![]() While there are no regulations against using a commercial motor vehicle as personal transport, the FMCSA offers some guidelines. Let me know what you think? If you have successfully used the sleeper-berth example, please let me know that too.Personal conveyance is any personal trip you make during off-duty time. It will make your driving life more complicated and who needs more complications in their world? So, it is best to avoid using it while in the USA. #Eld personal conveyance drivers#I don’t know of any drivers that have tried my sleeper-berth example, but I have heard of many tickets being written and drivers being put out of service here in Canada when they use the PC rule in the USA. It is difficult to be legal in Canada if you do use the PC law in the USA, then use it as the Canadian law says: Personal Use. #Eld personal conveyance driver#The best thing for a Canadian driver to do is not to use the Personal Conveyance rule while in the United States. Not the best solution, but it is the only one that I can think of. In the above example, you are in your sleeper-berth for three hours, drive for thirty minutes and then you must go back into your sleeper-berth for not just six and a half hours but, you go back in for a complete seven hours. My suggestion is a little complicated, it involves using the Canadian Split Sleeper-berth rule. I believe that with a slight variation to the above example, a driver might be able to make it legal. Is there any way that a driver can use PC in the USA and then follow the rules while in Canada? The enforcement officer told me that they would look at today’s logbook and go back fourteen days. Well, in the above example, you are not going to leave your trailer behind so the move to the truck stop would be illegal. The answer is no! The response was that you could use “Personal Use” as we Canadians call it, but this means bobtail only no trailer and no cargo. So, can a driver legally use PC in the USA and be legal in Canada as well? I asked a Director for the MTO this question. Do you see what the enforcement officer is seeing? This is not pretty! If you use the PC rule while in the USA, as in the above example, you are not legal when you are back in Canada! That thirty-minute drive to the truck stop, by Canadian rules, is not off-duty! It is viewed or ruled as ‘driving’ which, of course, is on-duty and it broke up the driver’s 10-hour of off-duty period. The enforcement people in Canada don’t recognize this use of Personal Conveyance that is legal in the USA. Here is the problem and what the Canadian enforcement officers see. Since the PC USA rule was changed, I thought the example above was legal in the United States and in Canada. ![]() I hate to tell you, but in the above example, when that driver gets into Canada, he/she could be put out of service (OOS). You are legal in the United States.īut what happens when that same driver crosses the border into Canada? Is that driver legal here in Canada after having used the Personal Conveyance rule in the USA? You get to the truck stop and you go back into your sleeper-berth for the remaining six and a half hours. In this way, you remain in the off-duty area of the Hours of Service. It is the closest safe location for me, my truck and cargo. If you know about the personal conveyance rule for the USA, you might think, okay, I will move to a truck stop just thirty minutes down the road. Three hours into the ten hours of off duty, there is now a knock on the door and the driver is told that the company is locking up the gate and that they must move their truck. The driver heads into the bunk and goes to sleep. A driver is at a receiver’s facility and goes off-duty in the receiver’s yard. This is easily demonstrated by an example. They can move the unit to the nearest point of safety. ![]() So, what did the FMCSA allow? Let me paraphrase it this way: When a driver needs to move the truck, trailer and load while being off duty, they can. The changes can be a massive benefit to drivers. And with this new wording, it changed the use of PC significantly. A little over a year ago, the FMCSA clarified the law regarding ‘Personal Conveyance’ (PC) in the USA. ![]()
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