Team Driving and hours of service

A 12 and 12 shift works for some. I drive nights, she days.
It has major advantages over solos when running elogs - you effectively never run out of hours - just have to swap logs and go.

We cooked our books this week, left last Sunday pm - 200 miles left to home now, I'm out of my 70 - she has 10 hrs left, 7450 miles run.

The 30 minute break is simply a waste if time for us. 7 hours a week of truck idling, nose picking, wasted time.

Coffee north of Wichita - she can finish this one - I'll nap.

 

Explain how the 30 min break is a waste of time. Except for being inconveint.
If you run 12/12 shift and there is only 11 hours each available to drive in each 12 hour shift, each has an hour to kill .

I do beleive this is the best way to run and I did this when running hard with Old Dominin. We would actually take a 30 min and two 15 min break to keep on the same 12 hour shifts.
The 30 min. break is needed even if it wasn't a law unless you prefer four 15 min breaks.

 

On a perfect day, yes. You're assuming we never have to load, unload, or fuel.

 

I dont live load or unload a lot... but, when I do.. once I am backed into the dock... I go off duty.. usually takes more than 1/2 hour to be loaded or unloaded... so, I get my 1/2 break in...

I only did team for a couple weeks on the last part of training... somethings I liked about it somthings I didn't.

 

It's not the actual loading/unloading that's the problem. It's the time that gets eaten up waiting for paperwork to leave & continue on with your day.

Many shippers/receivers take upwards of 3 hours to get you out the door. That alone carves your 14 hour clock to your 11 hour driving shift, even though you might not log more than 15 minutes of actual duty time. That's still 3 hours for the day that you aren't being paid for. Then you still have to deal with your post trip, possibly fueling... maybe even a 30 minute break if the loading/unloading is done too early (or too late...) in your shift.

Doesn't sound all that bad as a one-off event, but when you project that lost time over the course of a month or a year, it really adds up to a lot of lost income.

 

The 12/12 with another guy (two different households) method is what you describe, I know several that stick to this regimen. Being husband/wife, same household - it doesn't matter, I don't push her to do the same as I and often take over her shift early - she might do 6-8 hours, and I'll do the rest. She's pretty much done with driving, it's hard on us both, so I carry the weight while we're getting the O/O plan in action.

So, when I say the 30 minute break is a waste of time - it really is for us. I'd often drive my full 11 straight through, or stop to grab a sandwich and a coffee somewhere which would only take 15 minutes. She would only stop once to use the bathroom for 10 minutes. Now we get forced into stopping for 30 minutes, often when it is inconvenient to do so. Total of 5 hours wasted time each week for us.

 

I got use to running 11 straight as a team. That is why the 30 minutes is a waste of time. It just gets me tired. Now that I am running single I take a break anytime I get even slightly tired. Not near the time pressure. Teams have to get there in a hurry and sometimes even letting the truck drop below 65 to change drivers seems to be a waste.

Remember that if you log more then 8 hours of drive time a day you will probably run out of hours so you will have to do a reset. That can be done in a 24 hour period.

The single most important thing about team driving is to make sure you are being paid well for it. $200,000 is the least you should split over a year and 350k would be better. Trying to sleep in the back of a moving truck is not like being off. Get paid for it.

And if you are the woman it is your job to keep the truck clean.

 

And how do you do a reset in 24 hours?

Last I checked it was 34 hour to reset.