Logging off duty when in sleeper. Yes or no?

what I am asking is this, how do you have any way of knowing what the river actually does? if he logs 10 hours off duty or if he logs 10 hours sleeper berth. how do you know if he doesn't do this unless he tells you?? whether he blurts it out or whether in you asking questions , he contradicts himself??

now you also add their are provisions for leavings the sleeper for short periods of time, could you post where this guidance may be found.


so in reality, unless the driver tells you different , you have no way of knowing whether he was in the sleeper or off duty for any portions of the ten hours.

and its not a hard concept to understand, what concept that's hard to follow is as long as its 10 hours either sleeper or off duty and its consecutive , why worry whether its one or the other.

again , I ask you this, plain and simple, if I log ten hours off duty, you check my logs and ask me was I in the sleeper for any of that time , and I answer no. I am perfectly legal??? is that true.

what I am saying is this, unless I make a mistake on my logs or rat myself out, you have no way to determine whether I was in sleeper or off duty, or in 30 minutes in sleeper , 30 minutes off duty every hour for ten hours. unless I contradict myself, correct?

 

The interpretation that deals with "momentary" interruptions in a driver's rest period is found in 395.2 Question 5. It deals specifically with phone calls to the company that momentarily interrupt a driver's rest period. The federal guidance given is that because these type of interruptions are brief, they do not consider them to be a break in the driver's rest period. I believe this same principle would apply when taking short breaks from the sleeper, etc. Not every exact circumstance can be addressed in the regs. But this is where I would go to address short periods that momentarily break a driver's rest but do not significantly do so.

Yes- the most common method for discovering how a driver is logging is thru talking to the driver. I've seen many log books where someone hasn't logged any sleeper berth going back for a year and they have a sleeper on their truck. That is usually a tip-off that they are not logging correctly.

"again , I ask you this, plain and simple, if I log ten hours off duty, you check my logs and ask me was I in the sleeper for any of that time , and I answer no. I am perfectly legal??? is that true."

First, I wouldn't ask you that. Second - I never know if someone is "perfectly legal." My job is to record violations that I find / see / discover. So in your example above, I would not record a violation.

I typically could care less about how much of that time was spent in your sleeper and how much was spent sitting at the truck stop buffet. If it somehow comes up that you are logging incorrectly, I will mention it on my report. I am more concerned about whether or not you had 10 hrs off. So many times, I discover that drivers actually only took 9 or 9.5 hrs. That is a bigger concern to me because now they are over their hours.

So now I would ask you: If you spend 10 hrs off duty, is it a hardship on you to log it correctly as off duty? Why would you even want to log it improperly?

 

look, you areading to much into it, funny thing is I have never been asked for a receipt. if you read the guys post carefully( he dances around the point, I felt) unless you make a mistake or tell on yourself your are good to go.

you don't have to tell the guy where you were at, the regs say 34 hours off, it doesn't say you have to sleep, you could sit in the restaurant at the same booth for 34 hours. that's where it gets dicey, when you volunteer info.

if he asks you what you did for 34 hours, just say I was off duty. they fish and you only get caught if you take the bait.


read his post carefully and his reply to me very carefully.

 

its not a problem at all, I take ten hours off duty , sometimes more, and I log it exactly as such, off duty. and I want to know who comes in and gives you more than the current day and 7 days logs for you to see he has logged off duty for a year.

basically if seems you wouldn't have written up the OP for this violation since you wouldn't have asked the question of him. the point I am really making is this, if I stop at 6 pm and don't start out again til 8 am the next morning and I go in and eat, walk around , and am off duty and not on line 3 or 4 , I am simply going to do a straight line on line 1 and be done with it, a 14 hour break if ya will.

and would you have a problem with that, considering my logs were perfect computer printed , all entries typed, legible and with speedometer start and ending , all entries for state miles exact and matching the total for the day. I somehow feel you would not and you do seem to be a reasonable fellow.

as you state you are more concerned that at least 10 was taken off , rather digging into how it was accomplished.

 

keitht, I will like to thank you for your response in this thread. please don't take my responses as nagging at you. not meant that way at all. I do understand how you have to be a bit guarded in your reply. thanks

 

I would never tell you to lie! But! To keep my CDL clean and clear? I'll tell the officer what he needs to hear in order for him to not fail me or cite me, you can interpret this any way you wish

 

Some guys come in with years of back log pages.

In your above example, you would almost surely be good to go. As I've said, I could really care less how much time you spent in your sleeper and how much time you spent in the truck stop attempting to get that waitresses phone number. Your wife might, but I really don't.

Now I've gotta get back to work.

 

To a cop or DOT official, I would do it with a smile on my face and sleep like a baby that night.

 

thanks for the responses here, now if you would just tell us what scale ya work at,lol