What do drivers need to think about their personal conveyance time? And how do ELD laws affect that time?
Well, they’re being told not to overthink. Which is a good thing?
Personal conveyance time is the time that a driver is spent traveling to a location to rest, moving a truck during the driver’s off-duty time if it’s required, eating or more. The “more” is where it can get confusing. What should be counted as a personal conveyance time?
Drivers and Personal Conveyance Time
Some truck drivers are never certain what’s considered personal conveyance time. Director of enforcement and compliance Joe DeLorenzo of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is trying to clear it up for them.
He tells drivers to ask themselves a few questions about the time that they are taking. “Am I off duty? Am I doing any work at the request of the motor carrier, rather than for myself? Is the major purpose of why the motor vehicle is being moved personal? Is it for a non-business-related purpose?”
These words assured drivers worrying about their ELDs that they have a little more security and they wouldn’t be constantly penalized.
“It doesn’t matter what you’re hauling or whether you’re loaded or unloaded or hooked up to a trailer or not. You can move the vehicle to the nearest safe location on personal conveyance time to get rest, and you don’t have to go backward,” said Lorenzo. “This is one of those times where it’s OK to continue on the progress of the load as long as you are stopping at the nearest reasonable, safe location. We deliberately don’t define that because that’s a judgment call on the part of the driver.
Safety Is The Concern
The bottom line is, he wants drivers to be safe. Drivers shouldn’t be going to locations like parking lots without proper lighting or parking on the side of the road just because they’re worried about whether or not they’re violating personal conveyance time.
As long as the move is within reason, drivers will be okay. If they’re moving around sporadically and wildly not according to their route for personal reasons all the time, then they’ll have to worry. But for the most part, anything within reason will not be penalized. Think common sense, and drivers shouldn’t worry.
ELDs are fairly new to drivers, many of which aren’t used to having their driving routes and patterns logged. This is part of the reason the doubt has been brought up now, because of the drivers being constantly monitored. ELDs, though, are made to make drivers safer.
So drivers are encouraged to think reasonably, not overthink their personal conveyance time, and stay safe.
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