How many of you use the full 11 hour Drive Time?

11

 

Whatever it takes to meet the appointment time. I had trips where I needed to drive 10:45 or 10:55. There is no average drive time and no average waiting time. You drive upto your legal limits and you wait until the customer does their job.

 

I tend to average between 9 to 10 hours of drive time a day. Basically they plan the loads so I have to get 500 miles a day of progress. If I'm only driving, I tend to run between 550 to 600 miles a day and that's usually about 9.5 hours of drive time. Parking is always a critical factor of how far and when I run. I'm not one who likes to cut things close and have to park on an on ramp because I don't have any more time to get to a truck stop somewhere. Another factor is I'm governed at 65mph, so simply can't get as many miles a day as someone who can run at 70 of 75 mph.
All that said, it depends on the scheduling of the load. Sometimes I get a load where I only need to make about 300 or 400 miles of progress a day, so I'll cut back on miles for the day and enjoy alittle more off time. Other loads I have to basically run as best I can. Run 500ish miles, take a 10 and get right back on the road.

 

It's not the drive time that's a problem.

It's finding safe, legal....& respectable parking at the end of the drive time....that's the REAL problem.

--Lual

 

We team so at least 10h30m but usually closer to 10h50m. We switch out at certain points based on where we can pull over and switch. Not a place for a while? Stop at the last truckstop, break 6 minutes or so for a quick break. Fill drinks, swap phones in the carrier, put all the charging things on their lines. I finish driving the rest of my shift, then we swap out on an off ramp.

 

Can you imagine how much less stress we would have with the existing HOS if you knew you could plan on going from A to B and have a parking spot at B? When I started driving I don't remember ever not finding a parking spot wherever I stopped. Now it's like a giant game of musical chairs.

 

Solar powered.

 

I'm pretty new at all this, but finding a pretty good rhythm on driving days of leaving out between 3 and 4am and shutting down in early afternoon.

When that schedule doesn't work because of an appointment time, it quickly became apparent that a backup option for parking is important when doing trip planning...noticing that often seems to end up being at a customer or something else that isn't a traditional truckstop.