34 hr restart-how often?

I end up getting one every week since my company gets us home on a weekly basis.

 

Same here. I go home each weekend and do a 34. There have been a few times where I couldn't pull it off, so I just worked the next week off of hours I picked up at midnight each day.

There is no requirement to ever have to do a 34 hr reset. A driver can work as long as there are hrs available, and work off the recap as they pick hrs back up each day. The 34 hr reset is there if you can pull it off and still be where you need to be. It is an option that only came about in the last 10 years. There was no such thing for over 60 years since the hours of service came into play in the 1930's. We just ran as we picked up hrs each day.

Drivers that have known nothing but the 34 hr reset seem to think that not being able to do a 34 hr reset is a catastrophic situation. I worked for over 2 decades without the 34 hr reset and always got the job done. And yes, only using one log book.

 

The 34 hour re-start, is an OPTION...you are never required to take one. If a driver drives and on duty not driving...(lines 3 and 4 on log)...only 8.75 hours everyday, the driver will never run out of available hours to drive.

However, if a driver finds, according to schedule needs, to make a delivery on time, that the driver will have to drive 10 hours, take a 10 hour break, and right back to driving another 10 hours to make schedule...then the driver will need to figure a 34 hour re-start at some point in the 8 day log requirement. Drivers have 70 hours in 8 days to be legal according to DOT's Hours of Service rules.

 

I take one every 5-6 days usually. Running team we eat up about 23 hours a day most days between the two of us which makes it go quickly. The nice part is the truck only has to stop 24 hours for us to get a reset unless the driving shifts were timed poorly. I've yet to ever run off recap as a team due to this but I have solo.