Advice for the Noobs...

It's completely "whacked" -- jack.
But certainly no more than those who write the rules.

Although, if not for the inability to stop the clock --- once it's started --- I generally like the new, improved(?) HOS. Especially the re-set feature.
Not too convenient to run hard a couple of days, run out of hours and have to sit for three days to build up enough time to make it a day.

About the same as a re-set though, I reckon.
Personally, I got 'er done in the SAFEST and most convenient manner possible, which didn't always agree with the deck drivin' law-makers. Sorry 'bout that. But
It's twue!
It's twue!

 

How I would do it in my way less than 75mph pumpkin

Goto shipper from the truckstop I assume ya took your 34 restart at. Aim to be there around 20:30, better to take that time getting there then if you get into traffic or get lost or whatever you have an hour extra to get to the shipper and if you are early 9 times out of 10 your load is ready anyway. Spend 30 mins at shipper, get paperwork, find trailer and pre trip trailer. Look at bills and see if I need to scale it or not. for sake of argument this shipper has a scale so I get it all done right there, tandems slid.
Run to Grand Island NE (about 1.5 hrs) go fuel (LOG AS ON DUTY) and grab some food / potty, 30 min stop and off we go again...
Drive down I-80 at 63mph looking at your pretty Orange Truck and watching everyone fly past you like like they are running from a tornado.
Look at that truck that rolled over and wonder if he passed you earlier, then worry if he made it for a while, listen on CB for info on that trucker, heart attack? 4-wheeler, supertrucker? Turn off CB as people start talking about not wearing any panties and jam out to the XM.
Get close to the WY boarder and find a rest area to go potty, log 15 mins, stretch and walk around truck with hammer checking tires and that alls still looking in good order.
Continue on down the road, turn on CB at Cheyenne and ask how the weather is on the mountain, get no reply (usually) wish others would tell you like you will tell them whats going on down the road, turn off CB as people start talking about not wearing any panties.
Drive to exit 173 Wamsutter WY and pull into loves, its now late morning, plenty of spaces to grab. Take time getting into parking space watching out for impatient truckers who don't give a #### that you care about not tearing anything up while backing. Do post trip on truck and trailer, avoiding pee bottles, finish out log (11 hrs 650ish miles) and then go into the loves and get food. Read a magazine for a while and goto bed..... *ZzzZzZz*

Get up at about 6pm and go eat and pee etc, do pre trip and get new log page going, set off again. head on over to evanston wy and stop at the pilot, send message to customer service with Qualcomm to see if I can deliver early, then head off down the road again and wait for the little beep for a yes or no. Get to Ogden and pull into pilot. Read Qualcomm, then either deliver or wait it out here. Lots of time to spare. Its about 2am Wed.

If you have to wait you will save a lot of hours by not working them and be taking a rolling restart anyway if you dont get a 34.

Thats about how I would do that load.




I think the point here is what are your priorities?

if its, waste time at the beginning of the load because you have lots of time, then eat at every truck stop restaurant along the way, making the time up by falsifying logs then you have a recipe for disaster.

If you are out there to make money and be safe, log it how it happens, be legal, get as close to the drop as soon as you can, then if there are problems along the way you have lots of time to take your time, rushing leads to carelessness. Plus, they might just let you drop early and you can get a new load sooner. More loads = more miles = more money.

Don't be a supertrucker and log pretrips but not actually do it, our trucks get a lot of wear and tear, you need to be aware of anything thats wrong with your vehicle. these are the guys you see at the weigh stations getting a thorough inspection and also the ones you hear on the CB talking about all the tickets that bad DOT guy gave you. The way I look at that is I am glad they got a ticket because they could have found out something was wrong on the road when they got into a wreck and killed that family.

In my experience at Schneider, if you find something wrong and call the hotline, you get it fixed no questions asked. If you get a load with too much time on it, you can call and see if you can drop early or relay, sometimes you cant, but a lot of times you can.
My company takes a very hard line against logging violations etc, sometimes you can be dispatched something impossible, my advice on this is to call your dispatcher, they will take it off you if you tell them you cant do it because of HOS. But call them as soon as you know you wont make it, the more time to figure something else out the better. Really this comes down to Trip Planning, Do a good trip plan and you will be able to tell them before you even move for that load, if you don't trip plan, or you just wait to do it you are making things harder for both you and your dispatcher!

Thanks All!

Alias