Companies Restricting Use Of Personal Conveyance?

My company had a driver involved in a collision last fall. Just east of Big Springs NE on I-80 was a long construction site with two-way traffic divided by the stick cones on the eastbound side. A Crete truck came through the cones and took out our truck. Fortunately the container was only minimally damaged, but the truck was totaled.

It looked pretty much open and shut that it was the other driver's fault, until logs were looked at. At some point earlier our driver had used personal conveyance erroneously. Had he not used it, he would not have been involved in that wreck. So, both companies were responsible for the damage. I haven't heard officially what we were responsible for but one of the other driver's said 1/3. So PC was discontinued. I did ask later to have it turned on in my e-log because I needed to run around SLC while in a spare truck while mine was in the shop. Mine got turned on and has not been turned off since then, and I've only used it one more time.

Laura

My buddy was frequently pressured to use personal conveyance by his company once he hit his hours of service. Especially if he was close to the receiver. They'd say ok just go ahead and use personal conveyance to get there.

My buddy was frequently pressured to use personal conveyance by his company once he hit his hours of service. Especially if he was close to the receiver. They'd say ok just go ahead and use personal conveyance to get there.

I bet your buddy worked for a smaller company. Maybe not, but it seems like the smaller companies are more liberal about the use of PC.

About 400 tractors. So midsized I guess?

My buddy was frequently pressured to use personal conveyance by his company once he hit his hours of service. Especially if he was close to the receiver. They'd say ok just go ahead and use personal conveyance to get there.

I bet your buddy worked for a smaller company. Maybe not, but it seems like the smaller companies are more liberal about the use of PC.

That’s exactly the size of my company. 400 tractors, about 380 drivers. Do you know the company name?

Since FMCSA made the last change to PC in its words “To give more flexibility” it has been a mess.

Larger companies restrict it to save drivers from violating it, thus damaging their CSA score.

Smaller companies tend to try and get away with getting more done by misusing it.

DOT inspectors WILL scrutinize logs much more if they see much PC on them.

I’m currently dealing with log issues and getting drivers up to speed for a small company. Until monday they didn’t have PC and when I asked why, I was told they didn’t know what it was so it was never activated. It is now and they were all given training on the proper use of it. If it gets to be a problem I’ll have to reevaluate, but on a case by case basis.

I didn’t realize there had been a change.

But I’ve heard a lot of drivers that use it to go shopping, drive home, etc.

Since FMCSA made the last change to PC in its words “To give more flexibility” it has been a mess.

Larger companies restrict it to save drivers from violating it, thus damaging their CSA score.

Smaller companies tend to try and get away with getting more done by misusing it.

DOT inspectors WILL scrutinize logs much more if they see much PC on them.

I’m currently dealing with log issues and getting drivers up to speed for a small company. Until monday they didn’t have PC and when I asked why, I was told they didn’t know what it was so it was never activated. It is now and they were all given training on the proper use of it. If it gets to be a problem I’ll have to reevaluate, but on a case by case basis.

I didn’t realize there had been a change.

But I’ve heard a lot of drivers that use it to go shopping, drive home, etc.

Since FMCSA made the last change to PC in its words “To give more flexibility” it has been a mess.

Larger companies restrict it to save drivers from violating it, thus damaging their CSA score.

Smaller companies tend to try and get away with getting more done by misusing it.

DOT inspectors WILL scrutinize logs much more if they see much PC on them.

I’m currently dealing with log issues and getting drivers up to speed for a small company. Until monday they didn’t have PC and when I asked why, I was told they didn’t know what it was so it was never activated. It is now and they were all given training on the proper use of it. If it gets to be a problem I’ll have to reevaluate, but on a case by case basis.

Completely legitimate uses of PC. It's one of the main reasons the provision was created. The overall main reason is because many customers no longer want trucks parked on their property after loading/unloading, at least not trucks outside of their own fleet. Without PC, being out of hours forces a driver to park there.

While out on the road, we still have needs to which to attend and it's unreasonable to expect an off duty driver to use on duty time to drive to a location for purely off duty purposes. PC enables going shopping, going to a movie, going to dinner without interrupting off duty time.