third, personal conveyance in #HoursOfService.

if you're at a facility and your hours of service run out and they tell you to leave, you can use off duty driving to leave and find somewhere safe to park.

sounds great, except before this provision places would try harder to not run out your clock, or they'd let you park for the night.

plus now dispatch wants to know why you won't take the appointment time that's five minutes from the customary end of your day. #TruckingLife

second, the split sleeper berth rule.

thanks to same #HoursOfService revisions, if you spend two consecutive hours in either off duty or sleeper berth line status, your entire day's clock (your 14 hour clock) pauses.

this is great when a customer takes forever unloading your trailer.

it sucks when you didn't manage a nap, now you have another stop six hours away. you're expected to finish your entire trip today and the appointment was three hours ago and there won't be parking. #TruckingLife

first, the thirty minute break.

thanks to the recent #HoursOfService revisions, the only break that drivers are actually entitled to can consist of any combination of on duty and off duty status.

this was ostensibly shifted so that drivers would be able to have flexibility in their time.

in reality, now it sometimes means that you sat waiting to fuel, you fueled, and you went to the restroom, your thirty is up and you need to keep going. sorry if you wanted lunch. #TruckingLife

ended my day today at 508 miles, which is a perfectly respectable amount of work, and wanted to briefly explain what the three flexibilities in #HoursOfService are, so here's the last of today's thread. #TruckingLife

back to #FMCSA #HoursOfService.

folks may note is there are several exceptions and flexibilities built in, these days (some of which are fairly new but the history and changes are another thread).

problem is. your boss isn't your friend, your company is not your friend, your dispatcher is not your friend. those flexibilities are there to allow drivers to respond when something messes up.

inevitably as a company driver, someone will try to get you to plan on using them instead. #TruckingLife

#FMCSA has a good basic guide to #HoursOfService, which I encourage everyone to read regardless of if you know anyone who is a #TruckDriver. almost everything you buy is on a semi truck at some point in its journey either during the manufacturing process or going to the store, and very few of those drivers have the benefits of a union! https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/regulations/hours-of-service #TruckingLife

73 miles into today and it feels like a good day to remind people that by and large most state-guaranteed #WorkersRights and #WorkersProtections with stress to time worked don't apply to folks if they're a non-union paid per mile over-the-road #TruckDriver. truckers are under the #FMCSA #HoursOfService instead, and it depends largely on the individual employer to not abuse it. #TruckingLife