Choice program on the West Coast - from company driver to IC

Any driver, (That can), can go to Line 5 as long as the following applies;
1) NOT LADEN (Meaning; Not assigned a load, either Active or preassigned.
2) NOT ASSIGNED A TRAILING UNIT; Can not have a trialing unit assigned to the truck.
3) OFF DUTY DRIVING WITHIN YOUR 14 HOUR PERIOD; Can not continue to drive off duty after you 14 hour has expired.

These are the only three conditions that have to be meet to keep DOT Compliance, (NO COMPANY POLICY SUPERSEDES THE LAW)
Now; I have gone home, and the next day after a 10hr break (resetting my clock), have gone directly to (Off Duty Driving), and drove to the PeterBilt Fac to get my truck repaired, and my 14 hour clock stays the same, and does not start counting down, but you still can not drive over 14 hours on Line 5, so says DOT.
And that is the Jest of it, strait up...

 

So, if I understand correctly (this doesn't apply to me as a company driver, but I like to understand things), you can't drive a CMV at all after your 14 hours, but if you take a 10, you can drive a CMV after without starting your 14 hour clock. The 'after a 10' part makes sense to me, but I'm still having trouble grasping the why of the 'after 14' part. You're off duty, so why can't you drive? You can drive your personal vehicle, i.e. 4-wheeler; why not your truck if that's what you have available? Rhetorical question - it's because the DOT says so. I just don't understand why. Is it really that much safer to drive a 4-wheeler than a semi? Particularly if the other conditions are met, and they'd have to be to drive on line 5 anyway.

I understand that you can't, the reasoning just escapes me. If I'm ever in a situation where that applies, I will abide by the law. I don't have to understand it to follow it...

 

You can drive a CMV after your 14hr. Its SNI Company Policy that you can't drive after your 14hr.

 

Thanks. I thought, from rightlane's post, that it was DOT that said you couldn't drive a CMV after your 14. If it's SNI, that makes more sense.

 

Truck is repaired. Only took them a day. Very pleased with that. Needed a new plu for the def system. It seems to be running well. Only time will tell. There were only crap loads going out of Denver, all of them I would lose money on. So I expanded my search and found an excellent run from El Paso to upstate NY paying 2 bucks a mile for over $4200 in revenue to the truck. 10k load. So I am bobtailing the 620 miles down to El Paso for the pickup time tmrw afternoon. Live load in El Paso, open drop and hook window on the other end. Even with the bobtailing I will bring in excellent revenue. Here's hoping the truck holds up!!!

Later.....

 

Glad to hear you weren't caught up in this mess in Denver...

http://www.denverpost.com/weathernews/ci_25254464/

Drive safe! (oh, and congrats on the good load!)

 

Please explain how you would lose money on a load outta Denver. I see you spending a few hundred dollars on fuel and at least 10 driving hours on your clock and ZERO revenue for the entire day you spend driving to El Paso. Good Luck.

 

I agree with Etch, even if it was a break even load, at least the fuel would be paid for and not costing you money. I did look at the load board, and only saw 4 loads out of the Denver area, they did not pay that great, but they still would have netted you at least break even revenue. You would not have been picking up the load out of El Paso, but 600 miles for $2.00 per mile freight is hardly worth deadheading that far.

A long time ago, when I was starting out with one truck a old hand told me something that I have always remembered. The truck has to pay for itself. You should not be paying out of your pocket for anything. When a deadhead cuts into profit you are paying for it out of your pocket. Running shorter loads that move your equipment to better lanes is often wiser than deadheading that far.

As Etch said, you are giving up an entire day of revenue to go get that load that pays mediocre rates after you add in the deadhead. Not knowing what city you are going to and looking at mileage to just the NY state line that's 2232 miles plus the 620 miles you are deadheading gives you 2852 miles divide the $4200 revenue comes out to 1.472 per mile. If your cost to operate is close to DFO, which it should be, ~$1.03 per mile, you are running that load for .44 per mile.

Whereas, you could have pulled a load from Fort Collins, CO to Poteau, OK and that would have set you up to pull loads from Arkansas and back into more profitable freight lanes. Not bashing you at all, trying to help since you are still learning the O/O side of things.

 

The biggest mistake people on the choice board do is chase the higher total revenue loads, I rarely make more than $550 a load but I try to run 2 a day and my loads rarely exceed more than 275 miles. I have got my weekly miles down to less than 2700 yet I am netting more per settlement than ever. I have been doing this program over 4 years now and have learned alot since day one. I used to sort loads by highest total revenue now I sort and only choose based on highest per mile rate. I have seen many fail at this program and everyone started out gung ho. I have never had a negative settlement in 4 years and I refuse to allow that to happen.

 

was thinking the same thing.......it's what I said about 'hopscotching' out of a poor freight area. That said, I kinda did the math, and even with burning a tank full of fuel to deadhead (@ 6 mpg) and 6 mpg to destination, he'll still roll about $1400 on this trip with $1000 taken out for a truck payment and I've done worse for a week's worth of work (I think). Nevertheless, 700 miles deadhead is frankly unheard of for a dry van; there's no need for all that. Remember, at .90-$1.00 a mile, you're at least buying your fuel and making your truck payment.

It's a learning experience for us all.......rock on Sadwar!!!