Hazmat Driver 30 Minute Paid Break

I am in Arizona and I drive a fuel truck to gas stations usually within a 150 mi radius and we have elogs. Recently it has become an issue where drivers would pull over and take a half hour nap as their 30 minute paid break and now they say it is becoming an issue nationwide and now only allow 10 minutes to sleep and anything over that you have to clock out

If we are unloading the truck at the station not driving that is considered a 30 minute break or if I go eat at Burger King for my break that is not an issue either as long as your eyes are open.

Six months ago we had a driver die because he fell asleep while driving and crashed into another truck and rolled over. My concern is that other drivers will not log out and keep driving knowing that they need to pull over and rest. I see this as a safety issue and that we should be able to do what we want to do with our 30 minute break and that a company that makes 9 billion in profit every year is requesting unreasonable policy changes after years of no issues.

The work is getting done and we are safer on the road especially when management has told us on many occasions if you are tired get off the road but only for 10 minutes now. That's not even enough time to park and go get a coffee or use the restroom.

We normally do not drive for 8 hours straight. It is broken up, so I guess my question is can a company implement such a policy that endangers driver's, especially hauling fuel?

I personally have not had to take a nap for several weeks I'm just worried about that one driver that has stuff that keeps him awake at night is not going to want to take that pay cut as minimal as it may seem but it adds up over the weeks so I'm wondering if I should reach out to DOT , DPS, or the industrial commission hopefully someone has a similar story. Thank you

They can’t tell you that you cannot take a nape during your 30 minute break. It’s that simple. In fact a good portion of our drivers do that. Some eat and watch something on their phone, some read, others nap.

Christopher, welcome to our forum!

It appears you guys are getting paid by the hour. That's very different from most of us. We usually get paid by the mile. Because of that, I'm not sure I'm understanding your situation correctly.

I do know the D.O.T. allows a 30 minute break to be any combination of non driving activities. Unloading freight or fueling the truck can be considered a mandatory 30 minute break. So, I'm not sure if you have any argument against the legality of their policy.

Your post raises two questions for me. The company obviously feels some drivers are taking advantage of their breaks to earn a little extra change on their paycheck. If that is an issue, the company has to implement some sort of policy to combat this.

My two questions are...

How do they know what you are doing during this 30 minute break?

What company are you working for that "makes 9 billion in profit every year?"

I could sleep for 30 minutes during my break and my dispatcher wouldn't have any idea whether I was eating at Burger King or dreaming about climbing a mountain. I just don't understand your concerns.

I also drive a fuel truck, on night shift. I also deliver to locations that are usually within 150 miles. I get proper rest before I report to work, and have never had to pull over to sleep. Why would the company pay me to sleep at work? Show up to work ready and able to perform your job.

Most of the folks on this site are OTR drivers, and paid by the mile. They know that it is their responsibility to get proper rest before leaving the sleeper and getting behind the wheel. They also know that if they pull over for a break or to sleep, they are not getting paid extra for that time.

Suicide Jockey you are missing what he’s asking. They’re not paying him to sleep they are paying him for a 30 minutes break. You have to take a 30 minute break whether it be paid or unpaid. So what does it matter how a driver spends it? It doesn’t. If he wants to sleep that his right. Wants to use it to eat his right. Want to use to do jumping jacks in a truck stop parking lot. Have at it

I also drive a fuel truck, on night shift. I also deliver to locations that are usually within 150 miles. I get proper rest before I report to work, and have never had to pull over to sleep. Why would the company pay me to sleep at work? Show up to work ready and able to perform your job.

Most of the folks on this site are OTR drivers, and paid by the mile. They know that it is their responsibility to get proper rest before leaving the sleeper and getting behind the wheel. They also know that if they pull over for a break or to sleep, they are not getting paid extra for that time.

No, I'm not missing that at all, but I'll attempt to better explain where my response comes from.

From what he mentioned, I'm guessing he works for a larger fuel hauling company that pays by the hour. Some examples that quickly pop to my mind are Speedway, Circle K, QuickTrip, and Sheetz. Obviously there are many more. Coincidently QuickTrip had a bit over 9 billion revenue last year. Maybe this driver simply misunderstood the difference between revenue and profit.

In recent years many of these companies have changed over to hourly pay with the intent to attract drivers and increase safety. They expected a decrease in driver productivity, but underestimated what many may call "milking the clock". For example Speedway anticipated a 10% drop in driver productivity, but actually experienced a 25% drop. Now these companies are paying significantly more in overtime to get the same workload covered, and have been trying to find ways to bring their productivity back up. Speedway is looking to change their safety bonus payouts. Driver bonuses will more heavily be weighted by driver productivity, and more productive drivers will receive larger bonus payouts. Sheetz seems to be taking a different approach by increasing their staff to reduce overtime. The goal seems to be to have a large enough staff to have drivers work 4 day work weeks, 10 hours a day. Whatever company this driver is with seems to be just asking that drivers not sleep on the clock.

A couple of his statements I take issue with:

______

"My concern is that other drivers will not log out and keep driving knowing that they need to pull over and rest."

"The work is getting done and we are safer on the road especially when management has told us on many occasions if you are tired get off the road but only for 10 minutes now."

______

A driver that makes the decision to drive while tired because they won't get paid to sleep, does not belong behind the wheel of a fuel tanker! You are responsible for that vehicle. Don't make excuses that management is making you drive unsafe. His management isn't telling them that they cant take more than a 10 minute nap. You do what is necessary to safely operate the vehicle, they simply aren't going to pay you to sleep on the clock.

It might be a misunderstanding of company policy. The fuel hauling company I'm with just dealt with something kind of similar a couple months ago. The policy for us is you can stop and take a paid thirty minute break if you can't get a break on duty during an eight hour stint. Really not a big deal as a fuel hauler since thirty minutes is easy to tie up at the rack or at your unloads, but we do have a couple longer runs that are over an eight hour drive and need the break. However, some drivers were misunderstanding (or pretending to misunderstand) and would pull over and nap for thirty minutes, even if they had just taken thirty minutes on duty to load two hours earlier, and expected to get paid for it. The company had to crack down, and we just have a five minute window to stop on duty now if we're not working. They don't mind if you stop for a nap, or to eat, or to smoke, etc., but you have to do it off duty and won't get paid for it, unless like I said earlier, you haven't gotten a break in eight hours and have to take one.

I get proper rest before I report to work, and have never had to pull over to sleep. Why would the company pay me to sleep at work? Show up to work ready and able to perform your job.

Totally agree. If I can't get the rest needed in my ten hour break, it's time to find another gig. The milking done on these hourly jobs is quite amazing.

Never? There’s never been a time where you haven’t gotten enough sleep the night or day in your instance before your shift? Either you’re telling a lie or you’re single with no kids lol. Because I’ll certainly admit in the 7 years I’ve been driving I’ve had to pull over for a quick Power Nap. No shame in it.

I also drive a fuel truck, on night shift. I also deliver to locations that are usually within 150 miles. I get proper rest before I report to work, and have never had to pull over to sleep.

You're getting off point. But to answer your question, No I've never pulled my fuel truck over for a power nap. I am married and live with my wife, 2 kids, 2 dogs, 1 cat, my mother-in-law and her pet rat.

Now when I was OTR driving a sleeper, yes I would pull into safe parking locations and rest in the sleeper when needed or when opportunistic. OTR often demands you flip between day and night driving to meet customer needs. You rest whenever you can find time. But never did I expect to be paid for that time.

That brings us back on point. No one is suggesting that you shouldn't park it and rest if necessary. To not do so would be grossly irresponsible and reckless. If for some reason you didn't get enough rest before reporting to work, or were suddenly feeling unwell, absolutely pull over and rest. In that situation I would personally not hesitate to park it and notify my dispatcher that I'm not currently able to continue driving, and will be parked at X location for some time. But I'm not going to expect to get paid for that time.

The problem arises when many hourly paid drivers are using the "half hour nap" as an excuse to milk their clock. To a large company this becomes an enormous additional expense. The original poster mentioned his management wants them to get off the road if they are tired. But they also don't want drivers to abuse their clocks to milk the company.

Never? There’s never been a time where you haven’t gotten enough sleep the night or day in your instance before your shift? Either you’re telling a lie or you’re single with no kids lol. Because I’ll certainly admit in the 7 years I’ve been driving I’ve had to pull over for a quick Power Nap. No shame in it.

I also drive a fuel truck, on night shift. I also deliver to locations that are usually within 150 miles. I get proper rest before I report to work, and have never had to pull over to sleep.

For me, some days I get plenty of time to rest during the day while others I’m running hard to be back in under 14 hours. Right now, we’re pretty slow for some reason and we might get an hour or more of downtime during our day. I’d rather stay busy and keep moving than sitting for hours waiting on a load. We also seem to be having trouble and playing the allocation game and waste a ton of time just trying to get loaded or there are issues at the rack. We get paid by the hour but I hate sitting around wasting time while others try to. If it wasn’t for the nights, weekends and holidays, I’d love to work for Sheetz but I’m kind of enjoying my Monday thru Friday day shift.

Bottom line, you’re driving their equipment which they expect you to operate safely… do what you need to do to do so. If you need to stop and take a quick nap, take it at Burger King.