Help with driving schedule please

Drive what ever is safe for you, then log it as required by FMCSA.

 

Depends on when its gotta get there. I wouldn't run a full 11 only if needed, and once a week.

 

Team is a different animal for me . I don't do it.
That said , you need to look at each run you're on.
I'll guess you're driving company, since you didn't say.
Unless you're both hardass Drivers, who won't stop for nothin, until you're bladders are about to burst ,figure it like this : 12 on , 12 off . Figure who's better driving during the day , who's better at night. Take into consideration where you're going to be . One don't like Big Cities , one don't mind, adjust your schedule to that.
Weather will slow you down. So will traffic. And accidents . And construction. And ....... You get the idea. Figure your average speed at 50 MPH ,to start. Adjust accordingly.
in a 12 hour schedule , you'll waste at least an hour each shift ,with fuel ,potty breaks ,etc. not to mention meals ,showers ,etc.
I don't know , since I don't run team ,but doing 12 hr. shifts, you should never run out of hours .
Course , that all depends on other things . You on e-logs , or paper logs ?
Your company Require loading time On Duty , or Off Duty , after 15 minutes ? Same with unload .
You haven't given enough information.
Takes longer to write , than to read. Write us a book.

 

I am the wife of the OP. We are company drivers, all loading and unloading goes on line 4. Hubby prefers nights, and I prefer days. We are new drivers, so we are trying to maximize our miles and time, but we understand that being brand new drivers, it may be a slow start. Thanks for the help and ideas everyone. Oh, we are on e-logs.

 

I cut my "teeth" on team. Unless your deep in debt I would slow down some. Your company will run you as hard as they can. Flippin' LA to NY ain't a way to live. Unless you like it that way.

 

Drive whatever you are comfortable with. My wife would drive the night shift just because there was no traffic and it was a lot less stressful. I would drive the day shift and also do the extreme weather driving etc...

The best schedule is to run 5/5's but nowadays you can't legally do that unless you have paperlogs and make it look legit. Not recommending you do anything illegal though. Driving 11 hours straight is tiring and even worse is sitting back in that sleeper for 11 hours straight! The whole point of the team driving schedule is so that nobody has to drive tired. Personally I believe teams should be able to drive however they want! I learned to drive back in the day when it was legal to do 5/5's and it was the best! When I drove with my wife we continued to do so and it worked out really well but like I said nowadays you can't "legally" do it that way on paper.

Whatever your schedule is you guys should be shooting for 1000 miles a day average. This is usually what companies expect from their teams. Its going to take some time to be able to run this and also you will have to build up some experience to maximize your mileage and trips. Trip planning is crucial and constant contact with your dispatcher is important. As soon as you receive your load info you should let your dispatcher know exactly when you can be there and if they can reschedule early delivery or have you drop somewhere. This is how you achieve your 7000 mile weeks! Never, ever take the allotted time on a load as you will never make any money that way! Always get the load there as soon as humanly possibly even if you can't reschedule or drop. Try to take the ball in your own hands and get on the phone to take care of scheduling your appointment times whenever necessary. The more proactive you guys are for yourself the more money you will make and the more your dispatcher will love you for it!

Good luck guys...

 

Well, that's a different world . Van , or Reefer ? I pull a tank , I get there too early ,all I do is burn up my time . Course with washouts , its very rare I pick up another load the same day .
Hope whatever you're pulling pays well .

 

The last guy I trained we ran 5 and 5 then logged it as 10 and 10. Just keep it straight. Remember your book must show who is driving right now.