can you fuel on your off day without going on-duty to log?

So few posts... so much misinformation.

 

An Fmcsa official once on the Trucking Bozo show said, that such activities as trying to find a load on your off duty, making phone calls, signing contracts, confirmations and such interrupts that off duty status. By logic, fueling the truck is also on duty time. So better log it if you do it, if you do it and don't log it then don't fuel too much, pay cash.

 

It is legal to work over 70 hours within 8 days, you cannot drive past 70 hours of working time within 8 days. Correct me if I am wrong. But still you need to drive the truck to a fuel stop.

 

Wrong.

 

I stand corrected.... Here is what the man says, Joe DeLorenzo, director of the FMCSA
"That's the basic setup he advised following. "If the driver is off duty and decides to go to a restaurant, visit a relative there or whatever — again, not at your direction — that's okay, that's personal conveyance," he said. "But if the [truck] move is done at the direction of the motor carrier, then that is not personal conveyance."
Sooo Fueling off duty interrupts your 10 and 34 hour break therefore must be logged on duty as it is an operation of the Transportation Company's necessary functions.

 

Your personal time is up to the company that the driver works for. ie yourself or leasing Company to decide whether or not it is allowed. ELD's will let it happen as long as the truck's gps setting allows the 10 miles instead of the 1 mile accuracy during on duty times, according to DeLorenzo. He also stated that it isnt a problem on paper logs because of no gps tracking possibility of the truck. (2000 or older)
http://fleetowner.com/regulations/getting-eld-rules-mystifying-byproduct-personal-conveyance
I couldn't pull it out of the book but the FMCSA link sent me to this article .
Sorry for any confusion I caused.

 

OK guys....company driver here. So, if I drive loaded, under the direction of my carrier, drop the load and pick up an empty trailer (my day's work and the load is done at this point). I'm given permission to use the truck to get home and I park the truck and empty trailer at my home 30 miles away. Is the time transporting the empty trailer not under a load logged as "personal conveyance"?

 

Perhaps.

It seems to fit the guidance from the FMCSA (posted below). The only challenge may be what is considered "laden". The FMCSA does not define it. Some consider laden to include an empty trailer, so in their eyes personal conveyance (PC) can only occur when bobtailing. On the other hand, many drivers have used PC while under an empty trailer and been inspected without issue.

Question 26: If a driver is permitted to use a Commercial Motor Vehicle (CMV) for personal reasons, how must the driving time be recorded?

Guidance:

a driver is relieved from work and all responsibility for performing work, time spent traveling from a driver’s home to his/her terminal (normal work reporting location), or from a driver’s terminal to his/her home, may be considered off-duty time. Similarly, time spent traveling short distances from a driver’s en route lodgings (such as en route terminals or motels) to restaurants in the vicinity of such lodgings may be considered off-duty time. The type of conveyance used from the terminal to the driver’s home, from the driver’s home to the terminal, or to restaurants in the vicinity of en route lodgings would not alter the situation unless the vehicle is laden. A driver may not operate a laden CMV as a personal conveyance. The driver who uses a motor carrier’s Commercial Motor Vehicle (CMV) for transportation home, and is subsequently called by the employing carrier and is then dispatched from home, would be on-duty from the time the driver leaves home.

A driver placed out of service for exceeding the requirements of the hours of service regulations may not drive a Commercial Motor Vehicle (CMV) to any location to obtain rest.

https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/regulations/title49/section/395.8

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Blah blah blah, if you have not learned how to bend the rules or at least make them work in your favor you have not been in this profession or a O/O long enough.

 

Very comprehensive and constructive reply....as usual ! Certainly dynamic contrast to some of the posts here. (You all know who you are, don't you?)