HOS Rules for team drivers

Right now just worry about understanding the rules. Don't try and preplan your days when you haven't even started driving yet. You don't know how your company will run you, and that makes a difference.

Some people run 12/12 shifts, but what happens when you get all deliveries and pick ups in one of those shifts, and one driver ends up sitting 6 hours a day waiting for the customers to do their thing and the other driver ends up driving 11 hours? One driver is out of hours after six days and the other driver has a half full clock.

The possibilities are endless, you don't know what you are getting into, just wait and see what happens, and then learn to plan your clocks around what your new company gives you. Pay attention to both clocks and make sure that you aren't running one down way more than the other, and think things through before you jump in and screw yourselves up.

 

Thanks for all the advice. as far as day/night......I am more of the night person and night driver. As far as who is in the driver seat.....got that one covered also. we have been married for a few years and have learned how to work together. We understand the BASIC rules and we do have some trucker friends with experience if we have questions that need to be answered "NOW" (in trouble) but most of them are solo drivers. so when it comes to team rules I already know they don't know.

 

This is true. You never want to have a big imbalance of hours between drivers. If it gets bad enough the driver with shorter hours can start doing 10 hour shifts, just enough for the driver with plenty of hours to get a full 10 in the sleeper berth and then pull a 12-14 hour shift to maximize hours.

If you aren't on a dedicated account imbalanced hours will happen. It may eventually mean you might need to park the truck for a couple hours if the person short on their hours runs out of 70 before 10 hours is up. If that happens let dispatch know WELL in advance so they have an option to repower the load (let another team pick it up) if it means you will be late.

 

Thank you. I liked the "what to do, if" which helps me think ahead. It gives me some knowledge of what to do "if/when"...,plus it lets me know what question to ask when we get to the company.