Co Driver Being Woke By Customer During Sleeperbirth

Hi there! Me and my co driver have been driving for 8yrs together and I have a question I need some help in answering. This had been happening more and more from customers either at the loading point or unloading and I would like to know our rights..let me explain. We just delivered and after a 14hr shift with only 4 hrs in the sleeper my co driver was forced to wake me up before they let us in the gate and stay awake during the entire unload. Not only was I forced out of sleeper but I was forced to have my picture taken while holding a card with their safety policies on it. Bed head and all and to not know who was ultimately going to have my picture and where it was to end up. Then we were instructed to stay in a room with no ac that was infested with spiders till the unloading process was complete...oh yeah no bathroom either. No the picture situation was new to me but this has started to become a reacurrance. More and more customers are forcing us to wake the co driver and I would like to know our rights as drivers if we have any at all. Thank you very much for your time.

So would the driver who was awakened go on-duty then before the completion of his 10 hour rest period?

What about damage to / or theft of equipment from the truck while the drivers are segregated in the waiting room?

What did your company have to say about it?

That seems pretty severe. Are you guys hauling anything real dangerous like explosives or something?

I know a lot of companies worry that the driver will pull away from the dock during unloading. If that's the case they might let you unhook the tractor from the trailer while you're waiting to unload so you can sleep.

What reasons do they give for that?

Did you at any point simply consider saying no?

I've only seen one receiver that made us go to the lounge. I was in training and my trainer refused to get out of the truck and told me not to admit to having a co driver.

Hi Val is different. They made us go to the lounge and get our pictures.

It was a high value load. The kicker was when we told the guy in the office about it being illegal waking up the co driver his response was a question of, Why? As a receiving supervisor for XPO arguably the worlds largest ltl carrier he should have been well versed in dot law and regulation. Was just frustrating and totally out of place. If it was DOD or explosives we would understand but apparently xpo is handled by a bunch of idiots.

I'm a solo driver. I've been to a handful of shippers/consignees who require drivers to wait in the lounge. I just lock the truck. But I'm wondering what your trucking company has to say about it and whether they'll continue to do business with XPO. It's been my experience that, when at their location, they get to call the shots. Any gripes I have I gotta take to my company.

Good luck.

On customer's premises you have to go by their rules. Sometimes you can get some leeway if you play nice, which may be hard to do if you're jolted half-way through your sleep time, understandable. I've had customers ask for my truck keys, made wait in some lounge or shipper office, asked to unhook the trailer and wait bobtail outside the gate etc. Out of all the schemes I think the simplest one that accomplishes what they're trying to do and one I mind the least is removing the trailer air-hose and putting a lock on it. Then the guy that removes the lock also hands you the paperwork. Dont even need to go inside. Just pull-up close the doors and off you go.

Why not just put you both on duty then start the break clock over?

Any shipping delay was caused by the shipper.

I mean seriously, in 8 years of driving it can't be the first time you were woken up, was it?

I would question my company about it. Maybe they should not send team trucks to those locations. There are places that don't care if your clock ran out and will not let you sleep on their premise. However, sometimes playing nice can reap great rewards.