Is a crew or service truck really a trucking case?
Often it is, and the difference starts with the truck. A crew truck, a hotshot, a vacuum truck or a loaded service pickup does not look like an eighteen wheeler, so people assume this is an ordinary car accident. Federal rules do not go by what a vehicle looks like. They go by weight.
Under 49 CFR 390.5 a vehicle is a commercial motor vehicle once it has a gross vehicle weight rating or gross combination weight rating, or an actual gross weight, of 10,001 pounds or more, whichever is greater. Two things there matter. It is the greater of the rating or what the truck actually weighed that day, so a loaded service truck can qualify even if its rating sits under the line. And under 49 CFR 390.3 those rules reach the company, not just the driver.
If the truck was working only inside Louisiana, different rules may apply. That is worth asking about rather than assuming.
Do oilfield drivers follow the same driving-hour limits?
Not exactly, and this is the part almost nobody explains. 49 CFR 395.1(d) carves out two specific reliefs for oilfield work.
The first lets an eight-day period restart after 24 or more hours off duty, rather than the longer break other drivers need. It applies to drivers of trucks used exclusively to haul oilfield equipment or service field operations.
The second is bigger. For specially trained drivers of trucks specially constructed to service oil wells, waiting time at a well site does not count as on-duty time at all, and it does not count toward the 14-hour limit either.
Both carve-outs have conditions, and that is the point. Whether a driver actually qualified depends on what the truck was built for and what he was trained to do. So the question is not only whether the driver broke the rules. It is which rules applied to him in the first place. A police report does not answer that. The company’s own records do, and they do not last long: see how black box and ELD data gets preserved and how fatigue actually gets proved.
What if you were working too?
Then you may have two claims rather than one: a workers compensation claim, and a separate claim against whoever caused the crash.
They run on different clocks. Workers compensation is one year. The claim against the at-fault party is two years, for an injury on or after July 1, 2024. Comp also does not pay anything for pain and suffering. The claim against the at-fault party can.
If someone has told you this is only a comp claim, that may be true. It is also the kind of thing worth a second look. We handle truck and commercial vehicle claims across Acadiana.
Talk to us about an oilfield truck crash
The call is free. No fee unless we win.
Call (337) 347-7177 or send us a message and we will tell you what can still be preserved.
