My over the road trainer told me not to worry about bracketing, “it’s not important”. When I was finished with training and brought my log book into the o.c. I got reamed for not bracketing, and I was told I had close to $2000 worth of fines, if I was caught by d.o.t. ; what’s the truth ? Is bracketing that important or are the trainers in the o.c. making a bigger issue than what it is.

 

What exactly do you mean by "bracketing"?

 

I think what he means are the little u shaped "brackets" that you attach your flag line to to show that from 12:15 to 12:30 you were in such and snd such a place.

 

I never did it.

 

If that is the case, here's what the regs state:

As long as you are recording the city and state where a status change occurs, then you are in compliance. There is no FMCSA requirement that you even show what you were doing there. The grid graph clearly shows how long you were there, so "bracketing" would be redundant.

 

Most likely that is a company policy. As the Rev pointed out, it is not required by the DOT.

The compnay I work DOES require us to do it, but that is company policy.

 

These companies make you do it because either A they feel you are too stupid to actually look at the line above, or B they are too stupid to look at the line above, or C think the DOT are too stupid to look at the line above :P

 

Or D, safety is anal :lol:

I chose D for my company's safety dept.

 

Yes, bracketing is not required-- it's a throw back to "old school" days-- no longer required-- it used to be used because the regs stated that each and every change of duty- had to be flagged and was used to reduce the need to draw all those redundant lines- example you flag where you go off duty then bracket to where you return to drive line- as opposed to drawing another line and reduntant info- same location where you stopped.

Read the FMCSA guidance questions- it states what can be omitted- including all vertical connecting lines- if you really wanted to mess with em.

You only need to notate- fuel, dot inspections, accidents, any thing like medical exams, drug tests, and the post trip inspection---- i.e stuff the federal government is tracking for TAX purposes(fuel)+DOT stuff.-- any of the above that is done in less than 7.5 minutes needs to flag with the exact amont of time involved.

 

Sorry to break it to you, but most of your information is wrong.

The regs clearly state (and have always stated) that every change of duty status must have a city and state notated for it:

395.8(h)(5) Location - Remarks. The name of the city, town, or village, with State abbreviation where each change of duty status occurs shall be recorded.

Again, I would refer you to the above regulation, which states that each change of duty status must have a city and state recorded for it.

The regulations aren't so strict:

Question 1: How should a change of duty status for a short period of time be shown on the driver's record of duty status?

Guidance: Short periods of time (less than 15 minutes) may be identified by drawing a line from the appropriate on-duty (not driving) or driving line to the remarks section and entering the amount of time, such as "6 minutes," and the geographic location of the duty status change.

If something takes you 14 minutes, then it can be flagged. There is no magic "7.5 minute" mark, where flagging is no longer allowed. This is a common misconception.