My experience so far.....................

Which e-log system are you guys on? Do you have Qualcomm? if you do, there's some tricks to maximize your driving hours.

 

Shhh ... which we don't talk about here ... word gets out and they tend to fix those tricks.

 

Nope. The average is 8 hours 45 minutes. Gotta spread those 70 hours over 8 days, not 7.

Used intelligently, the 34 reset can dramatically increase the time you can spend on line 3. Take the following scenario:

You just picked up your load early Thursday morning, fresh off your 10. The receiver is 1500 miles away, and is closed from 2000 Friday to 0800 Monday. You have an open delivery window.

All too often, a driver will see that schedule, and will drive ~400 miles each day, spending the afternoons in the truck stop lounge, complaining that Swift ain't giving him no miles.

A good driver will spend a few minutes looking over the route. He'll see that there's a TA three miles from the 90. He'll bust his butt and get to that TA on Saturday afternoon, and take a 34 at the TA so he'll start with a fresh clock on Monday.

Another reason to do a reset... the planners HATE to figure out recap hours. Say they get a 2500 mile cross country JIT load. Are they going to give it to the driver with 60 hours available, or the one with 15 hours, and getting back 6-12 hours each night?


Or,

 

Personally I would rather be working off recap and not always a 70. If the system sees the 70 then the planners can also mess with you. Try and give you the loads where you have to bust your butt to get it there. Drive 11 and take a 10 and then drive another 11 and take another 10. I would rather just do my little 400 - 450 miles per day. Then again, I am lazy and I have paid my dues out here. Also the system can figure out that if it is 2500 miles load it will know if you can do it or not. If not it will not even offer to you

 

There's only a very small segment of drivers out there who can do more than 70 in 8 days, those are typically LTL drivers who burn through 70 hours in 5 days then blast out an exact 34 and back at it again for 12 more hours before the 8th day for a total of 82 hours in 8 days.

My deal is to run 70 hours in 7 days, not to even it out over 8 days. Get paid every 7 days so try to max out what I can do in the 7 day period this week, 6 days next week then 7 days the next week after that and so on. Recap or full 70 is pretty easy to figure out if one can do 2500 miles or not, need about 50 driving hours, look at delivery time and add up hours today and all recap hours leading to delivery time, if less than 50 cannot do it.

 

Again, as far a the 2500 miles load, the system will not even offer unless it sees that you can do it. Not need to worry.

 

That may be the case with you guys that can pick your own loads, but definitely not for those of us who get loads assigned. I've been preplanned on loads where I'd have to do 700 mile days to get the load there on time. Not going to happen with a 62 MPH company truck.

 

Well which is it? The planners won't give you long loads because you're on recap or they give you loads that are to long for your hours if your on recap?

 

Two completely separate issues.

The planners would prefer to give long loads to those who show the hours available. This told to me by the planners themselves.

The system does not "offer" loads to regular company drivers, nor does it warn the planners that the drivers on recap do NOT have sufficient hours to make a given run.

In a half-asleep attempt to clarify myself, I changed "had to average 70 MPH" into "have to do 700 mile days". Not the best choice of words, given the subject at hand.