Managing the 70 hour rule various strategies

The key is to be logged off-duty during that three hours at the shipper. Now when you take eight in the sleeper you have your ten.

 

Lost do you take your last remaining hour of the 14 as a break in the middle of your 11 hours of driving or go off duty at the end? Do you know what I mean?

I think the key is to have as little down time at the shipper because driving all of your remaining 14, up to 11, is a safety issue?!

 

I would say many drivers are delivering load maybe every other day or possibly every 3 days. It depends on the miles. HOwever it also depends on their planning of the load/time it delivers. Unfortunately the days you load/unlaod if held up this does take your "free" time however maybe you don't need to drive the full 11 either? EAch load is different but yeah drivers should be able to give better advice./opinions of how often they don't get a break

 

If there is ONE THING i will buy before I go solo, will be the Drivers Daily Log . Google it, and you can download a free trial copy for 30 days. Not trying to advertise it, but from what i read, it tracks your 11 and 14hr limits, how many hours you have available before you hit the 70/8 rule.

Well worth the $100 to double check your work, and might just prevent a ticket if it finds you logged something wrong/illegal.

 

Many of our drivers use Drivers daily log. I don't need it as I only have a few bad logs a year. (pretty much fuel violation. )My guess is sometimes the clocks don't match. I may go over a minute or start a few early but seems like 1 or 2 a year show up wrong.

 

Only $50 if you don't need the full version

 

I was thinking along the same lines when I was in school... I would get drivers daily logs and be safe. But when i was with my trainer, he decided to get it and we used it to run team together. I decided I didn't much like it after all. He spent more time trying to figure it out then just doing it the old way. I wasn't too impressed. When you are just learning who needs another pain in the ##* peice of software that you are now fighting with.

I may try it in the future, I dunno...

 

Driving and logging is more an art than a science. There are a lot of variables. Sometimes you'll have a load with lots of miles and early delivery is OK. In this case, I'm driving as many miles as legally possible. Other times you'll have a load which has a delivery time way later than the time it takes to get there---those days you can relax and fit in excercise, reading, laundry, etc. Then there are those days where you have 3 deliveries in one day. Sometimes you have control and sometimes you don't.

 

I drove back in 1999 & 2000, so I was under the old rules. Now that my hubby is driving, I am finally starting to understand the new rules. Most of his loads take at least two days, so he doesn't usually use up the full 14 hours, and rarely uses his full 11 hours, unless time is a bit tight. That doesn't happen very often. He usually has enough time to run 8 to 10 hours a day and make the delivery time.

Yes, driving 11 hours can be a bit tiring, but you don't run for 11 hours sold, you take a break every few hours - restrooms, beverage, food, fuel, etc, - it is doable without totally wiping you out. Night time can be a bit more tiring, unless you are a night owl. You are also suppose to be checking your tires and a few other things every so often during the day anyway. It's been a few years for me, so I don't remember all of it!