I wonder, do the planners understand HOS?

Sometimes you have to wonder. I'm in Houston and have a load coming in that I'm going to drop in Bessemer Alabama, 651 miles total. Then they want me to hook a trailer there tomorrow after my break and deliver it Friday morning in Chicago. 669 miles total! The best I've ever done in a day was 678 and that was running I-10 out in West Texas. So I just laugh and tell them I'll do my best but go ahead and expect a call tomorrow morning cause I can't do that. Here is the thing, I get that they want the load delivered and I understand that some series of events have conspired to make this load tight but why put it on me? Surely they know I can't legally do that. Not that they would push me to drive illegal but all this is unnecessary. The load will not deliver Friday morning unless another driver relays me. Expecting me to deliver just south of Cicero and be able to get back out is crazy. Perhaps I could make the delivery, just barely, but there is no way I can get out of Chicago and to a safe haven.

So the plan should either be a relay or a Saturday delivery and if the customer can't do Saturday then Monday because this driver cannot make it happen. It just cracks me up how casual they were when they called me. "Yeah, just run up there and deliver it, no problem." Every driver knows that Chicago has traffic. Couple that with the fact that any delay in unloading could start to push into my 14 and this load has trouble written all over it.

Let this be a lesson to you rookies, sometimes they simply forget about this little thing called a logbook. So what I am going to do is take the load to Gary, park and then call and tell them I am out of hours and that I'm tired and don't feel safe. You know all the buzz words. Let them figure it out tomorrow, I tried to warn them. Then either they will relay it or pay me a bunch of layover. Either way I don't care, there is a yummy sub shop just behind the TA in Gary, lol.

 

Nah, they won't blame me after 600 miles I have every right to be tired.

I love it when they tell me that, "do your best"....it's like, "sure thing, I'll give it 110%!", lol!