Profile For Daniel D.

Thank you, everyone, for pitching in here.

G-Town: you are correct that this is like a Dollar General account.

One of the answers I got was from the recruiter, who said the situation would be "played by ear" rather than by hard-and-fast rules. Which causes me to believe that they would want the sleeping driver to wake up and work, yet be logged in as sleeper berth. not good at all.

Thanks again.

Hi folks,

I have been looking into doing an overnight team dedicated run that would have me close to home daily (the starting and ending point is across town from me), and off weekends. (There wouldn't be daily home time, as the run would take close to 24 hours to complete).

The question is: when the truck pulls into one of the three stops on the run, does the driver presently in the sleeper have to get up to help unload, or otherwise work? On the one hand, it's reasonable to expect that the two drivers help each other, especially when it's needed the most; on the other hand, each driver needs his rest. I asked the company this question, and got vague answers. How would a situation like this work in the real world? Thanks in advance for your answers.

Thanks very much, everyone, for jumping in here.

Yes, this was in California - sorry, I should have mentioned that.

I did talk to my former supervisor. He reported it to his corporate office. He doubted they would report it to their insurance, as it would raise their rates. (The truck's fender looked like someone had taken a bite out of it - otherwise it looked normal).

The pole itself was dented, but not knocked over. (It was one of those poles like the ones outside Best Buy, that are designed to stop someone from crashing their car into the place in order to rob it).

As for the job itself...I was driving a long straight truck. They promised me that they would have me towing something, but that was B.S....I really need the Class A experience. I hated the job, and wanted to quit anyway. I did offer two week's notice, but the boss decided to accept my notice immediately so as not to have to do the drug screen and other paperwork.

My only worry is that if the property owner (assuming there is a property owner) comes forward months later, and I don't report this to the DMV within the required 10 day period, they could nail my butt.

Thanks again, everyone.

-- Daniel

Hi all,

I recently had an incident where I collided with a pole in front of a store that had previously gone out of business, so there was nobody there to make a report to. There was a construction crew nearby at this mall (it was on private property), and the superintendent didn't know who the present owner of the store was, or even if there was a present owner.

I did report this to my boss. I was going to give notice to resign at this time. My boss told me, that, rather than make an insurance report, and make me take a post-accident drug screen test, he would instead accept my resignation with immediate effect. (There was a dent on a front fender).

The one question I have is about reporting requirements to DMV and/or DOT and/or prospective employers. I had a previous accident at a truck stop (also private property) a couple of years ago. That was reported to the employer (Swift), I exchanged info with the other driver (his rig was parked at the time), but I heard that this was not DOT reportable (because it was on private property), and I never heard anything further.

Of course, I would like to let sleeping dogs lie - if possible. But, please give me your thoughts. Thanks very much.

Hey...just let it ride.....if DOT was able to catch every log book falsification, there eventually would be no drivers in the trucks. We all make mistakes, and that was yours. If the truck owner has a problem with it, well...you were lookin' for a job when you got that one. There isn't a lack of trucking jobs, just a lack of ones that pay you what your worth, give you decent equipment, and treat you with respect. Chalk it up to experience and get on with your life. If it comes back to bite ya, then is the time you can come up with magical excuses.....like the rest of us !!

Thank you, Starcar.

Welcome aboard Daniel.

I'm scared to fix it, because the staffing agency communicated my less-than-honest log through electronic media (fax and email) which can, of course,be intercepted by the guvmint.

I wouldn't worry about that. When you consider there's 1.2 million trucking companies and 3.5 million drivers, the DOT isn't combing through temp agency emails looking for one guy that might have cheated on their logbook one time.

I can't really say if you should fix it or not. That's kind of a toss-up and I don't have a clear solution that I know would work so it's basically a judgment call on your part.

Are you working under the 60 hour or 70 hour work week right now?

Thanks for the welcome!

I've been logging as 70 hours/8 days, but that's because it's the first set of blocks on the log sheet - nobody told me to do it one way or the other. Thanks.

Falsification of logs is way worse than driving over hours. You are dealing with a federal document and it can lead to prosecution if caught falsifying logs.

Thank you, Guy. But if I now "un-falsify", that would point out the original falsification. So maybe it's best to let the sleeping dog lie? Thanks.

I should add a little more info: one day out of the five I make the out of state run - the other four are local. Every day I start and finish at the same location. I didn't work on the one-week anniversary of the long day, for fear that may have triggered scrutiny of a seven-day-log examination at a scale. Will I be okay for every following out-of state run, or should I just not work any more of these -- and stay 100% local? Again, please give me your thoughts.

Hello all, I am now working through a driver staffing agency for a slave driver. He recently sent me out on a 200 mile trip across a state line after working me for four hours earlier that day. There was a road and weather issue with the route back to the shop (I start and return to the same place daily), so I took an alternate route that took an extra two hours to return. My driving time was under 11 hours, but I completely forgot about the requirement to stop driving after 14 hours from the start time - so I am 2 hours over. I wrote down on the log that I shut down at the required time, and will say that the boss drove out to pick me up from the distant location.

I could re-do the log sheet by citing adverse weather exception, and emergency need to get home to take necessary bedtime meds. There is also the 16 hour once-weekly exception, but I didn't work for him for 5 previous days.

I'm scared to fix it, because the staffing agency communicated my less-than-honest log through electronic media (fax and email) which can, of course,be intercepted by the guvmint.

Please give me your thoughts - should I fix it and risk consequences, or just leave my slight fiction alone? Thanks very much.