Why not give us more hours of off duty status?

I agree that having more than 14 hours available would be a benefit. I've also noticed when running continuously for more than 8 days (getting hours back each day) that I'll sometimes have those great days when I have 14 hours to use up 8 hours or 9 hours of available Drive/On Duty time. Then I have 5-6 hours available for shopping, long naps, etc. if I want or need to use them.

I agree that the essence of trucking is to keep the wheels turning. However, it does seem that on days with live loads or live unloads the 3 hour buffer gets burned in a hurry and then you can't use all the available 11 if you take any breaks. In that situation if I feel tired then no matter what I'll stop to take a rest break. It isn't worth driving tired to keep the schedule IMHO.

I've found that usually the tight schedules I receive on dispatches are often an illusion designed to push drivers to keep the wheels turning, when the actual customer deadlines are more generous. Whenever accepting a load with a tight schedule I contact the dispatcher to find out what the real delivery deadline is, then will accept the load after getting written notice of the actual deadline.

 

It's not something I have to deal with. I work for the shipper and am the only person present when I deliver. In other words, I do the work and don't wait for others to accomplish it. I was merely pointing out he wasn't trying to work less.

 

The new 34 hour reset is by far the dumbest rule. They want us to be sleeping from 1 to 5 am, ok, well when running the recap, when does a driver "get" hours for the next day? Midnight, so that is when we drive, you think we wait until 5 am to go off and get started? The drivers that drive in the middle of the night all week long get their internal clock to be awake in the middle of the night, so don't interrupt the schedule.

 

Lepton1 is right.
Most times there is more time on the load than the company provides you with in the pplan.

My company allows us to provide times for pick up and delivery that we specify - even though we are in a 'forced dispatch' situation.
That means that the computer says that I can do the load in 'x' amount of time, but I am free to adjust those times - as long as certain rules are not broken.
One of those is the excuse that "I don't want to go there".

Drop or preload? There is usually a window of time.
Live load or unload, maybe and maybe not.
The thing is, learn the system - and have a good relationship with your DM, dispatcher... whomever.
They are the ones that can tell you your actual times of pick up and delivery.


As for time on any load...
I allow for a 12 hour sleep break, because 10 is never enough.
And I allow for at least 1.5 hours for breaks during my driving time - because I need to eat, pee and whatever, slow down for construction zones, go through heavy rush hour traffic....
...
...

 

Do they not allow split sleeper berth anymore to extend the 14?

 

M

Danny be honest. That 14 wasn't to keep a schedual. It was because it was way to easy to cheat a log book back then lol. I've heard enough old timers talk about the days of the old 10/8 and split sleeper. If I recall correctly you were ODND for 4 hours or more you could legally log that as off duty and stop your clock even if you were in the drivers seat. Kept thinking an old boy pulling a step that was out of NJ told me that. Came up talking about some bridge they move oversize loads over in NY at night.

 

Driver that's been gone since the first HOS rules changes back in 04 or whatever it was.

 

Really? I've used split sleeper several times in the last couple of months. It's still there to extend the 14 as needed.

 

I was driving when the '04 changes took place. I n fact, I was driving at midnight New Years eve when the changes took place. I recall the split sleeper being legal if a min of 2 hrs. I've been off the road a while and have a lot to relearn.