Delivery Times/ Night Driving

True the hours are not lost, but as I run long haul I generally try not to have days where I only get 2 - 4 hrs back. It tends to leave me in tough situations.Every day, week and load are different, but I always try to plan to leave myslef plenty of hours coming back each day.

I always know what my hours are for the next 4 days, most of my loads are 2500+ miles so I really need to know what I can do for the next 4.

 

Having only 4 hours coming back 8 days from now can bite you in the hiney. I think having consistent hours coming back makes it easier for load planners and for your own trip planning. That point came home to me when I finished a day with 30 minutes left on my 70, but only 2 hours coming back the next day. I was in the middle of a multi day run. Not enough hours to actually deliver the freight on a wide open drop and hook, and torn between doing pre and post trip and driving two hours to get out of a hell hole I didn't want to be in for two days.

 

Ok... But we are just talking about the same hours... Just available one day sooner or later... What if you didn't get to the site one day because you ran out the seven and could have had 3 more to use but you opted to artificially limit those three days to the next day? You are still stuck either way.... Just one way is a day sooner than necessary...

But again, good info to contemplate.

 

When I was OTR I just seemed to consistently run better by having good hours coming back each day. Load planners appreciate it. Sometimes when getting down to the bone on hours I may need to adjust my schedule to start X hours before midnight (home time) so I could run a full 11/14 with hours coming back in order to make a delivery. For instance, having only 3 hours on my 70 I'll start at 9:00 pm, then at midnight get my roll back hours and never miss a beat.

 

That's what log edits are for lol just joking but not really.

 

Somebody might have covered this and I missed it. When I was OTR and I had extra time, I made sure to deliver with a fresh clock. When your empty, you give planners a lot of options if you have most of your hours available.

 

Run day and night! That's trucking! Some have the ability some dont and the companies will let you decide if you can endure or not. Its plenty of lemons in trucking. The question is can you add the water and sugar to make it sweet.

 

Yep, deliver first thing in the morning so you can get loaded the same day. Does not always work but when it does your ahead of the game.

 

How often is that feasible though? I thought companies basically schedule loads so drivers are close to 11 hours driving every single day?

 

Alot of companies schedule loads at a MPH rate. Company I was with scheduled loads at a 55MPH rate. I would run 62mph depending on how far my trip was.