Trip Planning, Please Help.

Wow Rookie Trucker that explains a lot. I actually started writing a post a few days ago to ask if you were using sleeper berth when at shippers. But I stopped myself because anyone reading your posts can tell your intelligent and wanting to work so I didn't want to insult you by asking lol. Turns out your company is telling you not to? I agree with OS, try to speak to someone higher up, because if that is the case someone in the line doesn't have a clue.

You mentioned the quailcom messages after the last HOS rule changes. Did they allow you to use the sleeper berth before those changes went into effect?

Woody

So if you are a shipper for 5 hours waiting to be unloaded and you lay down in the sleeper you can't log it as sleeper berth? If that is the case that is illegal as hell. Anytime your butt touches the bunk its sleeper berth.

They have told us time and time again that if you are at a customer and the customer has not released you to leave the property and pursue your private interests, you are to be on duty, not driving. Being a runner, when I deliver to retail stores, I'll often ask if they mind if I do some laps around the parking lot while they are unloading. If they say that's fine, then I can log off duty and go do my thing. But if we have to stay in the truck or in a waiting area, we are to be on-duty. But I thought that was right in line with the way the FMCSR states it anyway.

The other point is, if you go to sleeper berth , you aren't on duty, and you won't get detention pay. I guess since they hardly ever pay detention pay even if you are there for over 2 hours, it doesn't usually hurt anything. But if I end up being there for 5 hours I'm going to plead my case for it. That's $40.

One thing I've been curious about since I started looking into this is, what is the functional difference between being on sleeper berth and being off duty? Don't they pretty much count the same way unless you are using the split sleeper berth rule? Is sleeper berth a way to say "I'm off duty, but still in the truck" whereas off-duty could be doing anything?

You have it right. Off duty means your away from the truck and are not working. Sleeper berth means your off duty and in the truck but you are in the sleeper.

Yeah, the only real difference is if you're going to use the split sleeper berth rule or you want to adhere to company policy and show you're with the truck.

Listen....companies tell you a lot of things about how they want things done. And in the very beginning, you're first few months as a rookie, you should do everything by the book. But slowly over time, through experimentation and speaking with other drivers from your company, you'll learn how to do things the "real world way".

Now I was always on paper logs, but I used to purposely screw up my logs once in a while to test the company and see if they were auditing for certain things. Like I wouldn't match up my fuel time to my logbook. If they didn't say anything I might try it again. After a while I would just keep doing it and nobody ever said anything.

It's the same for every driver at every company. You'll get a list of company rules, policies, and procedures. Follow them by the book at first but experiment a little bit and talk around to other drivers. Find out the reality of how things are done out there.

Logging sleeper berth or off-duty at a shipper is a good example. The company says do it one way but I can guarantee you very few drivers actually do it that way.

Obviously you have to be subtle and judicious when experimenting with company policy. But you want to do everything you can to give yourself the best advantage out there in every way. If that means ignoring a few policies and getting away with it so be it. The more safe miles you get the more money everyone makes. Companies know this. As long as you're not doing anything that's going to get the company in trouble then they'll normally just turn a blind eye to most little things. They have much bigger things to worry about.