You know, better than anyone, that just because you’re behind the wheel of your truck, you’re not always logging miles and time toward your HOS. A big fear, in the early days when the ELD mandate was announced, is that these moments would not be taken into consideration or would be counted towards your daily allotment of drive time.
The FMCSA created special driving categories to deal with those times when your truck might be in motion but you aren’t driving for the fleet or carrier. The two most common categories are personal conveyance and yard moves. How do you know a moment qualifies as one or the other? How do you log these situations to avoid HOS violations? Here’s what you need to know.
Personal Conveyance
If you drive your truck for personal reasons, you’re using it as a personal conveyance. Driving yourself home after checking in at your work reporting location, finding a place to eat after you’ve gone off duty for the night, getting on the road in the morning to check in before starting a haul — all of these can be considered personal conveyance and do not count towards your HOS.
The FMCSA made very clear guidelines regarding personal conveyance for anyone required to log their hours:
- You’ve been relieved from all work duties and responsibilities as a driver for the day.
- You’re driving an unladen vehicle.
- You’re driving to or from your home or regular work location.
- You’re traveling short distances from lodging secured en route to restaurants near your lodging.
Personal conveyance use is classified as off duty driving. While there is no limit to how many miles or hours you can log as off duty, take care. A roadside inspector might question your use of off duty driving if they feel the amount of time is excessive.
Yard Moves
Yard moves occur when you need to move your truck a few yards or across a parking lot or loading area. You’re not driving in the usual sense, but the truck is moving and you’re in on-duty status. Yard moves are not meant to eat into your HOS and reduce the time you have in a given day.
Because an ELD logs any movement over five miles an hour, yard moves must be marked as such so as not to count against you. Gorilla Safety offers two features in our ELD system to make noting yard moves as easy as possible: Advanced Drivetime Edit (available at all levels) and Bulk Unidentified Driving Edit for fleet managers (available in Fleet Xpress and Xtreme).
You don’t have to worry that yard moves cut into your time, but you do need to mark them accurately. Not doing so can lead to unnecessary violations and citations during a roadside inspection. Communicate with your fleet manager to make sure everyone is clear on what’s drive time and what isn’t.
Want to keep your logs as accurate as possible with less stress and hassle? Gorilla Safety can help! Learn more and sign up, today.
