Managing the 70 hour rule various strategies

Yes you can drive more than 11 hours in a 24 hour period. The regs are written to restrict DRIVING not working. Work may be loading or unloading trailers, docking trailers, counting freight, fueling trucks, working the dock, or any other non driving job. You may, in essence, work 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, 365 days per year provided you do NOT DRIVE until you have had a 34 hour reset or fall below the 70 hour in 8 day rule. The key is to get rid of the notion that you may only drive 11 hour per "day." The regs state you may drive up to 11 hours within a 14 hour time frame. Once you satisfy your 10 hour break you may continue driving.

Here are 2 examples to illustrate this concept;

First example; John Smith begins a cross country trip at 1200 midnight. He drives 11 hours straight only making quick stops for bathroom breaks and eats sandwiches (pre-made before his trip) out of his cooler while driving. These stops do not need a change of duty status as they take less than 15 minutes and a flag will be sufficient. At 11 am, John stops driving and performs a "post trip inspection" for 15 minutes which he logs on duty not driving and begins his 10 hour break at 11:15 am. His break is up at 9:15 pm at which time he continues driving for his next 11 hour shift. 2.75 hours of the next 11 hour driving shift will fall on that days log book while the remaining 8.25 hours will be logged on the next day. This shows 13.75 hours of driving and 15 minutes on duty not driving on that day.

Second example utilizes the split sleeper berth rule. John Smith begins his cross country trip again at midnight. He drives for 6 hours and gets tired. He shuts down for the next 8 hours in the sleeper berth for rest (this 8 hours will not count against your 14 hour work window and will "extend" that 14 hour time frame 8 hours). At 2 pm his break is up and John continues driving for the next 5 hours. It is now 7 pm. At that time John performs his post trip inspection for 15 minutes and then begins his next 2 hour break (this time may be off duty or sleeper berth, provided it is 2 consecutive hours with no on duty time logged within those 2 hours). At 9:15 pm John continues driving for another 6 hour shift. 2.75 driving hours will fall within that days log and the remaining 3.25 will be logged on the next days log. This also equates to 13.75 hours of driving within a day with 15 minutes of on duty not driving time. This strategy may be used every day up to the 70 hours in 8 day rule at which time you may take a 34 hour reset or wait until you get hours back under the 70/8 day rule.


There are other threads here on the forum offering a more detailed explanation of the split sleeper berth requirements and examples to help inform drivers that may be unsure of the guidelines.

 

Yeah, I guess I glossed over the "per day" part, heh, I drove more than 11hrs. per day many times.

 

The problem is that the trucking industry and its loads do not run on a excel spreadsheet.

If your going to run totally legal you are going to miss loads, not only the one you could not get to but also the ones that dispatch is not going to give to you to teach you a lesson. Same is true for missing delivery times.

There are unwritten laws in this industry. If you make your dispatcher actually work it will cost you the driver. When you think you've come up with something to get even with the dispatcher, you guessed it. You are the one who will be sitting.

Learning to manage your hours is very important. You have to save as much as you can where ever you can. All those little 15 minute periods is what will keep you looking legal going down the road. You really need to learn how to look at hours like money and spend them wisely.

 

I use the 2/8 split regularly. I use it to get the load times to line up. But thats the thing you have to remember it that it does not extend the 14 hour window. Once the 14 hour window is open it stays open till you have a total 10 off duty or sleeper.

Drive (PT on time deduct)2am to 4am, sleeper 4am to 6am, load & PT 6am to 7am, then 7am to 9am off duty, then final 9am to 5pm. Then I'm good to go till 4:15am. Oh yeah you can show your 15 minute Vehicle inspection combined with fueling, loading or unloading.

Split sleeper gets alot of drivers into trouble, be very careful pesky wabbit.

 

OH CRAPOLA! 2 pages in and what a head ache! I gave up!

After 32 years I NEVER have been able to "time manage" a whole week! All the freaking math you want to try, it still can NOT be done unless you are on a dedicated route doing the same thing day in day out! Or you only drive 8.5 or some stupid number of hours a day! I'm sure a dispatcher or load coordinator of boss would have something to say about that!

Remember EVERYTHING looks good on paper! This is the real world!

You might be able to on long coast to coast runs but why attempt to if you sit for a day? HMMMM All that work and you have to throw it away! Or even on a 12 hour sit at a dock deal!

The best way I found to manage my time was to buy Drivers Daily Log and atempt to figure out where and when with that program! It's been the best money I've EVER spent in all my time driving! Even better that that girl in... oh well you get the idea! At least I never have log book violations and I know what time I need to stop and go! And I know how many hours I'll have when I get to where I'm going!

But if you want to do ll of that math.....Knock your self out! ROFLMAO!

 

Sad to say, this is true. If you log the hours you actually work on line 4, you will be accused of not managing your time properly. The 70 hr rule is a good rule. Trucking companies would work you 24/7 if they could. The rule actually needs to be adjusted to require trucking companies to pay you for all time worked. In any other job, it would be illegal to make you work part of your day for no money. The industry is and has been corrupt for a long time. That's the reason why unions exist, to fix things that are hopelessly out of wack. Company managers and executives probably see themselves as good and ethical people, but if they were to honestly look at driver pay and living conditions, they would hate what they see in the mirror. But this is a mindset without conscience. The country as a whole has lost it's basic sense of right and wrong.

 

Yeah , ask YRC drivers how the union has fixed things for them . I suppose the HOS are out of wack and that is why the union is trying to "fix" them with support from politicians that each got over $5,000 in contributions from the Teamsters and push for regulations not based on safety but on benefiting the Teamsters while having negative economic effects on nonunion drivers and carriers .

 

Unions aren't immune from corruption. But you show me 10 union companies and 10 nonunion companies and then compare driver benefits, pay, and working conditions.

 

How about union companies like DHL and Consolidated Freightways to start with ? How many nonunion drivers had to go to a food bank for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners ?
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/05/07/u...-test-for-teamsters-chief.html?pagewanted=all

 

The union drivers go to the food bank when they lose their jobs. The nonunion drivers go to the food bank when they keep their jobs.