Indian River

I wish it had worked out for you, too. I could’ve helped you more without the conflict of interest being an issue when it comes to your loads, customer routines, and the internal business of your company.

That mindset is how you will make money and make yourself valuable.

It doesn’t make as much sense to you, probably because you entered the industry in the post-paper log era. Most of us on here had to physically write out our previous days in preprinted boxes on a paper log and use a calculator to find our available hours on a daily basis at one point in time. I’m going to take a shot at explaining it to help you understand better. If anyone wants to correct me or chime in, feel free to.

You have a 70 hour clock. The hours you work today, along with the hours you’ve worked in the previous seven days can’t exceed the number 70. So, hypothetically speaking, if your previous seven days total up to 65 hours when you add them together, that means you can only work a total of five hours today. Eight days are factored into the math, and today counts as one of those eight days.

Why do you gain time back at midnight? Because every night at midnight, that eighth day drops out of the equation. It doesn’t get counted anymore. The day you had been referring to as #7 now becomes #8 as if it were playing musical chairs. The “musical chairs” take place every night at midnight, and the math has to be recalculated. Just remember it this way, the previous seven days subtracted from 70 is what you have available today.

Your electronic log does the math for you. It tells you on the right side of the screen “Hours to be gained” (referring to tonight) and “Hours to be gained in 2 days” (referring to tomorrow night) as a convenience feature to help you trip plan and enable you to forecast what you are capable of doing over the next few days.

When drivers make the statement “I’m running off recap,” they are basically just saying that they’re doing what they can, and everyday isn’t a guaranteed 14 hour clock. They are continuing to operate based on what they gain back each night at midnight when that eight day drops out of the math equation like I explained above.

You thought “in order to get recap you have to run at least 8 hours each day,” end quote. Erase that thought from your mind. Here is what you were probably thinking or trying to say:
70 hours divided by 8 days = 8.75 hours. You could also word it “8 hours and 45 minutes.”
Technically, if you only work 8 hours and 45 minutes, you could operate indefinitely. Why? Because every night at midnight you would gain back 8 hours and 45 minutes, which would replenish the 8 hours and 45 minutes you worked today. That will never be realistic, especially in the tanker industry.

My advice is to run your 70 down throughout the week, then run off of recap when things start to get low. If you find yourself in a position where you only have a few hours available and notice on the right side of the screen that you only gain back a handful of hours at midnight, you might consider telling your dispatcher that it’s time for a 34 hour reset.

It’s not a perfect world. Trucks break down and have to go to the shop. Drivers have a bad day and quit without notice. Tires blow in desolate areas where it turns into a multi-hour delay. Customers add loads at the last minute when they realize they miscalculated production. Remember the unseen variables I mentioned earlier that justify things.

If you want to make money, never talk a dispatcher out of assigning you a load. Let them stack it up on you. In situations like that, limit your breaks to 10 hours and 1 minute, then get moving, that way you’re not at fault for late deliveries and things like that. If they have a poor planning habit, it will eventually catch up to them. Let that be between the dispatcher and their boss.

I probably shouldn’t say this since you work for a different company, but I’m going to anyway, because you just started your job, and I feel keeping quiet would be allowing you to hang yourself, so to speak. Most dairy loads have a 72 hour window once they are loaded on the tank. If you’re on a dairy load and have the ability to make it to the consignee, be careful doing a 34 just to benefit yourself personally.. If you cause that load to get rejected unnecessarily, it could turn into a big deal. I would run it by someone who is in a position to advise you on that beforehand so you don’t have an issue two weeks into your new job.

 

He works for Bynum, not IRT.