The Extra Airport Run
You drive a 14-passenger airport shuttle for a passenger carrier. You came on duty at 05:00 and have logged: 2.5 hours driving, 45 minutes off duty, 3 hours driving, 1 hour off duty, 3 hours driving, and 30 minutes off duty. It is now 19:30. Dispatch asks you to take a 1.5-hour round trip to the airport because the relief driver called out. You have had 8.5 hours of driving time and 14.5 hours in the on-duty window. You feel tired, have had two energy drinks, and ate only a snack at noon. Dispatch suggests you use 'split sleeper berth' to make it legal and says the customer is a VIP. The shuttle has no sleeper berth. You have 1.5 hours of driving time left under the 10-hour rule but only 30 minutes before the 15-hour window closes.
1. Is the 1.5-hour run legal? Show the hour calculation and the reset needed.
Read the worked answer
No. You came on duty at 05:00, so the 15-hour window closes at 20:00. At 19:30 you have only 30 minutes left in that window. The requested run would end at 21:00, one hour past the limit. Your total driving would be 8.5 + 1.5 = 10.0 hours, which is exactly the 10-hour driving limit, but the 15-hour rule is separate and cannot be exceeded. The 45-minute, 1-hour, and 30-minute off-duty periods count inside the 15-hour window, so they do not extend it. Only 8 consecutive hours off duty resets the 10-hour and 15-hour clocks. If you went off duty at 19:30, you could not legally drive again until 03:30, and even then fatigue would be a serious concern. A split sleeper berth is not available to passenger-carrying drivers, and the shuttle has no sleeper berth anyway.
2. Dispatch says the return leg can be logged off-duty or as personal conveyance. Does that change the answer?
Read the worked answer
No. Off-duty time in the middle of the trip does not extend the 15-hour window; only 8 consecutive hours off duty does. Personal conveyance is for limited personal movement of a commercial motor vehicle, not for a dispatched passenger run with a customer on board. Logging a revenue trip as off-duty or personal conveyance would be a false record of duty status. The return leg is part of the same on-duty period and still ends after 20:00. If dispatch pressures you, ask for the request in writing and contact your safety manager. The correct answer is to decline the run unless you first receive 8 consecutive hours off duty and are fit to drive.
3. What should you do about your fatigue, and what should be documented?
Read the worked answer
I should tell dispatch I am not fit to drive and decline the run. Under the general fitness-for-duty rule, a driver may not drive while ill, fatigued, or otherwise unable to operate safely. Two energy drinks and one snack do not fix fatigue; they may mask it briefly. I would request a relief driver or have the customer rebooked. I would document my duty status, the hours I had already worked, the request from dispatch, and the symptoms I noticed: tiredness, poor meal timing, and reliance on energy drinks. I would then take 8 consecutive hours off duty before driving again. If I felt unsafe or was pressured to drive, I would report it through company channels. Driving while fatigued is a judgement error even if the logbook looks legal.