It's been asked before in many ways.. off duty driving

It called Personal Conveyance you can read more about it. Their is no miles limit but your better off if you bobtailing. You can pull empty trailer but if you get stopped you ha e to convince the D.O.T it's Personal Conveyance and not repositioning for another load. For Personal Conveyance to work your supposed to return to place you started. If not they can say you were repositioning yourself for the next load then it's regular driving time and that would put you over the 70 hours and be a ticket plus out of service probably.

 

Why would it be work related until you ran out of hours and not work related after? That makes no sense.

But yes, personal conveyance can be used to drive home.

 

There's no distance limit.

If you're going home unladen it's pc. If you're dead heading to a pick up and you plan to stop at the house on the way then it's not pc.

 

So, a driver having finished his 11 & 14 hour for that shift could conceivably drive home 200 miles away using personal conveyance?

I thought the hours of service were put in place to ensure proper rest periods?

 

You might want to read this article on PC posted on J.J. Keller.

What is personal conveyance?

Question: If a driver is permitted to use a CMV for personal reasons, how must the driving time be recorded?

Guidance: When 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 [i.e., loaded]. A driver may not operate a laden CMV as a personal conveyance. The driver who uses a motor carrier's 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 CMV to any location to obtain rest.

Only two situations are specifically covered in the interpretation:

• A driver’s commute to and from the terminal (normal work location)
• Short personal trips from a driver’s en route lodging.

Using the information that is in the interpretation above and in the definition of “on duty” and the corresponding interpretation found in Section §395.2, the following conditions of personal conveyance can be extrapolated.

• The vehicle must be unladen.
• Movement is of a “short” distance solely for personal use.
• The driver is relieved from work and all responsibility for performing work.
• The driver is relieved of all duty and responsibility for the care and custody of the vehicle, its accessories, and any cargo or passengers it may be carrying.
• The driver must be at liberty to pursue activities of his/her own choosing.
• No work should be done until the driver is ready to return to duty.

 

The 30 minute rule sound more like a company policy.

 

You leave the house, get 700 miles up the road, Saturday night. The wife has a stroke. You drop your trailer in a secured turn around and go back to the house ASAP. That time running back to the house can be logged OFF DUTY. 22 hours behind the wheel.

The clincher? You stay home exactly 24 hours and you now have a fresh 70.

"But that's not safe."

If you rented a car and went back home, stayed with her at the hospital and then got back in the car and drove to your truck and got back behind the wheel, what's the difference? If you booked a flight back home, saw momma and then flew right back to your truck, what's the difference? There is no guarantees of proper rest. That's personal conveyance.