Off Duty At Receiver

Yes, I got burned with that 30 minute thing. I took my break in the fuel line, but went around (slowly) when someone pulled behind me. Then 30 minutes up, I pulled out and got onto the interstate. As soon as I got to 30mph, the QC accused me of being out of drive time.

Also, always use the qc elapsed time, nothing else for measuring breaks.

My trainer taught me to actually "manually" switch it to "driving" instead of waiting for it to kick it over to "driving" automatically. That way, if you moved a little bit before your 30 minutes break was up, you'll still be fine. The way the Qualcomms are set up at Swift, if you manually switch to the driving line, it will put you as driving right then and there and not a minute sooner; but if you just start driving, it will retroactively set you to the driving line whenever your wheels started turning. Also at Swift, if you change your duty status to something besides driving and then start driving less than 5 minutes later, the QC will kick you to driving from the point you changed your duty status. For example, if you went On-Duty at 5:01 and then either started driving or manually switched to driving at 5:03, it will say you have been driving since 5:01. If you don't want it to do this, you're just gonna have to wait til 5:06 before you can manually switch to driving so it will log you as starting driving at 5:06.

So, true story, let's say I'm going down the highway and miss my exit for the rest stop and there's not another exit for 10 miles...and I have 2 minutes left on my clock. What do I do? I pull over onto the shoulder, switch to on duty, and driving down the highway for 4 minutes. Then I stop again and switch it back to on duty and wait til the 5th minute. As soon as it hits the 5th minute, I switch it to off duty and barrel down the highway for 4 more minutes, stop and set it back to off duty (or anything besides driving for that matter) and wait for the 5th minute again.

Not saying I do this all the time--in fact, I only did it once--but it's good to know how your Qualcomm is set up in case you ever do get in a bind. If you work for a different company, yours is probably set up differently. But I think all of them will switch you to driving from whenever your wheels started rolling if you let it switch you automatically (don't quote me on that, but I'm pretty sure).

As far as your original question about off duty at a shipper , it's fine to do that as long as you log some on duty time when you get there and when you leave. I personally log sleeper berth , not off duty. Just know how your Qualcomm works so you don't get accidentally kicked to driving while you're at the customer on a break.

You guys got real sensitive elogs there. At jbhunt we can drive around at any speed up to two miles before we get automatically changed over to driving. I always go to sleeper or off duty when at a shipper or receiver for any good amount of time.

I was going to say this too. A couple customers made me park a few miles away... I was up to 9th gear and was shocked it didn't kick in. This can be a good thing or a bad thing. Sometimes if I get to sleep at shipper it's cool and I roll faster....but other times like yesterday. .. not good. Was not able to sleep was there for 5 hours... then off duty drive to truck stop. By the time I ate and showered I was getting my next l9ad to leave in a few hours. Got no sleep. So now I go on duty at the end when I need the extra sleep time

On a Qualcomm , any activity less than 5 minutes doesn't register anyway, even if you push the buttons.

Hey Errol, do you know if this is just for the drive status on your Qualcomm or is it any status? I've had one minute duration on-duty in the past. Mine only started allowing less than five minute durations a few months ago with an update, so I wonder if this varies from unit to unit.

All of these things vary. Each company sets their own paramaters into their system. So, a person from Celadon can't go by what a driver from Swift tells them.

The electronic logging systems constantly record numerous pieces of information and continues to do so regardless of status.

It precisely records hours, mileage, speed, and time stamps the satellite location signature when either the status is automatically or manually changed. Even though it may allow driving while logged "off-duty", it records the mileage while you are driving regardless of the status. Where this can come back to bite a driver, is when the status changes from off-duty to something else, because the location signature is time-stamped and recorded (logged). Take a look at the daily graph...every time the status changes, there is an associated location stamp.

Putt-putting around a terminal , truck-stop, or shipper while off-duty is one thing and unlikely to warrant a citation. However driving off-duty for short distances from point A to point B (like one of the examples in this thread) for example, from shipper to a truck stop is a clear violation if under a dispatched load. Even though the Qualcomm (in this case) allows you to drive off-duty, it is constantly recording the mileage. Once you arrive at the truck stop (even if only a couple of miles from the shipper) and change your status, the new location is time-stamped and recorded (logged). If DOT were to pull your 7 days of log history, they will see that the truck moved a recordable distance from location A (the shipper) to location B (the truck stop) and occurred while off-duty. If the officer is reasonably sharp and knows the law at the very least he will question the driver asking how did you do this if you were off-duty?

Caution...just because the Qualcomm is logged as off-duty while driving, does not necessarily prevent the risk of an HOS violation and a costly citation.

The electronic logging systems constantly record numerous pieces of information and continues to do so regardless of status.

It precisely records hours, mileage, speed, and time stamps the satellite location signature when either the status is automatically or manually changed. Even though it may allow driving while logged "off-duty", it records the mileage while you are driving regardless of the status. Where this can come back to bite a driver, is when the status changes from off-duty to something else, because the location signature is time-stamped and recorded (logged). Take a look at the daily graph...every time the status changes, there is an associated location stamp.

Putt-putting around a terminal , truck-stop, or shipper while off-duty is one thing and unlikely to warrant a citation. However driving off-duty for short distances from point A to point B (like one of the examples in this thread) for example, from shipper to a truck stop is a clear violation if under a dispatched load. Even though the Qualcomm (in this case) allows you to drive off-duty, it is constantly recording the mileage. Once you arrive at the truck stop (even if only a couple of miles from the shipper) and change your status, the new location is time-stamped and recorded (logged). If DOT were to pull your 7 days of log history, they will see that the truck moved a recordable distance from location A (the shipper) to location B (the truck stop) and occurred while off-duty. If the officer is reasonably sharp and knows the law at the very least he will question the driver asking how did you do this if you were off-duty?

Caution...just because the Qualcomm is logged as off-duty while driving, does not necessarily prevent the risk of an HOS violation and a costly citation.

Thanks for bringing this up G-town. The example I gave was definitely an HOS violation. It was one of those "I hope they don't notice" situations as it was really the only option I had besides parking on the shoulder for 8-10 hours. If you utilize proper trip planning, you should never have to use this feature. It should be used only as a last resort if you make a dumb mistake like I did.