How do you handle time zones?Seems confusing

No kidding?

 

The key word being "if"

 

Seriously ... whether you're headed east, west, north, or south, you always log (or elogs log for you) by the time zone of YOUR home terminal because that's the rule: http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/regulations/title49/section/395.8

If you have a load of popcorn going from Sacramento to New York and YOUR home terminal is in California (even if your carrier's headquarters is in Arizona), you're on Pacific Time all the way and all the way back. If your delivery in New York is at midnight (New York time), that's 9 p.m. on your log. If it takes three hours to unload the popcorn, you're done at midnight on your log, even though it's 3 a.m. in New York. If you pick up in New York at 9 a.m., you log that as 6 a.m. because it's 6 a.m. at YOUR home terminal in California. If you deliver back in Sacramento at 6 a.m., that's how you log it. You don't gain or lose hours. Eleven driving hours don't become 14 headed in one direction or 8 in another.

Sometimes you just have to plan and think in more than one time zone so you don't pick up and deliver late. The HOS don't change from one time zone to another. Some states have two time zones, so you may have to take that into account. I think the Trucker's Atlas has a U.S.-Canadian time zone map. You can also find time zone maps online; just Google Images "U.S. time zones."

 

What if the load is sunflower seeds?

 

Sunflower seed deliveries are always logged in Pacific time.