Calex Express....My New Home!

Yes. That's how it works for me. As long as the total mileage from the house here in Lake Worth, back up north then out to the west coast is under 4100 miles I can. If not then I usualy can pick up some hours on my last day going out west, which is the hours I used on my first day of my fresh 70 coming off my reset.

 

It took me about a month to get used to Elogs. I pretty much ran legal before I came to Calex. The only time I "Fudged' was when I went home. Which of course is every week. My biggest issue now is the once in a while time I forget to show a pre or post trip. You bring up a good point, one that bothers me to no end. I can't tell you how many times I've woke up completely refreshed from my sleeper time, only to have a couple more hours left before I can legally move my truck. It's like I'm refreshed, ready to go but my clock say's I'm still tired. Or the time last month when I did my trip to Orlando, bumped the dock at the receiver on a Saturday afternoon then logged out of the system to bobtail home to spend 30 hours with the wife at the house. I then bobtailed back to Orlando hooked up to my trailer and went back to sleep until I was empty 10am the next morning. As far as I was concerned I was off duty. The company took a fit because I logged out. But my reply is I was off duty. At least I got a reset in, which I needed.

It just fry's my backside when the government comes out with new regulations that are a blanket policy for everyone regardless. When I asked Brian what should I have done in that situation he told me I should have stayed there. Right, you're talking about a guy that would fly home, rent a car to go home when my truck broke down last year, or make reservations to fly home from Jersey when my truck was going to be in a shop over the weekend. 2 hours to the house for 30 hours was a no brainer for me. But, safety has a job to do, and report to a higher power, just like I do, my wife and home.

Rules and regulations are what they are, I'm smart enough to know they need to be followed. I might not like some of them, but you gotta dance to the fiddler sometimes.

 

Read the next reply, that is it in a nutshell. The thing that allows me to do those miles is starting with a fresh 70, and not burning through them in 6 days, but to stretch them out. I only watch my hours when I know I'm going west, like right now. Calex lets us log the speed limit. I watch my mph and everytime I move my truck I am averaging 65mph. Thats 715 miles in an 11 hour shift. Going west you actually can do 727 miles for 2 days of the trip.

There have been times that I leave the house on a Monday with a fresh 70, load, then deliver up north somewhere, reload going west and wind up delivering the following Tuesday out west only to be short a few hours, but knowing I will pick up new hours after midnight Monday night to help me finish the trip. Running back and forth to the house with a fresh 70 like this last round I only used 44 of my 70 hours. When I wake up to go deliver Monday morning I will have a fresh 70. The idea is to plan your hours everyday to not run out. We are allowed 14 hours a day, of which 11 is for driving. Every day I try not to use any of the remaining 3 hours for anything but pre/post trip, fuel or loading/unloading. There are times when at the end of my day I have used 11 full hours to drive and 15 minutes for a pretrip, that's it. You'll find out soon about how important time management is.

 

Thanks for the post. What you wrote is absolutely correct.

 

The way Calex is set up and we are dispatched it works to our advantage to run this way. We aren't gone weeks on end, so if I leave on a Monday with a fresh 70, get back up to Pa say on Wednesday I usually used up 24 hours. Now I'm leaving Pittston on Thursday with 46 hours and a Tuesday delivery out west. Running out my clock by the end of the day Monday
I still have the buffer to finish my run and if it really works out the right way get to my pick up area to take my reset. What I don't like doing is taking my reset then driving 300-400 miles to load. Those miles make it hard for me to get back home without resetting again.