Hos question

You also don't need a full 34 hours off, you may be able to take 17 or 28 hours off and feel ready and rested to go. Then just resume off recap hours.

My company is like yours, they keep me preplanned constantly turning and burning. Last company was more like turn and burn 3 days straight then take a day off and do it again.

 

I got some sad news for you. I never ran anything but paperlogs. My company knew how many hours I had and what I picked up at midnight. They knew this because I always had to tell them this information every time I did a QC macro. The true answer to this as it applies to almost every aspect of driving. You MUST develop a relationship with your FM. Winter driving is another problem. I also never told my FM a lie. Part of building this relationship is not being scared of doing a favor for your FM. I have pulled my FMs butts out of the fire many times.

 

Tell dispatch straight up your doing a restart and to give the load to someone else.
They squabble, my next call is to saftey and then DOT.
I learned a long time ago, if you don't put your foot down with dispatchers, they'll walk all over you.
Just remember you are the captain of the truck.
DOT gives you the 70 hours to manage, not your dispatcher.
When you're tired, your tired. Take charge.

 

I skipped ahead again so forgive me if I am repeating someone elses advice.

I do not know what company you work for but it sounds like K&B. They are known for it.

You are figuring out what your logs are for. They are to protect you from As Sholes. The courts have ruled that a driver cannot be fired if he refuses to do something that is unsafe. The case is in the news now as the man nominated to the Supreme Court voted against the majority. In that case the driver left a trailer on the side of the road unsupervised. So it is not exactly what you are doing.

First forget about the 34 hour reset. The company is not required to give you one. If you have hours and they want you to run, they have the right to ask you to do so. However, if you do not feel you are safe to run, you can refuse to do so. They cannot fire you for refusing to operate a vehicle when it is unsafe to do so.

You cannot tell them you will be safe to run in 34 hours as you do not know if you will be or not. Tell them you are exhausted and cannot at the current time SAFELY operate a commercial vehicle. Use that phrase. If you have a Qualcomm or Peoplenet or whatever, put that phrase in writing.

Again, ignore the 34 hour rule as the only thing you are protected from is refusing to operate a vehicle in an unsafe matter. Many times I have had a company send me out after 33 hours. No reset but I had hours and was well rested. It was safe to do. Had I refused, they could have fired me. Instead they fired me latter for a joke I told.

Remember the logs are your friend but you have a duty to work as much as you can for the one paying you.

 

I almost never ask, nor tell them I am taking a 34, I just do it as it presents itself.

Often, when looking at a load, and this goes back to that trip planning thread a week or two back, and the point I was trying to make about planning beyond today and why, but often you will find you have time in route from shipper to receiver where you can squeeze one in.

How many days did you have to get from Cali to Atl? It's roughly 2500 miles, at 600 a day, (and we both know you can do 700 when need) that's 4 days driving.

Did you have 6? If so you could have squeezed one in on the way. For example, you are running your 8 hr recap and get loaded on day 1, you run your 8 hrs out, you have run 450 miles off that 2500 mile load leaving 2050.

So you take a 34 then, you now have 4 days to run that 2050 and a full clock to do it. So day 3 you run 650, down to 1400 miles, day 4 you run another 650, down to 750, day 5 you run another 650, down to 100 on day 6, run that 100, roll into the receiver, your on time and you have 35 hrs or so remaining for your next load.

Look for the opportunity to fit one it and you will be surprised how often you can.

I just parked Friday in Vegas, left Sunday, had a great time SAT at New York New York... I will still be on time for my delivery and am not having to stop after 8 hrs and wait until the recaps come back to drive again. I get to do it on my schedule.

 

that is true, but with many companies these days there is no relationship with dispatchers, they just want you to drive u till your out of hrs, then drive when you pick up hrs at midnite, and if you dont do this your classified as lazy, work for a non dispatch company that pays a decent cpm and you dont have to deal with all this exhausting nonsense and can then run based on your needs not the companies. maybe thats my problem,these companies need me to run more miles than i need to run, so logbooks arent the whole issue, driving for those kind of companies and doing it on elogs is the problem, and why do i need a relationship with my driver mngr, how bout i set my ready time in the quallcom and they assign my loads accordingly, so i say work for a company that allows that or buy a truck and eliminate the dispatcher all together, but being told to keep running when im beat, i will leave that to the slaves

 

Doesn't always work out, but always keep your eyes open for the opportunity.