Murphy’s Law

I had an unusual experience over the past few days that I would like to describe and then hear from you other drivers about how to deal with this, should it ever happen again.

I got an assignment to deliver a meat load from Texas to Hazleton, PA. I got way ahead of my schedule, great weather, everything is going very well. In Ohio, I got a call from the company to meet up with another driver in Vandalia. I was to park at the Flying J, go on sleeper berth and wait for the other driver who had a load going to North Bergen, NJ. The other driver would be almost out of hours, for reasons unknown to me, but they had figured I could make the delivery on time. By the time we made the switch, I had been in SB for exactly 7 hours and still had 3 hours of driving time left on my clock. So I left immediately for the 608 miles I needed to cover to finish this delivery. Drove out my 3 hours, found a rest area to park with just minutes left to spare and went back on “paired SB” for 3 hours. When I woke up, I had 8 hours of driving time back and 449 miles to go to get to the 0800 appointment.

Because of traffic and weather issues, I ended up being about 1 hour late. But I ran out of drive time in a very congested area near the delivery, so I went on PC to get to the location, which was also very tight and congested. I made the delivery and couldn’t park anywhere near there for a 10 hour break, but I needed a trailer washout which was only 7 miles away and next to a small truck stop in Kearney, NJ. I go back on PC and go to the washout. When I was done, I tried to find a parking spot at the adjacent truck stop, but it was completely full. I get back on I95 and go to the nearest service area, where I am currently parked for a 10 hour break.

By the time I finally got shut down, I had been on PC for about 3 hours. My company only allows 1 hour. I’m sure I will get a serious call from safety tomorrow, but I didn’t see a way to get out of the New Jersey mess legally. So I kept going to my first place to safely park.

So just to make a long story endless, what could or should I have done differently?

At what point, if any, did you contact your DM to apprise them of the situation? Other than the first part before you got to the receiver, you weren't advancing a load or going where you'd been dispatched, so by my understanding, PC was appropriate per FMCSA. FMCSA doesn't establish a time limit, only "The time driving under personal conveyance must allow the driver adequate time to obtain the required rest in accordance with minimum off-duty periods under 49 CFR 395.3(a)(1) (property-carrying vehicles) or 395.5(a) (passenger-carrying vehicles) before returning to on-duty driving, and the resting location must be the first such location reasonably available."

If you had called and said, "I'm at the receiver, am out of hours, and can't park here. I'm going into PC to find somewhere to take my 10, but I don't know how long it will take to reach the 'first such location reasonably available," would that have helped?

I'm a bit rusty on PC regs since my current job doesn't permit PC usage at all. But I don't believe using PC while still trying to get to the receiver was the proper choice. Your in a lose / lose situation since you ran out of hours in traffic, but I would have remained in on duty driving status as you are still currently moving the load to it's destination.

Once delivery complete I would have completely disregarded the need for a washout, as moving towards a washout should be done on duty driving, not on PC. Instead I would only concern myself with finding safe parking. That truck stop in Kearny never has parking, so I'd suggest the Vince Lombardi travel plaza a short distance north as the closest and best bet for parking.

Normally after I delivered in North Bergen and didn't have a preplan I would always PC to the Petro in Bordentown to rest. I never failed to find parking and they have a Blue Beacon on site once I had completed my rest break.

The use of PC to reach the delivery isn’t appropriate. Traffic conjestion isn’t an excuse either. Maybe the weather issue may be helpful depending what it was to claim the unforseen issue. Lack of planning isn’t a reason and neither is to make delivery ontime or somewhat close.

Using PC out of the customer is fine, except it is straight to the closest safe legal parking, not to go get a trailer washed out.

The time used is only your company policy not law so that is up to your safety dept to handle as they see fit.

The person that ordered the repower planned poorly. Office folks can see drivers hours as well as having weather info at their finger tips. You don’t mention anything really about your planning once repowered.

Me personally I would ask for the repower info up front so I could plan it out, and if it is going to be close let the messages start flying. During your planning you should have known about what time you would get into NJ and made an assessment of the traffic conditions.

All you can do now is wait and see if safety says anything. Take it as a lesson learned.

...what could or should I have done differently?

1) Trip planning. It's 604 m from Vandalia, OH to North Bergen, NJ. Averaging 60 mph you can cover that in 10 hours. You're an experienced driver so you should know that weather in the NE in February and traffic near a metro area an hour or two before 0800 will add delays. My Garmin will factor these variables in and give me an ETA for a trip. Even without a Garmin you should have seen it was going to be a tight fit.

2) Communication. It's unclear whether your dispatcher was inexperienced, didn't care or just took the path of least resistance (giving the load to a driver who was least likely to complain). Once you realized it was going to be difficult to deliver this load on time you should have let them know. If they wanted you to try anyway that's where you figure out your Plan B - find a parking space nearby if you run out of hours. That would also be an excellent time to reserve a parking place near your destination since you'll need one even if you do make it to the receiver on time.

3) The power of, "NO". If your dispatcher is asking you to do things that will make you unsafe or get you a ticket you need to shut that down. If they tell you to drive over your allowed hours or demand you get a load someplace whether or not you have the hours to do so the answer is, "NO". I like to tell them, "Tell you what. You get your own CDL you can drive 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. I don't care. You won't have your CDL very long but you can do that. I'll just drive the hours the FMCSA allows".

4) Not sure why you chose to drive for 3 hours then shut down in a rest area instead of just finishing out your 10 at a truck stop with showers and coffee. The result would have been the same - three hours of driving and three hours of parking or three hours of parking and three hours of driving. It's more hassle doing it your way and you have the risk of not being able to find a legal place to park your truck.

5) As others have already pointed out your ABUSE of PC was a blatant violation.

This is all bad!

Illegal and improper use of PC, no way to do that trip in the time needed, not communicating with dispatch, poor trip planning, etc.

After getting that speeding ticket a few weeks ago, then doing this, I would think you're on really thin ice with your company. I'm sure you'll be getting calls or messages from management.

The "hey I'm in a jam can you help me out" requests from dispatchers and managers usually end up bad for me

This is what you could have done to accomplish the mission and still stay legal.

First, if you have unexpected traffic or weather delays the FMCSA allows you to extend both your drive clock and your 14-hour clock for 2 hours to get to the delivery. You should have stayed on the driveline and violated then put a notation in the remarks of weather and traffic delay.

Then you would be out of time after you made your delivery, but you can use PC to find rest.

If keep the box checked on your Qualcomm of "will pair with sleeper berth ," do 7 hours in the sleeper. Then when you get your time back after 7 hours in the sleeper go on the driveline to go to the trailer washout. After another 3 hours of off-duty after the trailer is washed, you would get back practically all of your time because of the de minimis driveline that you used to drive to the trailer washout.

There isn't anything that you could have done differently to get the load there in time, because no matter if you left when you did, or waited another 3 hours, you were going to reach your delivery at the same time.

Use of PC is where you really messed up. What you should have done is PC directly to the service plaza and worry about the washout after regaining on duty time once you have completed your break. You used PC to perform a work function. It's falsifying your logs, which is worse than driving over available hours. You also used PC to complete your drive to the delivery. In all honesty, you would have been better off just running over hours, as opposed to trying to hide running over hours by incorrectly using PC. You drove over your clock, even though you convinced yourself that you were legal because of what the e-log showed you. That's why it would have been better to just allow the e-log to go on the drive line. Yes, you are in violation, but you are not trying to cover up the violation. Incorrectly using PC is attempting to cover up being in violation.

Bruce, falsifying logs is a serious offense.

At what point, if any, did you contact your DM to apprise them of the situation? Other than the first part before you got to the receiver, you weren't advancing a load or going where you'd been dispatched, so by my understanding, PC was appropriate per FMCSA. FMCSA doesn't establish a time limit, only "The time driving under personal conveyance must allow the driver adequate time to obtain the required rest in accordance with minimum off-duty periods under 49 CFR 395.3(a)(1) (property-carrying vehicles) or 395.5(a) (passenger-carrying vehicles) before returning to on-duty driving, and the resting location must be the first such location reasonably available."

If you had called and said, "I'm at the receiver, am out of hours, and can't park here. I'm going into PC to find somewhere to take my 10, but I don't know how long it will take to reach the 'first such location reasonably available," would that have helped?

Going to a washout is not legal use of PC. That's performing a company work function.