Does running hard make any difference?

Sometimes you have to run hard to get load delivered ontime and other times you will have to much time on a load. Most of the time arriving early wont do you any good as for unloading you. But every once and awhile they will take ya early. Reefer loads almost never unload early.

 

At most of the typical "mega carrier" that most new drivers will get their start, there will rarely be weeks where "running hard" is an option, as you will be confined to available loads assigned to you, as you are in competition with far more drivers (power assets) then they need to meet customer demands.

That said, with experience, you will find [and have as an option] some segments and "sweet jobs" that allow you to "work less and make more", but these positions in reality are far and few between. So, then it comes down to competing with other fellow drivers, and to be sure at the larger outfits, you are competing with other drivers to get the best loads, and get loaded faster. So, for the most part, in most positions, being "top producer" will help insure you remain "top producer" next quarter

 

Depends on the company. 1500 miles run is 3 days. 500/miles a day. Traffic, weather and drivers work ethic can delay and cause the load to be late. There isn't much time "relax" it's usually run run and get there. If you're lucky, you get at the customer early and relax and sleep in until they knock on your door.

Some company give you way to much time and the driver sit in a truck stop until the appointment time.

The "run hard" term can mean many things. The drivers runs hard and run down his 11 hours to 0. The driver does 8/2 splits and keeps going. He runs midnights shift to beat traffic. Gets to the customer and sleep overnight instead of a truck stop so he won't waste time.

You can burn out really fast doing it and I do it once in awhile with enough coffee.

 

Honestly bro there are so many variables in answering your question that it's almost impossible. It depends on the company, on the freight, what you're tuggin, time of year, etc. I've never worked for a mega, but from what I gather when freight slows down they spread out the loads by giving you forever to get from shipper to receiver. A lot depends on your track record as well...when I first started out my dispatch would give me 2-3 days to go 600 miles but as I 'proved myself' (just did my job, not that hard) I got that down to a day-ish. I run a lot of load board freight now, and it's pretty standard that when I call on a load I'm told when it picks up and when it delivers. While I'm on the phone I'm figuring out what that means time-wise and if the delivery time is too far out I counter with an adjusted delivery date, if that doesn't work I just find a different load. I run reefer freight and that's typically time-sensitive so it usually works out ok for me maximizing my time away from home.

 

I think one of my dispatchers must have used to work for Greyhound. He dispatches my loads for an average travel time at the full legal speed limit.
So a delivery 400 Kms away only takes four hours at 100 km/hr. But a fully loaded 140,000 lbs super b train only averages 84 km/h counting all the various towns I go through, plus stop signs, traffic lights, etc. About 45 mins longer than he figures, plus he thinks you are fully loaded or unloaded the exact split second that you arrive and are ready for your next dispatch.
But I just ignore what ever times he arranges and just phone the customers myself.

 

500 miles per day allows plenty of relax time, even running at 62 - and even for me.
That would be around a 10.5 hour work day on days that you only drive.

You can't run that many miles per day if you want to avoid taking a 34. Not going 62.

Some loads push your time to deliver on time, but most loads have enough time built in so that you can plan it any way you want.
I tend to take the latter because I don't like taking a 34.
And some loads just have way too much time before delivery. If it is a drop or FCFS live unload you could probably deliver any time you get there, but if it is a scheduled live unload you might be sitting for some time.

 

Carriers look at eLogs and they have data mining capability to gather any amount of data they care to. Mostly, when push comes to shove, they look at how many of your available hours you might typically drive in a day, on average while en route, wether you need to run them to not to make delivery appointment .

Consider ...
Driver A, B and C averages 7.3 - 7.8 hours a day (available drive hours) and barely makes appointment (any weather towards the end of the load and they might have missed appointment)

Driver D average 10.2 hours a day (available drive hours), then sits and relaxes

A cross country load with 3,000 miles on it and 5 day delivery appointment comes up, and it's February. Who do you you think will get the load?

You have to (need to) run when you can run. Never know when weather or break-downs are going to set in. Get there or close, then relax.

 

I make about 10 stops a day. I have a dispatcher that bases times off of google maps times. Does not account for slow truck, rush hour traffic, bad weather, unloading, waiting for recievers, nothing. Then he gets mad if im late or come back without finishing my deloveries because I ran out of hours.

 

While I agree with what the Texan has to say; You have to consider what most of the loads are, at most mega crap companies.

Most mega companies have a average length of haul in the 400 mile range. More and more longer loads are thrown on the rails at a cheaper cost. And I am sure some idiot will chime in here and say he just got a 2500mile load at 'mega X' company and he does them all the time. Whatever, BS exists in the trucking world. With a 400 mile (on the average) you think you could "run hard" get it there that day and they would unload your right away and be on to your next load right away. That is not the case. The customers in trucking like to only work at a set schedule in most cases. You work to satisfy the customer. One likes to load/unload in the morning. One only loads/unloads in the afternoon. One loads/unloads between 1:00 an 3:00pm.

Since most of the truckload is paid by the mile no one cares how this loading schedule works for the driver. It costs no one anything to think about the driver's time; so the drivers time is wasted. The result is dock workers get a set schedule, good hourly pay, benefits, time off and good home time. The driver has to accommodate the customer.

Most often in mega crap truckload the driver waits till late morning for the office staff to move ### and plan a load. Then hustle to the shipper. Wait for the shipper to pick, palletize, and load the trailer sometime before quitting time at 4:20pm. Then bust ### and make up for everybody else to get the load 400 miles down the road to shipper that claims they need it a 4:00am the next day. At 4:00am everybody is screwing the pooch and the driver is lucky to get out of there at 8:00am if not later.

The result is the driver has done 2 days of work for 400miles pay and will not get a load planed again until the following day late in the morning.