Companies Restricting Use Of Personal Conveyance?

This is one of these rabbit hole things I got into after searching for something else.

I saw a Mutha Trucker video from January discussing a company wide message that went out to all Prime drivers indicating that PC had been misused and was being done away with. There was some uncertainty on what the message meant but many drivers responded to the video complaining about being micro-managed, etc. The same thing apparently happened earlier with Werner drivers.

Michael has been driving for Marten for just over two years and every time he wants to use PC he must call safety for them to turn it on. It's become routine for him and no big deal.

I'm just curious if this is an industry-wide trend and what lead to these changes. Was it solely DOT violations?

Sure it is completely at the discretion of the company. Dumb drivers misused it by moving freight after their legal driving time expired, so it's easier and safer for a company to cancel it for everyone. It's a points violation for a driver that gets cited, but it's about 3X the points and fines for the motor carrier. Get enough "bad points" on a company's safety score, and the audits start becoming more frequent, insurance costs rise, some brokers and shippers will pass on hiring the company to move products, profits decline, layoffs, etc. It's a huge snowball effect, but most drivers are only looking at the small picture--50 feet in front of their hood.

I've worked at some places that had a time limit on PC, a mileage distance limit on it, or it was not available at all.

Thanks PackRat for bringing clarity to this, I was curious about the impact on the company on the violations. Like many things people complain about, the drivers complaining about it are only seeing it from their perspective.

I liken it to several other industry-specific "self created problems" (as I refer to them).

"That Walmart store sucks because they won't let us park trucks there anymore (pick a location)." Well, if some driver had not run over the landscaping, or threw their pee bottles and trash in the parking lot, or backed into a row of shopping carts, or scraped three employee vehicles on the way out.....

"Why must I pay to park at your truck stop?" Asphalt, maintenance, property taxes and assessments all cost money. Since you aren't spending any money here to help offset these costs, the location owner decided to cut their losses with a nominal cost for a set period of time for parking.

There are many other examples I could write, but these all illustrate the same outcome. Some drivers will misuse, abuse, cut corners, lie, cheat, and steal which gets the blast aimed at all of us through the actions of a few. Everyone remembers the truck that hit the low bridge because he wasn't reading the posted warning signs, but no one noticed the other 25 trucks that followed the Truck Route through town. With everything, others will have their own counter viewpoint.

We are our own enemy instead of acting as our own advocates.

My employer limits us to 10 miles of PC time. We use it very rarely anyways given the type of work we do, it's usually just getting us to a hotel for the night if we run out of time at a shipper. In my 4 years here I've used it once.

We're also required to get approval before we use the adverse conditions exception. From what it sounds like a couple drivers were using that to make it back on big days because it snowed. With that exception, if you would reasonably know of conditions AT/BEFORE beginning your trip you can not use it.

My company has sent out several fleet messages recently about the misuse of PC. Some drivers were using it against the rules, I assume to get more miles. I guess the company can take the PC privileges away from drivers on an individual basis and that was what the warning was about.

Personally, I use my PC in select circumstances and find it to be a very helpful tool. I’d hate to lose it, so I’m careful that it’s within the rules.

I would be disappointed if the company felt there was so much abuse that they eliminated PC completely.

With Knight, it 25 miles or 25 minutes. It's up to each terminal individually if they decide not to allow it though, I haven't known any of our drivers who haven't been able to. I would think the terminal manager would stop allowing the offending driver use of it first.

The only time I use it is if I'm parked for a day or two , don't have access to a company van, and need to go shopping or something like.

Also, the more fuel I burn and non dispatched miles, the less safety and fuel bonus I get

I believe my company's rules on PC are 2 hours and 20 miles in a calendar day, unless leaving a customer out of hours for the nearest safe and legal parking. When I first started, my ELD didn't have PC or Yard Move. My company said it did but the tablet company said my company had to check a box to get it to show up. It eventually got sorted out.

Werner was sued over a fatal accident and paid out $150 million due to the driver being On PC.Then companies went strict, including Prime. We still have it but we need to ask for it.

Harvey C

Prime has not done away with PC. It is still available, but must be requested and approved prior to using it.

It is very true that some Prime drivers had been abusing it.