One for the Master[de]baters… you know who you are… Question 1
 

Unless I’m mistaken, nowhere in the regs does it define the word “co-driver”. This might sound silly, but really, it could be important. I was thinking, my wife is licensed but very rarely drives anymore. When she does go out with me, it really doesn’t make sense for her to maintain a log for every day just so she can drive maybe one day a week or less so I can get a restart. I posed this question to the nice lady who runs the Declo, ID scale (aka Cotterel Port of Entry) on WB I-84, and she seemed to think that my idea makes sense and would not violate any laws. My concern is that some of the more skeptical DOT folks might wonder how I was off duty and / or in the sleeper birth while the truck was moving if I had no co-driver. I’d probably be okay as long as the wife is still in the truck with me and had her logbook showing that she did indeed drive for one day, but what if she had gotten out of the truck a day or two before? The only thing I’d have to prove that there was another driver in my truck is her DOT physical long form, which always stays in the truck. We all know that innocent until proven guilty is only a pipedream out on the road. Any thoughts or experience with doing this?

Musicman........What an amazingly complex question!!! :thumbsup:

I'd say to have her maintain a log book, even for when she's at home. That way there's a record of it.

I'd have to agree with Malaki86.

For consecutive days off (out of the truck) I would write in the comments area "off duty (date) thru (date)" on a single sheet just to cover her butt. If she is in the truck, I'd say log it accordingly, because she occasionally does drive and holds a commercial license and technically is a co-driver.

The cost of the logbook and the effort to keep it updated has got to be cheaper than dealing with an overzealous DOT officer, fines, and court dates if it came down to it.

Do you have a laptop & printer in the truck? If so, use a logbook program, such as Drivers Daily Log. That way, you would only need to print them when necessary.

But she’s NOT a co-driver. If I picked up a load and brought it back to my yard, and I went off duty and she got in the truck and delivered the load, she wouldn’t be a co-driver. According to the nice lady in Idaho, the wife could drive one day and I could drive the next and never be on each other’s log as co-drivers. Quite frankly, I can’t find anything in the regs that indicates you couldn’t both drive in the same day and not be co-drivers. I own the truck so I can easily be a rider with a form signed by me (if the DOT wants to be picky) giving me permission to be a rider. Same goes for my wife. Why can't I (or she) not be off duty for a day and just be a rider? This is why I’m interested in the definition of a co-driver. That one DOT officer might agree that I can do this, but I have doubts as to whether or not every officer would see things my (or her) way.

If she's in the truck and if she's going to drive, then we make sure she has off duty logs for the previous seven days. It happens so rarely that we don't really worry about when she's not in the truck. If we ever got audited as a carrier, having her create a bunch of off duty logs wouldn't be that difficult.

Chief Master(de)bator on duty Sir! Indeed, an interesting question. I, of course, know the answer. Oh.... did you want me to post it?

Hobo, when I think of master[de]bators, you are one of the first who come to mind. By all means, grace us with your knowledge. ;)

Maybe I'm missing something, but if she gets stopped or God forbid gets in an accident while she's driving, isn't the driver of that particular commercial vehicle going to have to produce a log book in addition the license, insurance, medical card, etc ... sounds like a "driver" to me, co-driver, companion, passenger, whatever you want to call her, she would have to produce documents that ANY driver would have to produce. I honestly don't see what the big deal is when you can use one log page to document any number of days off ... takes maybe 2 minutes to get current prior to driving while you reset.