:lol: Yep!!! That's the kind of guy I am. :wink:

 

Absolutely.

The "spirit of the law" and a quarter will buy you.......well, it won't really buy you anything anymore.

 

The regs are not that difficult. You guys are over-emphasizing hypotheticals and what if's way too much

Quite frankly if you log a 34 reset in the sleeper that should raise a question.

You never got out of the truck?
Never went inside the truckstop/terminal?
Didn't use the facilities?
Didn't get any food/drink?
Laundry?
Shower?
BS with fellow drivers?
Anything?
What? Did you go into hibernation, or sudden catalepsy?

That raises suspicion.

Sleeper Berth is exactly that Sleeper Berth. Anything else that is not driving or work or the expectation of work is line 1.

Many companies I have worked with have cards that authorize release from work so long as the truck is securely parked. Swift even has it on the first page of their logbooks. So your breaks can look like the dow jones industrial average so long as there is no line 3 or 4 involved in that 10 hour stretch.

 

WTH, This is about alcohol in a truck I thought?


you pull into a truck stop and fuel up and log it as so. Once the truck is parked and you are ready to go inside and shower eat or whatever then log it off duty. Hop back into the truck and crawl into your sleeper and go to line 2 while you are in your sleeper. Get up in the morning and go in for breakfast and take a dump and log it on line 1.


But it you line 1 time has you inside drinking beer and getting hammered then you best not be getting into a motor vehical of any kind with a BAC that is over the legal limit for a CMV, which is about half of what it is for a regular MV. That is unless there is someone else there that is in control of the vehical and you are nothing more then a passenger.

If you hop into that rig and hit the key to get the AC or Heat up and runnign then you are absolutly in violation in most states of Actual Physical Control. You have control of the motor vehical but you are not driving it at this moment.

Heaven forbid that you had parked next to a very bright light when you first parked it and it is now dark and you feel the need to move your vehical to a dark corner of the lot. Now you are a DUI canidate.

If the next mornign leaves you feeling half drunk then you just may still be over the legal BAC limit to operate a CMV since the legal BAC limit is alot less for when operating a CMV then it is for operating a regular MV such a s a car or pickup.

The 4 hours bottle to throttle has no bearing if the bottle was a BIG bottle.

In many states you don't have to be behind the wheel passed out or intoxicated to get an Actual Physical Control ticket. You just have to be anywere within the vehical and have the keys in your possesion.

The my best opinion for if you really think you need to have a drink with supper is to wait it out int he building till you have a legal BAC level before getting back into the rig or go find a room to sleep it off totally.

Now the drinking in the Berth. This is considered open container in many states since you are inside a Motor vehical and have an open container of Alcohol. There is no difference between a CMV or a regular MV when it comes to this. In many states an open container is simply an open case box of beer (not sealed anymore) or a 6 pack that is missing one beer. And an empty beer bottle or can is considered an open container.

Now I have heard that you can legally carry alcohol in a truck as long as it is not in the main area of the truck such as the cab or the sleeper. You can carry it in a box outside the truck. This is what I have heard so don't quote me on it and start ragging me on it. I don't carry alcohol at all so I have not felt the need to check into it in further detail.

If you guys want to continue bickering about berth time and off duty time then maybe a seperate thread should be started about just that.

 

Just for grins and partial boredom I called down to a friend of mine who has been with NCSHP motor carrier enforcement since the days when they drove goofy looking cars and were called the NC DMV...

He said:

CMV is moving, driver BAC better than 0.00 = DWI arrest.

CMV is parked, ANY open containers found within = Citation for open container.

"Any gray area?" I asked.

"No." was the reply.

I know individual cops view things differently, but on this they all view it the same. Open container anywhere in a commercial motor vehicle, at any time, at any location equals open container citation.

So, go ahead and roll them dice... :?


(Oh and for those of you who love to split them hairs, we were not talking about the exemption for passengers in buses and limos...we were talking about the kind of trucks that pull trailers full of stuff, the kind which people on this forum drive, or drove for a living - to include straight trucks that fall under CMV rules.)

 

But.....but......a sleeper berth is a "home away from home". Surely the FMCSA can't regulate what you do in your home. :lol:

 

Rev has been on target the whole time...my law enforcement friend indicated that on the law enforcement side, there is no argument...

if you have an open container in your vehicle you are S.O.L.

 

You know, if you read the fmsca regulations on the design of a sleeper berth, it is required to have an access to the cab itself, so therefor you cannot even close it off! So that blows the idea out the window of closing it off to make it legal to drink in, because you would then be in violation of fmcsa regulations for sleeper berth design

 

I think it would be hilarious, however, to see someone attempt to design and build a sleeper berth for the sole purpose of being able to get drunk in his truck. :lol:


Rev; been sitting in a hotel room since yesterday afternoon, and I'm still not drinking (although I am going to go back down to the bar and get another hamburger and fries) :wink:

 

LOL, how about setting up a seperate section that is closed on in the front of a van with a side door. It is completely seperated from the tractor itself. You can not physically control the vehical from this newly built section.

Heck if the trailer is totally empty then fire up the reefer unit to keep it cool and setup a cot,TV Folding lounger and tune into the race or game and get smashed.

bring in some girls and have even more fun. Just not the ones that are crawling around the truck stop that are missing teeth etc.