Approved Footwear For Trucking - The LAW

WL sounds like you are almost completed with mentoring. I assume you are a Swiftie (use of the term mentor), there is verbage on acceptable foot ware in your handbook,...specifies what and what not to wear entering and exiting equipment. Nothing about driving barefoot though. Not worth a squabble though.

Good luck!

there is verbiage on acceptable footwear in your handbook,...specifies what and what not to wear entering and exiting equipment

That's an excellent point to keep in mind right there about everything in this industry. There are laws, there are regulations, and there are company policies, all of which need to be known and followed or it can lead to an utter lack of income generation. You might not go to jail for wearing flip-flops, and you might not get cited by the DOT , but your company has every right to send you packing if it's against company policy. So everyone just needs to be aware of that.

I was hoping once I get a job and a few paycheques under my belt to celebrate and get a nice pair of western boots to drive in. My brother was telling me truckers are the last of the cowboys 😊

I always get a chuckle out of the old driving barefoot is illegal statements. That thing has been kicking around for as long as I can remember. That's why I always drive with my socks on... technically I'm not barefoot that way!

Wasn't it riding horseback barefooted back then?

I always get a chuckle out of the old driving barefoot is illegal statements. That thing has been kicking around for as long as I can remember. That's why I always drive with my socks on... technically I'm not barefoot that way!

Wasn't it no riding horseback barefoot in your day? LoL.

I was hoping once I get a job and a few paycheques under my belt to celebrate and get a nice pair of western boots to drive in. My brother was telling me truckers are the last of the cowboys 😊

There are still a few actual cowboys around out west. They mostly drive pickups, but they also ride horses. They aren't really like what you see in the movies, though.

I was hoping once I get a job and a few paycheques under my belt to celebrate and get a nice pair of western boots to drive in. My brother was telling me truckers are the last of the cowboys 😊

There are still a few actual cowboys around out west. They mostly drive pickups, but they also ride horses. They aren't really like what you see in the movies, though.

OK, I should have included this with the last reply, since I've been dying to repeat this story.

My brother drives for a small outfit in Nebraska. They have nine or ten full-time drivers and some part-time drivers.

One of these guys has a bull that he keeps in a pasture in South Dakota, not too far across the state line from where he lives in Nebraska. (I have no idea why the bull is in South Dakota instead of Nebraska.) He decided it was time to move the bull closer to home.

He went up to the pasture with a truck and a cattle trailer. The bull, being a bull, refused to get into the trailer. The guy tried for the better part of a day to get the bull into the trailer, but he was unsuccessful.

After trying and failing again another weekend, he hired some cowboys to come and get the bull into the trailer.

They came in their pickups with horse trailers and went into the pasture on horseback. They roped the bull pretty good, but the bull is strong and cagey, and he would run down to one corner of the pasture near some water where there are trees and brush growing. (Remember, this is in South Dakota. Trees don't grow willy nilly everywhere like they do in other places.)

Well, the cowboys and horses would tug and pull on that bull, and almost got him to the trailer a few times, but the bull kept winning the battles and would get the ropes all tangled up in the trees and brush down by the water hole, and the cowboys would have to start all over again.

After trying for two days, the cowboys told the bull's owner they had to give up and leave, but that they'd come back another time when he could get up there again.

He asked the cowboys how much he owed them. They told him, Owe us!? We said we'd catch your bull and get him in the trailer. We haven't done that. You don't owe us anything. And they left.

That's what real cowboys are like.

I'm not sure, but I think that bull is still in the pasture in South Dakota. I'll have to ask my brother.

The purpose of my original post - was to clear up some misperceptions on the LEGALITY of flips/barefoot and DRIVING a CMV.

Company Regs obviously trump all - as would the rules at any shipping dock (which would pretty much . Nor would I want to be wandering around a dock at a shipper/receiver in anything less than steel-toes, lest some harried/underpaid lumper run over my foot with a pallet-jack/forklift (I'd also wear a high-vis vest in that scenario too).

The thread was in response to, a discussion that digressed into name-calling & shouting (that was understandably deleted).

You are not going walk into a weigh station with your paperwork, and get cited for flops under an OSHA or company reg.

If the company policy is "no driving in flips" and you do - you do so at your own peril. Brownie-Point snitches, and perhaps company security guys may rat you out.

Obviously - common sense rules that day (as it does in so many other aspects of the industry). But, to reiterate - no FMCSA/State Laws regarding driving a CMV with flips. Nor does the OSHA reg cited, cover driving or being IN the truck with flips. Once you hit a dock (or other dangerous area) the rule would apply.

This (flip flops) doesn't come up nearly as repetitively as the "guns in a CMV" questions do.

Rick

"Same principle why - if there isn't a "No U-Turn Sign" at the intersection, you are ALLOWED to make a U-Turn. "

Well, I got a parking ticket for taking my thirty minute break in an empty lot at the edge of a commercial area that has obviously been used for years by cars and trucks as a parking area. No city ordinance signs, no "No Parking" signs, no fencing, nothing. I was in the truck napping and code enforcement didn't even have the courtesy to knock and tell me to move on. Found ticket stapled to door handle four hours later at next bathroom break.

To know this was a no parking area one would have to be a local resident, or be curious enough to Google a city's website before shutting down. Clearly a bush league money grabbing tactic right out of the movies. Property is probably owned by a city councilman's brother or something.

So just because something isn't posted as prohibited doesn't necessarily mean it's ok.

"Same principle why - if there isn't a "No U-Turn Sign" at the intersection, you are ALLOWED to make a U-Turn. "

Well, I got a parking ticket for taking my thirty minute break in an empty lot at the edge of a commercial area that has obviously been used for years by cars and trucks as a parking area. No city ordinance signs, no "No Parking" signs, no fencing, nothing. I was in the truck napping and code enforcement didn't even have the courtesy to knock and tell me to move on. Found ticket stapled to door handle four hours later at next bathroom break.

To know this was a no parking area one would have to be a local resident, or be curious enough to Google a city's website before shutting down. Clearly a bush league money grabbing tactic right out of the movies. Property is probably owned by a city councilman's brother or something.

So just because something isn't posted as prohibited doesn't necessarily mean it's ok.

A - I'd have fought the ticket.

Well, I got a parking ticket for taking my thirty minute break in an empty lot at the edge of a commercial area that has obviously been used for years by cars and trucks as a parking area.

B - You parked on either private or city property - without permission. Don't know how the laws are, where you happened to park - but - for example - had you been TOWED (or attempted to be towed), that would have typically had to have been posted. YMMV though, some smaller (and even larger) municipalities use the old "unposted no parking scam" for revenue.

I fought the law & won - in the most perverted "parking wars" city in the US. Philadelphia.

Parked my bus in front of a club, where we had a gig that night. The parking lady came by, and I asked her if I had to pump both meters, or just one. She told me I was cool with just one. We're eating dinner on the bus, after sound check, and a different parking lady came by and hit me with a $300 "commercial vehicle" ticket. I had her call the supervisor, and the original parking lady - brought the band off the bus (as they all witnessed the interaction with the first parking lady) - and they said - too bad, the ticket was already written.

Fought it via phone hearing, and won.

Parking tickets are different from Uniform Traffic Laws or Criminal - they are usually municipal or civil. A basic principal of law still remains, that which is not prohibited, is allowed.

Rick

Yes, private property apparently. No signs, no warnings, nothing. Signs are all over the place on other streets saying no commercial vehicle parking, but not on this street or in front of this lot. It literally is just a twenty acre lot of dirt and weeds behind a quarter mile of commercial businesses. I wouldn't argue about the principle of law, as you put it. Obviously, a city has every right to make and enforce whatever laws they want. My objection is the lack of signage, which should be expected as a minimal courtesy. Would it be fair to issue me a speeding ticket if there was no sign saying the speed limit is changing, I just "should have known", or a ticket for making a right turn on a red even though there's no sign saying it's prohibited. (Aside from the fact that there ARE states where it's prohibited, but not in the city and/or state I'm referencing).

I used to stop there every week to get a meal at a choice of an In-n-Out burger, Popeye's Chicken or Jack in the Box. I would also stop at that city's Pilot to fuel if needed. I have now changed my habits and do these activities at the city 50 miles down the road. I wrote an email to the city code enforcement telling them of the tax dollars they've permanently lost by this chickshirt policy. Other drivers in my company have been made aware of this as well. No response, not holding my breath.

Funny thing, a parking ticket goes against the truck, not me the driver. I asked the boss about it and even though we both agreed that morally I should pay it, ultimately he said "screw em, what are they gonna do?". I read to him the fine print where it says they can put a fine and a hold on his registration. He laughed and said let em try, that's California and they can't do squat because our trucks are registered in Utah. So the city isn't getting their $100, and a whole lot more.