Driving company car

Driving a 4 wheeler doesn't count as on duty time IMHO no matter what. Unless you're being paid to drive it.

 

A company car? Personal conveyance.

Now if you had your tractor with or without a trailer, and that home phone rings with your dispatcher on the other end saying be somewhere to get a load going to timbucktu by the morning you are now officially under dispatch direct from your house via phone call from your dispatcher and should begin to log your driving that big rig from your house directly.

A company car?" That's personal conveyance. No logging.

I have personally taken various company cars near and far depending on what kind of time was reserved for it that night on the clipboard. Nothing about logs anywhere near or in it. It's just a car. Although the company owned the thing and handed you the key when your alloted time period came up.

FFE had a van, a rather powerful one with I think a 12 cylinder triton under the hood capable of taking 15+ souls making it a bus theoretically. Since we simply signed for it any time and made noise in the driver room for anyone else wanting to go to that walmart 8 miles south we all went. Even though I was the one with the keys driving them all. No passenger endorsement either. It's just a vehicle that happened to be big enough for 15 souls.

Having 15 back seat professional drivers makes life very very interesting. All of whom want to go everywhere. It takes a while to get all of them happy and back to the yard.

There was one case I was deep into Kentucky having loaded at Logan with Aluminum for Busch in Williamsburg VA. One of the company cars managed to catch up to me eastbound about two hours from the shipper. and pulled me over. SO I stood there listening to this one driver rant about things that happened to him and how he was using the company car to get home in another state in the same general direction.

I did some thinking that night. Was it stolen? In fact I never resolved that question to my own satisfaction. And a week later it was back at the yard in Indiana of all places where it has been in all those miles and days.

Even today I still think about it. But I never saw that driver again, so whatever happened; the company knows all about it.

 

Why are you taking a company car? Are you travelling (not just driving the company car) at the direction of the carrier?

If you are simply driving the company car, and not doing so at the direction of the carrier, then it is off-duty. (eg., "Here, Cass, take the company car on vacation because we want to make sure you get there and back because your Trabant is a POS.")

If you are driving the company car under the direction of the carrier (eg. going to another terminal to pick up parts, deliver something, giving another driver a ride, etc.) then that is on-duty.

If you are a passenger in a vehicle (plane, train, or automobile) and not driving, but you are travelling at the direction of the carrier, it is on-duty unless you get 10 consecutive hours rest upon arrival at which point the trip reverts to off-duty.

All of the above is under §395.

Also, whether or not you are being paid is irrelevant. The FMCSA does not concern itself with whether drivers are paid, they only care about what activities drivers are engaged in.

 

Hey Hey Hey. At least the guy didn't have a Yugo.

 

One reason why I think the word "Commerce" need to be removed, defined better, or changed to something else.

 

Park the truck. You're off duty. Going home.

There was absolutely nothing wrong with yugos. They just didn't last.

 

Well, nothing wrong other than they like to fly off bridges...
Remember the woman in the Yugo?

 

Only thing i remember them famous for was timing belts. And ruined engines.

Sad story though.

I never owned one but did date a gal that had one. And a buddy of mine owning two. 1 was wrecked and he wanted the engine for the good car that broke the belt.

 

Just an FYI, when you are using a company car, it can be considered against your clock.

I know most of you won't agree with this, but this came from an ambulance chasing who has sued companies on stupid things. He said when the driver drove a company car, and that isn't part of their employment agreement then it can be considered they are working at that time for the company and in the case of hos, that can be looked at as being part of hos.