Recaps, 34 hr reset and the 70 hour limit?

if you are an otr driver and burn your 70 in 5 days you are a moron , you are showing to many hours on duty and wasting your hours . you can average 8.75 hours every day and never run out of hours and 8.5 minimum of those hours should be on the drive line. you can show 5 minutes for a pretrip and 8 minutes for fuel or you can log both at the same time . loading and unloading 5 minutes is plenty . if everything goes right for your week you may run out of hours on day 6 or leave day 7 with a short day but hours from day 1,will come back at midnight . hours cannot be managed where you rarely have to take a reset ,most people do because they have not taken the time to learn how to use recaps or they waste driving hours shown as uneeded on duty time

 

Driving solo I average 165000 miles a year

 

I can show you burning your 70 out will make you more money every time

 

I would guess you are running coast to coast, in an ungoverned truck. I run regional in a 63 mph truck. My first year I hit 150k in a 60 mph truck, but I drove HARD, and I shudder to think of my logs getting audited with our current hps tracking capabilities.

And I cam show ypu how running the recap can make you more money. It all depends on the freight lanes you run and how your pay structure is set. I can make more on a 200 mile day than a 500 mile day with short haul and other accessory pay.

 

I think it is the smart driver who runs their time based on how the freight goes. Depends on the customers and how they are serviced. What good is running recap hours and get a load that MUST deliver in 2 days and is 20 hours away? If the company can't get a repower this is going to be a service failure. I know this is a contentious issue on these forums and I can understand why it would be. I honestly don't think there is a "best" system. Like some much other things in this business, the best answer is (it depends.) Don't lock yourself into a system and try to force your runs into it.

I have never been a fan of the weekly clocks. I understand the history of trucking and understand why the DOT brought forward the HOS rules. However, my largest issue is there is no flexibility. In the case of union, carriers allow the weekly clock to be set by the CBA. In the case of none union carriers allow some give and take so a driver can finish a run. Back a few years before I retired I caused a service failure because of running out of hours and sit at a truck stop for 34 hours before I could deliver, I actually busted my 70 hours by about 90 minutes just getting there. I felt bad because the final was across town and I was stuck. I did offer to allow someone from there to come get the load and park my empty. One of the most powerless feelings you can have is to know a service failure is coming and you can't stop it. Moral of the story is watch those hours but don't lock yourself into a system that can come back to bite you!

 

mostly talking about using to much time on duty instead of saving it for driving time if you are burning 70 hrs in 5 days that's 14 hours a day . it's really impossible to do that driving your using it up on duty time

 

I want to add one more point about running hours. I agree with @Buckeye 60 about wasting hours. What I used to do is stay as loose as I could when it came to my week. Example. If I was delivering in Hazel Pa I knew my next pickup would be a drop&hook at Hershey in Palmyra, just always worked out that way. My company was always pulling loads out of there. If I was running close on hours I would stop somewhere on I 81 and get a 34. If not I picked up and hauled the load. To be honest these loads always had delivery times but were not enforced. if I was say headed to the Hershey mid-America warehouse in Illinois and there was no freight I would drive 6 to 7 hours and stop. If however, the freight was good I hauled butt out there and got empty. This is what I mean by staying flexible and watching how the freight is running. It also helps to have a good relationship with your FM/DM/Dispatcher too.

Once you start driving and have done so for a few years you will get a feel of how this all works and can make these adjustments. You will start seeing time and time again when you deliver where you go next. My best advice to a new driver starting out is taking the time to get to know your FM/DM/Dispatcher and see what is ahead. There is no point in using up your 70 in 6 days getting somewhere just to have to sit for a day waiting to get reloaded.

let me warn ALL you new drivers about something you want to avoid at all costs! Service failures can get you and your company in serious trouble. Some customers fine for missed pickups and deliveries. The best way I know of to get on a load planners (redacted) list is starting to miss these appointments. Once on that list these load planners can make life horrible for you. I was standing in my carriers operations room when a load planner said in a VERY loud voice said driver was not getting anything from him for a while. Different carriers dispatch differently. Mine the load planners were the ones that put the load on you and the FM transmitted said load to your QC. In most operations rooms, the FM/DM is the low man on the totem pole. The politics of that place can make Washington DC look like a boy scout camp.

This is why I am taking the time to write this. Don't lock yourself into a system that causes service failures, in the end, it is YOU the driver that pays for it. Stay flexible unless you are an old pro that knows the freight lanes and how things are going. Otherwise, you are cutting your throat!