In the most recent Motor Carrier Safety 101 Series, our experts provided some best practice measures that a carrier can put in place to reduce their driver’s chance of having an HOS violation and improve their overall safety while out on the road.
Key Takeaways
Split-sleeper is an exemption that should only be used if both the carrier and driver understand it and should not rely solely on the ELD to prevent a driver from going in violation.
An example of proper use of Split Sleeper would be a driver spending 3 hours in an Off-Duty Status and ending their shift with a 7-hour Sleeper Berth status. An example of improper use of Split Sleeper would be a driver spending 1 ½ hours in an Off-Duty Status and ending their shift with an 8 ½ hour Sleeper Berth Status.
Adverse Driving exemptions can only be used if the condition could not have been known or reasonably expected before the start of a driver's shift or the start of a trip. It is the responsibility of a driver to ensure that proper trip planning is conducted to account for any optional adverse conditions before beginning a trip.
If adverse driving conditions are present and justified a driver must make clear annotations on their logs of the type of condition and the time it lasted.
Personal Conveyance is still an area where there is a lot of “grey” area and can lead to a lot of unknowns unless a carrier develops a PC policy that is specific to their operations and drivers.
If a carrier allows personal conveyance for their drivers, the carrier should check driver’s logs regularly to ensure that it is being used correctly and not being abused.