Inflexibility of 14-hour rule forces drivers to forgo meals and other breaks…
Now here’s the problem with the 14-hour rule for long-haul trucking. It encourages, or I should say virtually forces, the typical driver to forgo normal breaks and eating stops, such as breakfast, lunch, and dinner, in order to get all of his or her work done while the 14-hour clock is ticking.
Yes, you could simply allot three of those hours to breaks and the rest for work. The current law does allow 11 hours driving (as opposed to the previous 10-hour limit). But dispatchers and shippers and receivers know how many hours you have available and schedule pickups and deliveries accordingly. Also, if the competition works those hours, you have to. And if you are an owner-operator you really feel compelled to work all available hours (and then some).
Personally, as a company driver, I have felt the 14-hour rule works to my advantage for the most part. Under the old rule one could quite legally stretch his log book out and virtually work around the clock.
Even so, the 14-hour rule does seem to pressure me to forgo normal breaks — and that can’t be good.
Some drivers would like to see a more flexible rule that would allow one to stretch out that 14 hours, such as not counting some break times in that 14-hour limit.
And I think flexibility is the key here. Long-haul trucking by nature is irregular and no one can actually break down the job accurately in 15-minute increments as the log book calls for.
Especially if you pull a refer van (controlled temperature freight) you know what I am talking about. You might check into a place to pick up produce and actually have an appointment only to be told that your product is not ready yet. Meanwhile, you have an appointment elsewhere. So you have to go over there and check in. But it’s not ready either. You spend time going back and forth and a lot of time simply lying in your sleeper (but not necessarily for the whole 10 hours straight in order to re-qualify for another 11-hour driving stint). And ,by law you have to be in your sleeper, not sitting in your seat or even outside, because if you are, then you have to log it on duty, unless it can be shown you were on an actual break, and that is a grey area. You could quickly eat up all of your allowed weekly duty time (70 hours for 7-day per week operations). Not only would you not be able to get your freight delivered, but you could well be stranded out on the road and not be able to make it home.
And still another problem: What if you have to wait so long at a shipper or receiver that you have run out the 14-hour clock, but the shipper or receiver has a rule you must leave when done or there is really no room to stay anyway? I don’t think there is a clear-cut answer on this, but it does happen.
While owner-operators would not likely try this, some drivers have talked about following the letter of the log book rules to show those in charge that you can’t get there from here by following the law. But all that would do would be to risk your job or risk not getting dispatches with good mileage. And since long-haul pays by the mile, you cut off your nose despite your face.
And on this subject, I understand that log rules and monitoring of those scale pre-passes are getting special scrutiny in Oregon and Washington. The pre-pass is great for legally scooting past the scales, but it is also a tattle tale when it goes off when the scale is closed. Big brother knows where you were and when.
