§395.8
Driver's Record of Duty Status
Editor’s Note: The FMCSA is currently updating and revising its
regulatory guidance to Part 395 of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations
(FMCSRs)
to conform to the provisions of the new hours-of-service regulations, and to
provide additional guidance concerning the application of the new
regulations. All prior interpretations
and regulatory guidance relating to Part 395 of the FMCSRs, as
well as FMCSA and FHWA memoranda and letters concerning Part 395, may no longer
be relied upon as authoritative to the extent they are inconsistent with the
final rule published April 28, 2003 and the Technical Amendments published
September 30, 2003. All interpretations
and guidance for Parts other than Part 395 remain valid.
Question 1: How should a change of duty status for
a short period of time be shown on the driver's record
of duty status?
Guidance: Short periods of time (less than 15
minutes) may be identified by drawing a line from the appropriate on-duty (not
driving) or driving line to the remarks section and entering the amount of
time, such as "6 minutes," and the geographic location of the duty
status change.
Question 2: May a rubber stamp
signature be
used on a driver's record of duty status?
Guidance: No, a driver's record of duty status must
bear the signature of the driver whose time is recorded thereon.
Question 3: If a driver's record of
duty status is not signed, may enforcement action be
taken on the current day's record if it contains false information?
Guidance: Enforcement action can be taken against
the driver even though that record may not be signed. The regulations require
the driver to keep the record of duty status current to the time of last change
of duty status (whether or not the record has been signed). Also, §395.8(e) states that
making false reports shall make the driver and/or the carrier liable to
prosecution.
Question 4: Must drivers,
alternating between interstate and intrastate commerce, record their intrastate
driving time on their record of duty status?
Guidance: Yes, to account for all on-duty time for
the prior 7 or 8 days preceding an interstate movement.
Question 5: May a driver, being used
for the first time, submit records of duty status for the preceding 7 days in
lieu of a signed statement?
Guidance: The carrier may accept true and accurate
copies of the driver's record of duty status for the preceding 7 days in lieu
of the signed statement required by §395.8(j)(2).
Question 6: How should multiple short
stops in a town or city be recorded on a record of
duty status?
Guidance: All stops made in any one city, town,
village or municipality may be computed as one. In such cases the sum of all
stops should be shown on a continuous line as on-duty (not driving). The
aggregate driving time between such stops should be entered on the record of
duty status immediately following the on-duty (not driving) entry. The name of
the city, town, village, or municipality, followed by the State abbreviation
where all the stops took place, must appear in the "remarks" section
of the record of duty status.
Question 7: Is the Canadian
bilingual or any other record of duty status form acceptable in the
Guidance: Yes, provided the grid format and
specific information required are included.
Question 8: May a motor carrier
return a driver's completed record of duty status to the driver for correction
of inaccurate or incomplete entries?
Guidance: Yes, although the regulations do not
require a driver to submit "corrected" records of duty status. A
driver may submit corrected records of duty status to the motor
carrier at any time. It is
suggested the carrier mark the second submission "CORRECTED COPY" and
staple it to the original submission for the required retention period.
Question 9: May a duplicate copy of
a record of duty status be submitted if an original
was seized by an enforcement official?
Guidance: A driver must prepare a second original
record of duty status to replace any page taken by an enforcement official. The
driver should note that the first original had been taken by an enforcement
official and the circumstances under which it was taken.
Question 10: What regulation,
interpretation, and/or administrative ruling requires a
motor carrier to retain supporting documents and what are those documents?
Guidance: §395.8(k)(1)
requires motor carriers to retain all supporting documents at their principal
places of business for a period of 6 months from date of receipt.
Supporting documents are the records of the motor carrier
which are maintained in the ordinary course of business and used by the motor
carrier to verify the information recorded on the driver's record of duty
status. Examples are: Bills of lading, carrier pros, freight bills, dispatch
records, driver call-in records, gate record receipts, weight/scale tickets,
fuel receipts, fuel billing statements, toll receipts, international
registration plan receipts, international fuel tax agreement receipts, trip
permits, port of entry receipts, cash advance receipts, delivery receipts, lumper
receipts, interchange and inspection reports, lessor
settlement sheets, over/short and damage reports, agricultural inspection
reports, CVSA reports, accident
reports, telephone billing statements, credit card receipts, driver fax
reports, on-board computer reports, border crossing reports, custom
declarations, traffic citations, overweight/oversize reports and citations,
and/or other documents directly related to the motor carrier's operation, which
are retained by the motor carrier in connection with the operation of its
transportation business. Supporting documents may include other documents which
the motor carrier maintains and can be used to verify information on the
driver's records of duty status. If these records are maintained at locations
other than the principal place of business but are not used by the motor
carrier for verification purposes, they must be forwarded to the principal
place of business upon a request by an authorized representative of the FHWA or State official within 2
business days.
Question 11: Is a driver who works
for a motor carrier on an occasional basis and who is regularly employed by a
non-motor carrier entity required to submit either records of duty status or a
signed statement regarding the hours of service for all on-duty time as
"on- duty time" as defined by §395.2?
Guidance: Yes.
Question 12: May a driver use
"white-out" liquid paper to correct a record of duty status entry?
Guidance: Any method of correction would be
acceptable so long as it does not negate the obligation of the driver to
certify by his or her signature that all entries were made by the driver and
are true and correct.
Question 13: Are drivers required
to draw continuous lines between the off-duty, sleeper berth, driving, and
on-duty (not driving) lines on a record of duty status when changing their duty
status?
Guidance: No. Under §395.8(h) the FMCSRs
require that continuous lines be drawn between the appropriate time markers
within each duty status line, but they do not require that continuous lines be
drawn between the appropriate duty status lines when drivers change their duty
status.
Question 14: What documents satisfy
the requirement to show a shipping document number on a record of duty status
as found in §395.8(d)(11)?
Guidance: The following are some of the documents
acceptable to satisfy the requirement: shipping manifests, invoices/freight
bills, trip reports, charter orders, special order numbers, bus bills or any
other document that identifies a particular movement of passengers or cargo.
In the event of multiple shipments, a single document will
satisfy the requirement. If a driver is dispatched on a trip, which is
subsequently completed, and then is dispatched on another trip on that calendar
day, two shipping document numbers or two shippers and commodities must be shown
in the remarks section of the record of duty status.
Question 15: If a driver from a
foreign country only operates in the
Guidance: A foreign driver, when in the
Question 16: Are drivers required
to include their total on-duty time for the previous 7 to 8 days (as
applicable) on the driver's record of duty status?
Guidance: No.
Question 17: Can military time be
used on the grid portion of the driver's record of duty status?
Guidance: Yes. The references to
Question 18: §395.8(d)(4)
requires that the name of the motor carrier be shown on the driver's record of
duty status. If a company owns more than one motor carrier subject to the FMCSRs,
may the company use logs listing the names of all such motor carrier employers and
require the driver to identify the carrier for which he or she drives?
Guidance: Yes, provided three conditions are met.
First, the driver must identify his or her motor carrier employer by a method
that would be visible on a photocopy of the log. A dark check mark by the
carrier's name would be acceptable. However, a colored highlight of the name
would not be acceptable, since these colors are often transparent to
photocopiers.
Second, the driver may check off the name of the motor
carrier employer only if he or she works for a single carrier during the 24
hour period covered by the log.
Third, if the parent company uses Multiday
Logs (Form 139 or 139A), the log for each day must list all motor carrier
employers and the driver must identify his or her carrier each day.
Question 19: Regulatory guidance
issued by the Office of Motor Carriers states that a driver's
record-of-duty-status (RODS) may be used as the 100 air-mile radius time record
". . . provided the form contains the mandatory information." Is this
"mandatory information" that required of a normal RODS under §395.8(d) or that of
the 100 air-mile radius exemption under §395.1(e)(5)?
Guidance: The "mandatory information"
referred to is the time records specified by §395.1(e)(5)
which must show: (1) The time the driver reports for duty each day; (2) the
total number of hours the driver is on duty each day; (3) the time the driver
is released from duty each day; and (4) the total time for the preceding 7 days
in accordance with §395.8(j)(2)
for drivers used for the first time or intermittently.
Using the RODS to comply with §395.1(e)(5)
is not prohibited as long as the RODS contains driver identification, the date,
the time the driver began work, the time the driver ended work, and the total
hours on duty.
Question 20: When a driver fails to
meet the provisions of the 100 air-mile radius exemption (§395.1(e)), is the
driver required to have copies of his/her records of duty status for the
previous seven days? Must the driver prepare daily records of duty status for
the next seven days?
Guidance: The driver must only have in his/her
possession a record of duty status for the day he/she does not qualify for the
exemption. The record of duty status must cover the entire day, even if the
driver has to record retroactively changes in status that occurred between the
time that the driver reported for duty and the time in which he/she no longer
qualified for the 100 air-mile radius exemption. This is the only
way to ensure that a driver does not claim the right to drive 10 hours after
leaving his/her exempt status, in addition to the hours
already driven under the 100 air-mile exemption.
Question 21: What is the carrier's
liability when its drivers falsify records of duty status?
Guidance: A carrier is liable both for the actions
of its drivers in submitting false documents and for its own actions in
accepting false documents. Motor carriers have a duty to require drivers to
observe the FMCSRs.
Question 22: If a driver logs
his/her duty status as "driving" but makes multiple short stops (each
less than 15 minutes) for on-duty or off-duty activities, marks a vertical line
on the grid for each stop, and records the elapsed time for each in the remarks
section of the grid, would the aggregate time spent on those non-driving
activities be counted against the 10-hour driving limit?
Guidance: No. On-duty not driving time or off-duty
time is not counted against the 10-hour driving limit.
Question 23: When the driver's duty
status changes, do §395.8(c)
or 395.8(h)(5)
require a description of on-duty not driving activities ("fueling,"
"pre-trip," "loading," "unloading,", etc.) in the
remarks section in addition to the name of the nearest city, town or village
followed by the State abbreviation?
Guidance: No. Many motor carriers require drivers
to identify work performed during a change of duty status. Part 395 neither requires nor
prohibits this practice.
Question 24: When must a driver
complete the signature/ certification of the driver's record of duty status?
Guidance: In general, the driver must sign the
record of duty status immediately after all required entries have been made for
the 24-hour period. However, if the driver is driving at the end of the 24-
hour period, he/she must sign during the next stop. A driver may also sign the
record of duty status upon going off duty if he/she expects to remain off duty
until the end of the 24-hour period.
Question 25: Is a driver (
Guidance: No. The FHWA does not require drivers to
prepare records of duty status while operating outside the jurisdiction of the
Question 26: If a driver is
permitted to use a CMV for personal
reasons, how must the driving time be recorded?
Guidance: When a driver is relieved from work and
all responsibility for performing work, time spent traveling from a driver's
home to his/her terminal (normal work reporting location), or from a driver's
terminal to his/her home, may be considered off-duty time. Similarly, time
spent traveling short distances from a driver's en route lodgings (such as en
route terminals or motels) to restaurants in the vicinity of such lodgings may
be considered off-duty time. The type of conveyance used from the terminal to
the driver's home, from the driver's home to the terminal, or to restaurants in
the vicinity of en route lodgings would not alter the situation unless the
vehicle is laden. A driver may not operate a laden CMV as a personal
conveyance. The driver who uses a motor carrier's CMV for transportation home,
and is subsequently called by the employing carrier and is then dispatched from
home, would be on-duty from the time the driver leaves home.
A driver placed out of service for exceeding the
requirements of the hours of service regulations may not drive a CMV to any location to obtain rest.
Question 27: Would a driver who prepares his/her log on a computer, ‘digitally’ signs the log, and then transmits it directly to the carrier, be in compliance with 49 CFR §395.8(f)(2)?
Guidance: No. The driver’s activities must be recorded in accordance with the provisions of §395.8(f)(2). This section requires that all entries relating to driver’s duty status must be legible and in the driver’s own handwriting.
Question 28: May a driver use a computer to generate his or her record of duty status (log book) and then manually sign the computer printouts in lieu of handwritten logs?
Guidance: A driver may use a computer to generate the graph grid and entries for the record of duty status or log book, provided the computer-generated output includes the minimum information required by §395.8 and is formatted in accordance with the rules. In addition, the driver must:
1. Be capable of printing the record of duty status for the current 24-hour period at the request of an enforcement officer.
2. Print the record of duty status at the end of each 24-hour period, and sign it in his or her handwriting to certify that all entries required by this section are true and correct.
3. Maintain a copy of printed and signed records of duty status for the previous 7 consecutive days and make it available for inspection at the request of an enforcement officer.