Splitting the Clock on Teams?

I didn't say it was practical, I said it is possible, but really what productivity is being lost? With 2 drivers being able to work, in theory, 13.5 hours each, the 2 hours that each driver would lose is 1 hour of 30 minute breaks each must take and 1.5 hours of overlapping availability, in other words, the 2 hour break each driver would take by splitting the 10 hour break into 2 separate time periods.

 

There are some of us who look at every day as a test. Some days we pass, some days not so much. When we fail, we look at WHY did we fail, and make a change to increase the likelihood of passing in the future.

If I were grading you right now I would be wondering how much ink was left in my red pen.

1. You did not learn the HOS while getting your cdl. I realize cdl training is no where as rigourous as I would like it to be, however you get out what you put in. I train for my company and I have had guys who came from the same school who have very different starting knowledge. The difference is how much the guy wanted to learn. If you had truly learned the HOS it would have been easy to push back against this nonsense before it started.
2. You've had your cdl since June and are on job number 3. This tells me you leap before you look. FFE may have been making you finger print loads, but you should have stuck it out until you were in a position to move on. You moved to a fedex contractor that didn't work out, then moved to another contractor? Screw me once, shame on you, screw me twice, shame on me.
3. When you heard "the boss will fudge what he needs to on the backend" you should have heard "the boss is willing to lie, cheat, and steal to make more money". That means he is willing to screw you if it benifits him. If you are fully aware and accept that risk, so be it. But from the cheap seats you look like a lamb going to the slaughter.
4. You don't seem like you have a plan. You seem to be following the path of least resistance. You are young, so you have a lot of options - despite your checkered work/school history. Look to get into tankers, flatbed or line haul. It may not be an option right now, but get a year with a reputable carrier and your choices improve.
5. Sometimes it's hard to hear you failed - especially from someone you don't know. A lot of the advice you will get on this forum will come with a metaphorical slap upside the head. You may not like it, you may not accept it as justified. Learn what you can from the interaction and move on. You don't need to punch back at everything. It seems that you don't know how to pick your battles. It seems like you punch back over little slights, in doing so you are leaving your chin exposed. Do that enough and you will get knocked the f out.

Do I really KNOW any of this? No. I only know what you have written and I have added my own life experiences to extrapolate out. Take what you will and best of luck, but you need to take control of your life.

 

WINNER. Six back quiet.

 

Yes who knows better about EVERYTHING than the government. I love how the HOS rules assume that insomnia doesn't exist. They also assume that a clock can tell you when you're tired and need to sleep. They also assume that a clock can tell you when you're ready to drive. They also assume that freight live 9 to 5 and that drivers can just make their sleep cycles match the magical world of a 24/7 industry. Government knows best. I'm still driving because I can do things without sleep sometimes. That's it and that's all. 30 minute breaks don't rest me at all. A five minute constipated dump expends more energy than driving 5 minutes across a rcvrs parking lost, yet I don't have to log it as "taking a duty". Government got it all figured out and elogs make it even better with it's militant electronic eye watching my wheels move 3 inches. It's a wonderful world of trucking only made better by daddy government.

 

That's not Daddy Govt. That's more like something else which most of us will not care for.

I myself have issues with the current HOS and I am not even running just yet I know that many hours will be wasted waiting for Mr ELD to clock over to the time to drive. It's not going to be fun. I had 6 hours last night for sleep and good to go. ELD will do everything to make me not go.

 

The problem with trying to run a split sleeper as a team is you need 8 continuous hours in the sleeper. THAT only gets you whatever hours coming back from your 11 and 14, so NOW you drive a few hours and need to park the truck until your team mate gets at least 8 hours in the sleeper. If both drivers are trying to run split 8's, you end up parking the truck for significant periods of time.

It's far better to simply divide the day into 12 hour shifts. That way the truck only needs to park for 30 minute breaks, fueling, piss stops, and doing drop and hooks.

As @x1Heavy said, team drivers need to develop some endurance. You need to get your 11 hours driving done in 12 hours or less, NOT 14. It sounds like the OP's team mate hasn't developed that endurance and is forcing her team mates to compensate because of her shortcomings. It may be the contractor puts up with her because he's having difficulty retaining drivers.

 

If they're trying to get around taking a 30 minute break, then there's usually a waiting time when doing inspections. One driver has to be off the road before their 8 hours is up, but still has to wait for the other driver's break to finish, who then gets to start their inspection. Running without the split you only need two inspections per day instead of 4, which can be performed together in the same time frame. You can also have more flexibility in where you can park, instead of pulling over with one minute left on the side of the road every swap.

I only had to split once as a team in order to make up time lost due to a breakdown by cutting out the 30 minute break. If I ran splits every day, I might be able to squeeze a few minutes extra in the day, but I would also have to deal with my starting and ending times gradually shifting earlier. Saving 20 minutes a day, which is being generous, would end up shifting my clock by 2 hours every week. So every 6 weeks, I'd be on opposite sleep schedules.

 

I will tell you a real important problem for you.

If you are caught using each other's log, FedEx will see you are terminated and won't ever work for FedEx again.

They can be pricks about the issue of falsified logs with teams.

 

And, depending on where you run, you don't have to be pulled over or in an accident to get into trouble. For example, here in the PNW, every time you pass a scale, it takes a picture of the truck AND THE DRIVER, and when you get even a simple level 3, they check to make sure the pictures match your license.

If you're looking awfully feminine in some of those pictures, you are looking at SERIOUS fines, typically well over $1,000.

 

I used to drive 7 1/2 hr, stop for my break take a shower team driver would use that 30-60 min to take shower and get loaded on coffee then I'd go to sleep, and do it all over again.

I rarely ever drove more than 8 hr. My team driver and I had an excellent working agreement. It was his truck and it was a FedEx CC reefer.