Govern?

Speeds are governed to 65mph. But you can not log anything more then 62.5 mph or you have opened yourself up to be written up. And yes even if you are in a 65 mph zone or higher all day. And yes even if your logs pass a level 3 DOT check.

 

Could you go into details, please. Thank you.

 

Company trucks at ROEHL are governed at 65 MPH. Some of the trucks will indicate 67 MPH at the top end but actually run closer to 66 MPH.

If you are actually logging as you do it, you can only average a maximum speed of 62.5 MPH (this is also in line with the FMCSA guidlines).

One of the biggest factors is where most of ROEHL's freight originates. Lower speed limits and lots of slow-town driving..

Now, for years, ROEHL has had a flag in their system that goes up if you turn in an average speed or 60 MPH or better. You aren't going to get called on it unless your logs start to show a pattern of what is called "driving by calculator."

If your logs are consistently showing an average of 60 MPH exactly, that is a tip-off that you are averaging your speed using a calculator instead of actually logging it as you do it. That's a no-no big time.

In the I/C world, it's different but not by much. We still have to log it as we do it but we're no limited by the 60 MPH rule. Our trucks have an upper limit of 75 MPH so you can see the difference. But that doesn't mean that I can log an average of 75 MPH over 11 hours. Not possible.

This is one reason why the loads for ROEHL are supposed to be dispatched with the time figured at 50 MPH for the life of the load.

Hope this clears it up a little for you...

 

LOL..Cleared it up....nope....it actually made it worse.....I had my road test today so I see where the truck top outs at 66/67 mph but you are saying that we can not drive no faster than 62.5 and if the miles traveled average out to 60 mph then we would get in trouble? If I am understanding this right then I am glad I did because I was going to try and avg 60 mph. I know it would be hard to do with rush hour traffic but i WAS going to give it a try. Did what I say just make any sense?

 

Ummm... not quite...

Okay.. Your truck is capable of doing 65 MPH.. If you start driving and get up to 65 mph, hit the cruise control and turn on the tunes, you are still only going to average around 62.5 MPH. Consider a trip from Marshfield to Sioux Falls, SD for example. You're only going to be able to average about 53 MPH from Marshfield to Tomah, WI (55 MPH speed limit and several small towns you'll have to slow down in. Then I-90 with a speed limit of 65 MPH in WI and 70 MPH in MN. That first leg of the trip is going to drag down your AVERAGE speed for the total trip. Once you get on the super-slab, your average speed is going to increase but you'll never get over the 62.5 MPH average.

Now, driving at 65 is all well and good but I can say without any fear of contradiction that you're going to have hills you're climbing and coming down that are going to throw any steady speed state completely out the window.

On coming down hills, watch your speed!! I know for a fact that if you exceed the speed limits set in the truck too often or by too much, you could lose your bonus or be fired for "reckless driving."

What worked for me when I was company driver and still works for me now is to set the cruise at around 62 or 63 MPH and just cruise along. Driving at 65 all day long can get to you in terms of tension and working to keep you speed below 67/70 MPH. The actual time saving or extra difference covered in an 11 hour driving period are so small that it's really not worth the strain.

 

Gotcha, thanks for the post.