Pat Hasler:
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I can give you a recent example of how the 8 hours sleeper worked… On Wednesday I had a 23.00 appointment at Ben & Jerry’s in St Albans VT, I left Yonkers at 14.00 giving myself 9 hours to take my time and get there, I had it worked out to deliver then go home, which is 2 hours south of St Albans and take 10 hours, after getting to about 70 miles up I-87 I got a call saying they had full tanks and could I deliver at 06.00 next day, after getting the call I had thought of stopping on the way up instead but at my house the snow and ice would mean there was a chance of getting stuck and waking people up at 2.30am didn’t appeal to me so I went all the way up, I arrived in St Albans at 21.00 and went in sleeper mode meaning I could start again at 05.00 and get the 8 hours in, I started after the 8 and drove round to B&J’s, although this was way over the 14 hours without a full 10 hours off, it gave me 4.5 hours driving and 5.5 hours duty, I left B&J’s and went home, instead of taking 2 hours I then took the full 10 off.
My point is that using this method you can actually just have 8 hours off provided you start the 8 hours with time still available. I didn’t need to take just the 2 hours.
Was your 14:00 departure from Yonkers when you logged on duty for that day and began your 14 hour window? or had you started earlier that day and sat in Yonkers off duty for two or more hours which itself gave you the opportunity to have an 8 hour break when you booked off at the end of the shift in question? You cannot have an 8 hour rest unless you’ve had 2 hour block during the preceding shift, ie some time on Wednesday at or before Yonkers. That two hours, plus the 8 hours you had off at St Albans are your 10 hours needed to reset the 14 hour window. As I’ve said a 2 hours in the day and an 8 at the end of shift are the same thing as a full 10 at the end of shift, with the exception of having to pay back the 2 hours durin the next shift before 24 hours have passed so you always have 10 hours showing in any 24 hour period.
You have not extended or driven beyond a 14 hour window, you started a new 14 hour window because your 8 hour rest in addition to a two hour qualifying period on Wednesday added up to 10 hours. If you started at 5am and your log said you had 5.5 hours of duty before having to stop for two hours, that would be 10:30am. That means the previous day (Wednesday in Yonkers) you were off duty between 10:30 and 12:30 which makes you eligible for a split sleeper rest period, needing only 8 hours to add up to a total of 10 hours and thus give you new 14 hour window when you started at 5am, so long as you paid back the two hours by 10:30am on Thursday to maintain a continuous flow of 10 hours off in any 24 hour period.
Are you following me? You have not extended or by passed anything to do with a 14 hour window, your combinations of rest have allowed you to take less than 10 hours off en-block at St Albans and start a new 14 hour window because 2+8 = 10.