New HOS....yep

Gotcha. Unfortunately there are some who have been convinced by their employer that resets are required.

 

Yup! Absolutely. And I will have NO PROBLEM making that happen anyways.

 

Unless you're on a trip >400mi.

 

I read a few posts from drivers that said they would set their alarms to take the thirty minutes off at like four hours after they started work and get it over with so they could be free to drive the rest of the eleven hours. I was just wondering if it was really that much of a hassle to maybe actually stop and get something to eat, I mean, I don't know of any other workers in the world that actually hate the idea of maybe eating lunch.

 

If they stop at 4 hours and take a 30 minute break they will have 9 1/2 hours left on their 14 . They could end up being required to take another break after 8 hours .
I would not stop that early . There might be another unexpected stop later the break could be worked into like getting a tire blow out and log sleeper waiting for road service .

 

The 30-min break requirement only relates to the 11 driving hours not the 14-hr duty clock. The strategy of 3+ hours of driving before a 30-min break means you're "good to go" until running out of driving hours for the day. (There is no break requirement for on-duty time.)

The bad news scenarios for 30-min break rule occur whenever you hit three or more hours of non-driving time within a 14-hr duty cycle. Under these scenarios you will run out of hours on the 14-hr clock and have to "park it" for a 10-hr break BEFORE driving a full 11-hrs. (A mandatory break reduces the available drive time in these scenarios by an additional 30-min.) Sure, proper planning means it won't be an everyday deal, but like that last bottomless pothole, you'll know when you hit it.

 

That silly little 30 minute break thing ain't no big deal to me- and probably most of us on here. But the restart thing is what I am so wary of- because of how things run in my division specifically. Running recap is near impossible, and will most definitely lead to low number of loads and low miles if a Friday to Sunday restart is not obtained each weekend. Now, I know that a lot of the guys in the US. RAT, and LNG divs do not really mind running recap- in fact it is usually a very good week for them when they do so. I may be unique, I dunno... How about you nc_rider?? Could you do your runs on recap??

 

I probably could, but would possibly take a hit money wise. With a full clock the way we are dispatched will make you scratch your head....I could only imagine how it would be on recap! My problem would be hours gained at the beginning of the week since we don't work Sat and Sun with the only exception being possibly getting home real eay Sat morning. With that being said, the 30 min deal could present a problem some times when I am bouncing between stops in a city like Wilmington or Charleston that has very little parking. A lot if the places we go are small and sitting there for 30 mins extra isn't always gonna be an option. I guess we will see how it goes next week!

 

I doubt that you running the local stuff ever hit 70 hours in a week. Back in the day I ran a lot of local freight. I would never get close to hit my 70. And all we did was run recap. Since you load and unload so many times. 30 min. break will never be an issue.

I'll run recap allotted time by choice. There is a little trick to running recap always tried to average your days out. Here's an example Friday I loaded the North Carolina going to North Dakota. Every day on the way up there I would drive around 400 mile that way the following week I get these in hours back every day. Instead of driving 600 miles one day and 300 the next. Basically what I'm saying is if you have a load that's 800 miles and two days to get thereI will break it up and do 400 each day. Some guys will load and run 200 miles an call it a day because tomorrow all I have to do is drive. Then drive 600 and shut down to unload the morning. Consistency is the key to running a recap. That is the way I did it for over 25 years. Just my two cents, do it anyway that works for you.

 

That actually makes a lot of sense. As far as the 70 goes, if I log it the way most people would and just show about 5 or 10 minutes at each stop and go on duty right before I leave for the day, I probably would have a good amount of hours left. If I log it the way the DOT says to, then I would be well in the 60 hour range by the end of the week. It's really hard to explain, but the way we are ran sometimes is borderline insane!

Just an example: On Tuesday night I stayed at the Flying J near Burlington, NC (I was headed back to Weyerhaeuser, appr 1hr 45 mins away). I got there at 4:20pm (with 20 mins left on my 14), fueled, parked, showered, ate ect. I didn't find out where my Wednesday load was going till 9:30 or so. I needed to haul ### as soon as my 10 was up. I slept about 4 1/2 hours and got up about 2:15am. I pre-tripped and left about 2:40am. I got to Weyerhaeuser about 4:30, dropped my trailer, strapped my load, hooked up and headed out. From there I had 5 stops and around 250 loaded miles but had to go right into Myrtle Beach in the middle of the day (traffic galore!!). I had a preplan to pick up at Nucor in Darlington SC at 2pm....that wasn't happening! I had the time changed and got there just before 4:00pm. By the time I was loaded and secured it was around 5:30 (I had the wrong pickup # when I got there so I had to get that taken care of). So now I worked almost 14 hrs Tuesday of which I was on duty around 12 or so, and 15 hours Wednesday which I was on duty most of. All of this with about 4 hours sleep in between days! It tends to add up quick! Now granted it isn't always like this, but I'm worried that it could end up this way!