DOT: Driving, How Many Hours Per Day

That couldn't be any more wrong.....


You can drive up to 11 hrs per shift-you need a 10 hr break to drive again
You have 14 hrs within which to drive, you can continue working beyond the 14th hr (line4) but you cannot drive again until you do a 10 hr break

You should also be running allot more then 2200 miles a week if you intend to make money, the bfi companies average 2200 a week at a decent company you should do 2800-4000 a week






American Trucker

 

15min pre trip, 15 min post trip,15 min @ shipper load, 15 min fuel, 2hrs off duty while getting loaded 11 hrs driving. 10 hr break

um that equals 24 hr. should you be running more than 2,200 average yes.

take into account home time, repairs, vacation, sick days slow periods on frieight. getting routed to a cheap rate zone.

over the entire year between 2,200-2,500 miles is probably pretty acurate

 

You don't load/unload /fuel every day....

I can do. 25 pretrip then drive 11 hrs straight and then pretrip again and start driving again and drive 13.5hrs total within 24 hr period




American Trucker

 

You can drive 11 hours straight????

 

If and when I have to, I usually stop once after about 5 hrs for 5min or less for the bathroom.





American Trucker

 

It doesn't take that long to build up a tolerance so to speak.

New drivers starting out will tend to have much more stress due to the inexperience and the "excitement" of a new job/career. It takes some time for most to build into a straight driving day of 10-11 hours....but it does come in time!

I had many students who were flat exhausted after 4-5 hours when they first came on my truck....within a couple weeks they were driving their full shift.

 

First off as long as you are not carrying a placarded hazmat load you can legally combine pretrip and fueling into one 15 minute increment.

Secondly a post trip inspection can be flagged and doesn't have the 15 minute requirement that a pre-trip does.

Thirdly not all loads or unloads are live many are drop and hooks. When they are drop and hooks you can combine the safety inspection and the load into one 15 minute increment.

And fourthly as already pointed out if you are running longer trips (>1000 miles) you won't be loading/unloading every day.

 

400-500 miles NON-stop out west is quite doable for me. A full 11, I've come close but never all the way. There's no reason to hold it until it hurts. I don't think that's healthy anyways but I usually start thinking about stopping after about 7 or 8 hours. This is out in the wild west though. On the east coast forget it theres just too much traffic and aggravation.

You would really be amazed at how many times some drivers stop. The same trucks will pass you 5 times within 300 miles.

 

It can be so complicated that it can't even be enforced. Even truck inspectors and State Troopers can't understand how it works.

One more reason to keep a lawyer handy to keep big brother from getting a piece of you..

 

I've driven 11 hours straight through twice. Not really my choice but did what I had to in order to get a load to its destination on time legally.

Normally I'd drive 5 hours, 15 minute break, drive 3 hours 30 minute break and then drive final 3 hours.