be able to pull that off, we chemical tanker drivers, and possibly even food grade tanker drivers can't use line one....the tank is dirty, thus we are carrying "residue" or "waste", and especially in the case of hazmat....I think I would feel safer on line 4 doing an intercity move.... Now if it was just to move to the big dirt lot across the street....ummm, that could maybe just kinda sorta pan out a tad different. 8) Problem is...I haven't found any big dirt lots around chemical plants :x And, normally before I even get to my unload point, I already have my "dispatch to the tankwash"....so I am under "dispatch" and can't cop to "off duty". I think it better to "err on the side of caution" then pay the judge. 8)