10, 14, 24 hours

10=the required consecutive number of hours you have to take off. You can drive no more than 11.

14= the window of time that you can drive after starting. Starting for example at 0400 means no more driving after 1800 without taking your 10 (see above).

24=the number of hours in a day.

 

You ever have one of thise nights where you just cant sleep?? Well it happens on the road to sometimes, just because your "off-duty" dont mean you got any sleep. Sometimes a fella has to learn how to keep awake... Maybe that means stop and run circles around your truck every hour or 2, or extra coffee and cigaretts, or maybe driving with the heater off and window down in the winter.

Does it still happen with e-logs? Yep. Is it safe? Most the time, No it's not. Have I done it? Yep. Am I proud of it? HELL NO!!! Will I do it again? I hope I dont ever need to, but probably.

 

Some of us are just wired different too, maybe i need 8 hrs of sleep every 24 hrs, but personally i struggle to sleep more than 5 hrs consecutively, 4 is a norm for me, so might sleep say 2am to 6am, then around 2pm to 5pm need a nap.

It varies seasonally, and with how hard ive worked my body that day.

Bottom line, i dont drive tired and the logbook is always legal when i start driving

 

It can get bad. It’s a different kind of endurance. On this, you’re not moving. Tougher to keep brain going when fatigued. Ive had my eye sight just go black. Adrenaline got it going. Knew I had to pull over. No matter the load. Get out and walk around the truck helps a bunch.

The big thing is being tied to that clock. You’re supposed to sleep when it says so. Just doesn’t work well.
I loved doing paper logs. Number one rule doing paper. Don’t drive tired. You rest. Then make the log work for you.
Can’t tell you the number of times. I had to drive all night. That last hour in the daylight morning. I was killing myself.

Reefer is where this happens the most. Why I call it reefer madness.
I do dry van now. Yes it’s 24 hours. Yes elogs. But not insane like Reefer.

 

My company just dispatched me on two more loads. I had to call and remind them to check my ELD. I'm out of hours. They are not even looking at how may hours I can work. They can see my ELD anytime they want to looks and see I only had 4:47 available on my 70 hour clock, but they dispatched me on about 700 miles of loads

 

I simply don't drive if I am unable to get the sleep and rest needed to be safe. I do sometimes drive more at night than I would prefer. But, not if I am too tired or fatigued and if I get drowsy, I WILL stop and at least catch a nap. Doesn't matter when it is, what my clock looks like or what the load demands are.
It is however, my responsibility to get rest and sleep. If I stay up too late reading and commenting in our wonderful forum here, knowing I need sleep before I begin driving again, I have not met my responsibilities.

 

Because of the split sleeper, I have many times worked much longer than 14 hours. I dont sleep when I get stuck at a shipper or receiver for 6 or more hours. I consider that "working" since I'm not on my free time.

 

I average 7+ hrs sleep a night on the road. Sometimes a situation comes up where I have to drive late and deliver early… but I get my rest when I can.
When job shopping, make this a question you ask. I haul specialized refrigerated pharmaceuticals now so those companies are almost always 9-5 type places. But when I hauled food for Magnum, it was rare I didn’t get my proper rest. Now I adjusted my sleep times a lot but it was rare that I ran all night. You’ll learn to sleep when you can. Get some experience and don’t hit anything and you can find a job that fits the schedule you like.

 

Nah I get 5hrs sleep minimum now. (Prefer 8 but sometimes the ol ignorantnet keeps me up)
I was at the end of my first year of driving, new company. They were doing that wait all day for a load then expect me to drive all night. I got two hours of sleep and figured I’d run it.
I’m cruising through AR at 60-70mph and I FEEL fine for the most part. Got enough caffeine in me to kill an elephant.
Don’t really feel tired but my eyes are dry for some reason.

turns out I nodded off wake up going into a 30mph curve at 60+ felt the truck stand up on one set of wheels. Got it sat down hit the gravel shoulder and slid 300 ft to a stop.
Flashers on a limped to the next pull off spot and went to bed.
It was by the grace of god I didn’t hurt anyone or anything. I could have died or killed someone.

Do not drive tired. Send a message on the peoplenet. It’s illegal for them to coerce you to drive when you don’t feel it’s safe.