Post date: Jun 29, 2015 4:28:13 PM
Effective July 1st when designated to dead head you CAN leave early with OUT being rested. You MUST call in to the MCO and let them know what train you are riding and your departure so that they can generate a ticket for you. One obstacle this may create is a false foot of board. If it does and you mark up after a DH tied up and it places you behind out of town turns contact me or Danny and we will sort the board out.
In follow up to this email I did forget to mention that this is a 60 day trial period. The carrier is limiting this to 60 days to determine if they see engineers accruing more than 30 hours of limbo time due to leaving before being rested along with trips that are over 12 hours where limbo time occurs. Please keep track of your limbo time, if it is getting close to being over 30 hours for the calendar month you should wait till you are rested to dead head so that we don't lose the ability of leaving early on a dead head. There will be few times in a month that we will get that close to 30 hours of limbo, however the carrier can face fines from FRA if we do. That I'm sure would provoke them into removing the ability to leave early again. I know that this places more responsibility on us where if the carrier made sure we were at the distant terminal within 12 hours it would be even more unlikely to get to 30 hours of limbo time, however it's not worth losing the ability to leave early by going over the 30 hour cap. One other thing to mention is that we must make sure we call or email the MCO about our early departure. We can not leave early and allow our turn to be called in order, claiming held away while leaving early could result in disciplinary action from BNSF. Make sure you tie up upon arrival at the home terminal.
Frats,
Jeremy McFather
L/C BLET #446 Belen, NM
505-916-6630