Starting soon with SNI. Tips/Warnings?

Oh, yes they're on duty for that.

For the two weeks at an OC, they go on duty at 0700, off duty for lunch, then back on until they get on the bus back to the hotel. Personally, I think they should be going on duty as soon as they step foot on the bus and shouldn't go off duty until stepping off the bus back at the hotel, but I was told to keep my views to myself on that point. So call it 0700-1600, M-F, plus 5 hours on Saturday, which is about 50 hours. The CDL class may log more hours in the week. I do think they get paid more than $10/hr, so a figure of $800 a week doesn't sound off, just the 80 hours part.

Back in the AOBR age, the trainees would finish midday Saturday and I would grab them, do mutuals and a grocery store run off duty, then head out on Sunday running recaps. This meant that at some point on Monday or Tuesday I would need them to log a couple hours of sleeper berth so their 70 started matching up with mine. I always treated it as "their time", and they could use their phone or #### chat or nap or whatever. Before I 'required' them to do work, it was back on line 4. In my mind it was better for them to experience running recaps and get an extra day on the truck than in a hotel room. Plus it also made me more money. With ELDs and our dispatch software smart drivers run hard and take resets, so now their 70 isn't really an issue. I also don't care as much about trying to impart the possibility of cheating the log book, as it's generally not worth the effort anymore.

 

OTR drivers run a 70 hour clock every week. After 70 hours you have to have a 34 hour reset to get a full 70 back, otherwise you run recaps.

 

There are 4 basic rules to the Hours Of Service (HOS) that govern when/how a driver can work 11/14/70/8.

• 11 hour rule states that following 10 consecutive hours off duty, a driver may drive up to a total of 11 hours.
• 14 hour rule states that after coming on duty, a driver cannot DRIVE past the 14th CONSECUTIVE hour. A driver can continue to work, they just cannot drive a CMV on a public roadway. In general, a driver doesn't want to start his 14 until he absolutely has to, because once the driver logs on duty, the 14 hour clock starts and nothing can stop it (except split logging, which we'll discuss at a later time)
• 70 hour rule states that a driver cannot DRIVE after the 70th hour of work in the last 8 days (or 60 in 7). A driver may continue to work, but cannot drive a CMV on a public roadway. Work is defined as any and all compensated work - pretrips, fueling, interacting with customers, etc. It also means all side hustles - get paid for playing trombone in a wedding band? That's ON DUTY, NOT DRIVING - aka line 4. If the driver chooses, he can log any combination of off duty and sleeper berth for 34 consecutive hours to reset the 70 hour clock.
• 8 hour rule says a driver cannot drive more than a total of 8 hours from his last 30 consecutive minutes not on the drive line. It sounds convoluted in a written form, but it doesn't really impact anything anymore, just be sure to get into yard move when at a customer.

Understanding and using the HOS to your advantage is key to making driving profitable.

 

Yup

IF you go with SNI they will go into that with you and try and make it make sense.

Only tip I have for you is when learning to back they are going to throw mental gymnastics at you to try and explain it. One thing that will help simplify most of it. To get the back of the trailer going the direction you need it, turn the bottom of the steering wheel in that direction. Every trainer I met there was trying to do this whole "you need the cab going this way if you need to go that way" or sum such. Then my favorite was "where's your danger" which was always left to perspective of the driver. day 1 I was cutting in close to a trailer in the yard on the driver side maybe 2 inches. If got the trailer rocking from braking (learning curve) I'd had tapped the other trailer. The trainer had me walk back and asked where my danger was........in their mind it was the trailer on passenger side.... which was a good 3-4 feet away from the corner of the trailer. We never did see eye to eye on that silliness.

 

Yeah, one, don't EVER bash the Green Bay Packers. I used to hate going to Green Bay when they lost. Pumpkin been around a long time, you made the right choice.

 

You would fall behind schedule. Driving team is a lot of work. That’s why I stopped being a trainer back then. It’s was not fun and lots of pressure to run that 5,000-6,000 miles a week. Companies sell the big money but don’t explain how the truck can only stop about 2 hours per day or you fall behind schedule. We could do 65MPH they have faster speeds limits today so maybe if truck could do 70mph it would be a little easier.

 

Did they add the alley dock to training? When i went to the academy a couple years all we did was 45's. Was in Green Bay for a PM and saw the students doing 90's.