It's almost certain that a truck driver, driving in his employer's truck, is acting in the "course and scope" of his employment, as meant -- and said in the law.

Best way? Either don't carry, or keep one's mouth shut, I'd think.

I drive tow truck part time, my boss knows I teach the permit to carry and that I also have a permit. We are doing just fine with the "don't ask don't tell". I do carry sometimes on the overnight shifts...most of the cops know I carry and tell me I should. Interestingly enough 90% of the tows I do are police tows. I really am not sure if the employer can prohibit or not.

Thanks Joel, that's kind of what I figured but it's better to ask the question rather then go through life ignorant!!.

JD

I think the "don't ask don't tell" theory is ok until you need to use what you're carrying and then it become a problem.

JD

To be kind, that is a profoundly illogical concern.

If you use the gun, it would be because you were in fear of grievous bodily harm or death. In that circumstance, breaking an employment rule takes a far, far distant second place.

Put another way, sacrificing your life or health to keep a job (that you can't keep after you're dead or disabled) simply makes no sense.

You are correct Andrew, in fact I was just making that comment to my wife when you posted your response.

If they own the truck, then I'd fully expect that they can tell you what you can and can't have in it, whether I like it or not.

However, if the individual owns the vehicle then I wonder. How about a courier that uses their own vehicle? To my very limited knowledge on this subject, I think at OTR trucker that owns their own truck is essentiall self-employed and is doing contract work. However, how about local couriers? I guess I could expect them to tell you whether or not you were carrying when interfacing with the customer, even though I don't think that's right you are on their dime and are representing the company. However, how about in your own vehicle going to and from those sites?

A) I'm glad I'm not in a profession where I have to worry about that
B) I don't like to be a guinea pig and am glad I don't have to test that one.

Right or wrong, employers can usually dictate almost anything about your behavior while at work, and can fire you if you get caught breaking the rules.

Individuals must evaluate for themselves the risks to life, health and finances in deciding how to proceed.

For example, a trucker making inner-city deliveries might make a completely different decision than, say, a white-collar stiff working at an insurance company in the suburbs.

(Not that there's anything wrong with that! )

I don't feel a dying need to carry at work, although I'd like to out of convenience. I've got a "white-collar" desk job in mendota heights. Not much happening. But I still think the policy of no guns is stupid. The fact that one of the other engineers commited suicide by blowing his head off at work doesn't help that though.

However, a couple of years we had a local crazy guy road raging on people. He drove this great big ford f350 with dualies and he tried to run down my wife, son and I once. He missed and I ran from the car to draw him away from the wife and kid, it worked. I dealt with him while SWMBO called 911. Had I been carrying back then I prob would have draw on him given he'd run us off the road and was coming back for more. But I didn't have a premit back then and since I was heading back to work I wouldn't have had a gun anyway due to the policy at work.

This nutball did the same thing to at least one other coworker.

Oh, I dunno, JC, I 'd say you have two pretty good reasons to carry.

I agree the employer policies are stupid, but whadda-ya-gonna-do?

My employer has our business posted, banning for the non employees, and it states in our employee handbook that we're not allowed to posess weapons (specifically knives and guns) while on company property, including our vehicles parked here. This rule has been in effect much longer than 2003, though. And since we're an employ at will, ain't nothing I can do, since in every other regard this company is great to work for.

My wife works for a local small business, which requires her to be there, outside in a privacy fenced area, later in the evening, as late as midnight.
Our city is pretty safe, but there are a lot of high density housing units nearby, and according to the city, the area gets the lions share of crime calls. So when she has to work late like this, I go with her. And I'm carrying.
Nobody's ever botherd her, but some other employees have been. Nothing more than verbal teasing, but still....
This business isn't posted, and the owner is pretty sensible, but I still kept the carrying thing quiet. Until a couple weeks ago, at a party at the owners home, the Mrs. let it slip that I carried there late at night.
Turns out that the person who owns this business often has to report there in late at night if the alarm goes off, usually a false alarm, but they were burgularized several years ago, so I find out the owner is not only not upset by my carrying there, he's facinated. So we spend the next couple hours talking guns and now hes signed up for his carry permit training. Turns out he's an avid sportsman- hunter, fisherman, you name it. So I did my small bit to increase our ranks. Not to mention getting my wife in good with her boss.

My workplace has a "no weapons" policy, which since we're a small company is probably just BS boilerplate language from Paychex:



My job involves going to other businesses and I don't work out of an office, only to attend infrequent meetings and drop off expense reports. I work at home and drive my own car (for which I get a mileage reimbursement) to client appointments.

Does working at home involve "course and scope"? Could they actually fire me for working at home and owning firearms stored there? I'm curious if there have been any cases involving people working on their private property, especially in the use of their own vehicle.

I know that practically I can carry in the car, since nobody searches my car or cares as long as you don't piss off the customers. I pack my shotgun weekly for the trap range after work.

I was an OTR driver VERY briefly. I drove for a very large trucking company. They did NOT allow drivers to carry weapons. Company rules aside, the legalities of reciprocity agreements would be a nightmare. Some states recognize MN permits - some don't. You'd have to be really careful about carrying your gun when drive across the country. You could very quickly run afoul of those agreements - or lack thereof - and wind up in the Grey Bar Hilton!

TomK
Mpls, MN

I think the key would be getting the other two permits (Florida and New Hampshire[?]) which I think covers pretty much all the other states that have reciprocity agreements of any kind. I seem to recall this being covered in our class and two other states' permits got you pretty much everywhere.

Dad worked in the trucking industry for nearly 40 years and his opinion was that most of the independent owner/operators carried guns, whether it was legal or not. From some of the stories I've heard, a lot of the larger truckstops can be pretty gross -- drug dealers, thieves, prostitution.

One guy even had a story about being approached by two guys selling watches. He told them he wasn't interested, but they scared him enough that he got his gun out of the cab. When he was putting away some load locks and straps in his trailer, the guys came in and demanded his money. Supposedly he pulled out the gun and took their money and told them to get lost. Probably BS, but there's probably some truth to it.