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Legal Issues in Parking Area Sweeping |
USDOT Regulations and Their Effects on Sweepersby Roger Kraft
The following article was written as a result of questions posed by Marty Braun, of Martin's Power Sweeping. Martin's performs a variety of sweeping services, and uses several different sizes of sweepers. Additionally, some of their routes cross over a state line. In the following article, Roger Kraft, state director of the Washington Division of the US Department of Transportation's (USDOT) Office of Motor Carriers, discusses how his agency's rules affect sweepers in each of those possible situations. If you have a topic you would like us to consider for our next issue, please let us know. Send an email to editor@worldsweeper.com, or call 360-724-7355 (9am to 5pm, Pacific time zone). Federal DOT guidelines or statutes don't come into play with regard to your sweepers until the 10,001 GVWR level is reached. However, you'll need to check with your local state Department of Transportation to be sure that you comply with any applicable state regulations. In other words, those who sweep with vehicles under 10,001 are entirely exempt from USDOT rules. Likewise, if your vehicle is between 10,001 and 26,000 pounds and you don't cross any state lines on your sweeping route, as far as the USDOT is concerned, you are only required to follow the regulations of your particular state. In the event you do cross state lines, and your sweeper or other vehicle has a gross vehicle weight rating of over 10,001 GVWR, you're considered to be a motor carrier. As such, your company is subject to federal motor carrier safety regulations, as per 49 CFR, Part 390 of the Code of Federal Regulations. Under CFR Part 395, motor carriers are required to maintain log books (record of duty status) on each driver who drives vehicles over 10,001 GVWR. Log books identify the company, date, driver and vehicle, and are used to record on-duty, driving and off-duty time. The motor carrier regulations also include specific driver qualifications and maximum allowable hours of service for both driving and total hours worked. As examples, your operators would be limited to driving no more than ten hours a day, following eight hours off duty. They're actually allowed to be on duty up to fifteen hours a day, but are limited to a maximum of ten hours behind the wheel and then only if their fifteen total hours are preceded by at least eight hours off duty. Additionally, the total amount of time your operator may work per week is limited to a maximum of sixty hours in seven days, or seventy hours in eight days, depending on whether the company operates seven days a week or not. Note that no violation of the total hours worked will occur after the sixty or seventy hour maximum, as long as no driving occurs prior to taking adequate time off. For example, a sweeper operator could reach his/her maximum total allowable hours for a given week and still perform work that is non-driving related. Before they can go back to driving, however, they would generally be required to take one or two 24-hour periods off duty. Again, the above rules apply to all vehicles over 10,001 GVWR only if they cross over state lines. Even in that situation, there is an exemption. A vehicle is exempt if it crosses state lines but stays within 100 air-radius miles of the company's headquarters, and the operator works less than 12 hours per day total. If that is the situation, even though the state line is being crossed, all that is required is a time card record showing the operator's beginning time, ending time, and total work hours. And, if the driver fails to meet the exemption for one day, he or she is only required to complete the log book for that one day. For example, if the air-radius miles are more than 100, or if the worker is on the job more than 12 hours total, then a log book must be completed for that day. The rules change again starting with 26,001 GVWR vehicles, whether or not any state lines are crossed during the course of doing business. At that GVWR, operators are required to have a Commercial Drivers' License (CDL). This means the company employing them must also follow the other CDL requirements, including drug and alcohol testing. If your sweeper is over 26,001 GVWR, it also has to be registered with the Internal Revenue Service, and you must obtain a fuel tax number. And, if vehicles over 26,001 GVWR do cross state lines, all applicable regulations of the state and federal government must be adhered to. For vehicles over 26,001 GVWR, most states have adopted regulations similar to those of the Federal Government, so the same limits apply. Federal regulations are the minimum, and states can add on additional regulations, as long as they're not considered to impede interstate commerce. However, if you aren't crossing state lines, you're not subject to federal regulations other than drug and alcohol testing on operators of vehicles over 26,001 GVWR. Editor's Note: There are several other DOT-related articles in our general sweeping legal section. For safety and drug testing regulations, as well as other general information about motor carrier operations, you can access the USDOT's website by going to http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/. For the Online Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations, go to: http://mcregis.fhwa.dot.gov/regtoc.htm For more information, you can email Roger Kraft at: roger.kraft@fhwa.dot.gov |
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