Hours of service questions and answers

No not being funny Dick, the card is equal to the letter and I'm saying for me..... I only want to be involved with the truck for minimum amt. of time needed to generate the revenue needed. 14 is 14 and 70 is 70 and that's the max I'm willing to comit to the truck. If I have to exceed the 70 with the card to push the same 70 just to make a check then I need a new job / career. I compare my hrs. salary to the avg. joe ( 2080 hrs / yr. # $19.98 hr / U.S. median ) and obviously the more hrs invested then the less revenue per hr. I tend to compromise a lot whereas if I can't get the revenue then I'll lessen the hrs. worked as my compensation, same as I use skills and responsibility required vs. pay. Someone recently tried to offer me .32 cpm for liquid hazmat loads. Not a chance ! Why take that when you can pull harmless beer on a drop and hook for .32 ?


To me, a perfect package would be a 12 /12 split with the working 12 anyway you want it / need it but I understand that shipper waiting time would eat that all to hell. So what's the answer?

Probably two groups of drivers, one to pre-load and one to run the linehaul much like the freight boys have.........

 

Pre loaded trailers, drop, hook, and run. I've always found that to work just fine. Arrow did some of that. Have the local guys run trailers between a factory down the road and the yard. Lot of that down on the border, Larado, Calexico. Shippers can take as long as they want and just call when they have a load ready, drivers are in and out, everybody's happy.

 

When i first started, i ran into one of the guys in my orientation class at the terminal in a Wal-Mart DC a week later. And he said something along the same lines, "...after doing the math, i'm only making $3.00 an hour (or whatever)...". But you cant figure it. You only want to be in the truck the bare minimum, and i dont blame ya. But you driving local or OTR? i'm guessing the latter. And let me tell ya....when i'm away from home...i'm working. if i'm out 7 days before i go home, i've been working 168 hours. Its like going on a family vacation. But the hubby gets a phone call whiling hiking in Hawaii from work. Well, now he's working....but also on vacation.

and i dont care if i have the card or letter or not. If i park the truck after picking up a load, and stop for an hour for lunch...i'm on line 1. period. You may be thinking that card/letter actually allows you to extend your 14 hr working clock, but it doesn't. Any company who uses one might use that as a trick to get by a DOT inspection that actually has a driver having "lunch" when actually working. Dunno if i explained that the way i wanted, but basicly that letter/card doesnt allow a driver to work 15 hrs a day, or 77 hours in 8 days....

 

I would rather run 14 hours a day and do the 34 reset then screw around with the 8.5 hour days. Why strech out the work get it done, get back home.

I understand some guys just don't want to work that hard thats fine by me, just more work for me. Nothing without a time stamp counts in my world. Just like mile across a large city like Los Angeles don't count either.

 

So it works for you. Great. Every driver needs to use the hours of service in such a way that allows them to work MOST EFFICIENTLY based on the kind of work their company is giving them. If I was driving a day cab five days a week, I'd blow out the hours, no problem. As it is, I can roll 11 hours and the next day will be a 3 hour day because I'm right there to unload in the morning and dispatch drops the ball on the reload. It's more broadly efficient for me to drive 7 hours on day one, 2 hours on day two to get to the unload, and then the next two to the next shipper. My job (and a lot of folks' jobs) just aren't built to get the driver home every weekend. Yeah, that sucks, but it's the way it is, and nobody can preach "run hard, run home" when it just isn't possible.

When the office has their junk sorted out, I can run 8-9 hours a day and work for 2-3 weeks straight and maximize the number of miles I can get. Does the office do this often? No. But I know how to milk it when it comes.

I'm looking out for the kind of work that lets me take the weekends at home (or even nights at home) but you know what? That means taking a job from somebody just like you.

 

^^^^ Don't think of it as taking someones job Saienga, I have one of those jobs you are talking about and we've had two openings come up recently. So don't think along those lines. I think of your situation, or others like you describe, as enabling a poor and ineffective management team to keep benefiting from your reluctance of firing them and going to work for a company that knows what they're doing. I know this because I've been there (read some of my older posts) and I got out and into a better place.

I remember feeling much the same way as you but, now I average between 3200 to 3600 miles per week, home usually twice throughout the week and do my resets at home. No it's not dedicated and each week is different. Things don't always work in my favor but I now know what it is like to work for a dispatcher that knows what he is doing and it is a world of difference. If I had to go back to some of the ones I used to work for- I'd be able to tell just how lazy they are, not the other way around.

So please don't fit yourself into working around someone else's incompetence. Instead, work now as if you already have that job your looking for and recognize the dolts around you who keep f*#king it up! When you do fire them you'll have the practice and know how to run for a group of guys who are as good on their end as you are on yours.

That said, I'll try to also mention something about this thread's topic:

Before I ever saw LogsRus's post here I never worried too much about splitting my sleeper. I'm now thankful to her helpful posts because I split all of the time and it's made me much more productive than I ever thought I'd be. Even against my company's advice, I worked hard to learn this sleeper rule inside and out until I became a driver that does when others couldn't. It has helped me rise upon the ranks to become an "above average" employee with the special recognition that we all feel we deserve. Knowing the split sleeper rule and not being afraid to run on a recap has allowed me to earn more money and more respect for what I do. I highly recommend it.

Thanks Logs!

 

Well first off I don't drive a day cab, second taking a job from someone like me, I don't think so. But there are jobs available they become available for a variety of reasons. They are for the asking for the most part.

Even when I ran OTR I always delivered early and very rarely had to wait for my next load, most dispatchers take care of the drivers that hustle, and the one who don't wait for loads. And even coast to coast getting back by the house is a priority to me always has been always will be. There are a variety of ways that assist me with that endeavor none of them include hang out at Flying J.

Your at 3 year experience thats what about 300,000 miles, you surely know more on how to make money with a truck than someone with over 3 million miles.Give me a brake your still a apprentice for 200K more miles.

 

Man, you totally misread me.

Your way works for you. There wasn't any sarcasm implied.

What I was saying is that running my balls off, in my situation, is a total waste of effort. That was a response to your incredulity about why anybody would want to balance out their hours to run the same amount every day. It's just not right to think that a blanket statement can be made about how best to use the hours.

As far as the "taking the job" bit, I had a feeling you'd read into that the way you did, and frankly, I don't know why I didn't edit myself before I posted. The point of that statement was that cushy jobs are, by and large, taken. Especially in Southern California, which is why I moved the hell out of there. So I was mildly irked at your (any many others) attitude that implies that if a driver's at a job where he can't max out his hours in a week, he's too dumb to find a good job. My counter point was that the people that have high productivity work need to leave it before it becomes available. Since you're in that class of boomers, you've got to get out of my way before I get a job like yours, or I have to take your job from you.

As far as your last bit...I won't be baited. I wasn't telling you how to make money doing your job. You can feel superior because you have more miles, and that's your prerogative. I'm not going to get in a pissing match with you about who's smarter, that absolutely wasn't my point.

My point: Different strokes for different folks. The way the HOS work for you aren't the way they work for me. I'm not nor did I ever recommend that you do your job differently, I was pointing out that your assumption about the way we do our job (Me & DickJones in this case) wasn't realistic.

 

Py-yow...... and well said. run ur own game and do what works 4 u !

 

May be something you can do. But many of the guys that are running regional type loads and long otr loads are basically expected and planned by their load planners for maximum hours. Not social 8.75 days.