Emergencies and adverse driving

according to my company logs dept, if you run into an adverse driving condition (FMCSA §§395.1(b)(1), 395.2) and continue to drive beyond your remaining HOS then you will receive a log violation

§395.2 Definitions
"Adverse driving conditions means snow, sleet, fog, other adverse weather conditions, a highway covered with snow or ice, or unusual road and traffic conditions, none of which were apparent on the basis of information known to the person dispatching the run at the time it was begun."

the work-around at my company to avoid the log violation is driver should stop driving before running out of HOS, then call logs and describe the adverse situation that is detaining driver and running down their HOS clock, the logs dept will then decide if driver's situation is actually adverse and if they decide it is adverse then logs dept can invoke the "16-hour rule" and update driver's logs to avoid a log violation

 

Adverse Driving Conditions 395.1(b)(1)

In case of any emergency, a driver may complete his/her run without being in violation of the provisions of the regulations in this part, if such run reasonably could have been completed absent the emergency.

If the following conditions apply, then you can drive for up to 2 additional hours (13 hours total, as long as you do not exceed your 14-hour rule) All Steps must be met- see the steps below.

1) You unexpectedly run into snow, sleet, fog or other bad weather or a highway covered with Snow or Ice or usual road or traffic condition

2)The person who dispatched your run was NOT and could not have been aware of those conditions

3) The run is one that you could have normally complete in 11 hours and

4) You are able to complete the (extended) run without exceeding the 14 or 70-hour limits

YOU CAN NOT use the adverse driving conditions exception for delays that YOU should have known about, such as congested traffic during rush hour.


Like DoneYourWay stated, best to check with your safety or log department.

 

Document the situation with a comment on your elogs, review the situation with your safety department to see if you meet their/FMCSA standards for using it. As far as I was concerned when I did this we left it as a violation with documentation. In the event of a roadside or audit it will be subject to a third party interpretation of the regulation and the situation.

 

hats off to Canada drivers! y'all deal with some hard core weather issues that inspire creativity

when our cell coverage fails we send Qualcomm messages to our DMs, this is preferable to cell convos anyway because a QC message generates a document trail with a time-stamp that no one can tamper with or claim they did not receive

if your sat signal is failing you, maybe you can take pictures with a camera/phone that has a date/time stamp?

 

Another good reason to run teams .. just switch drivers problem solved ..