Know your limitations (get some sleep)

When you start to hear voices emanating from the sleeper or black dogs on the shoulder then it's time to shut it down.

 

Way way back a house appeared in the middle of I 94 near Barnesville mn about 2 am ...I quit driving tired after that.

 

To add to that; allow the clock to stop when in the sleeper. That's how it was with the 15 hour rule.

 

There have only been a few times when I was tired enough that I realized I was a danger if I stayed on the road. I imagine there were several where I was too tired to even realize what danger I was in.

I guess one of the benefits of working for a mega carrier is that they're always in cover their ### mode, so if I've ever been tired or just wasn't feeling it for some reason, I just fired off a message and told them I was stopping to sleep or even to take a 34 when I had 10 hours to drive a load that delivered a few hours away, like 5 hours later. I knew I couldn't keep it on the road and that a nap wasn't going to cut it and that I needed a serious break from the Wyoming winds.

It's never really been an issue. I've also had to go to rest areas and truck stops to pull loads off of drivers in similar situations.

 

Nobody would go "off duty" ever again..

 

Reefers usually have long delays at shippers and receivers. Wouldn't be surprised if they spent most of their recent 10hr breaks sitting up watching for a green dock light. Add in all kinds of late night/early morning appts and the noise from the reefer itself and it's not hard to see why they would be tired.

I avoid caffeine like the plague...except when I have to pull a reefer. I keep a stock of Rockstar on the truck for those occasions.

 

Gotta get good at sleeping at all hours of the day when pulling reefer .... plenty of long load times and receiving times (for produce mostly) are in the wee hours of the morning. Just gotta get used to it. Sometimes with loading out of the field you might get your "break" by sitting there waiting for them to pull it out of the field or cool it or whatever. Yes you didn't move for 8 or 10 hours. You also likely did not sleep because if you miss that phone call to go to the dock, you aren't getting loaded...

Benadryl is great medicine for allergies .... it also happens to make one drowsy. Wears off after 4-6 hours..

 

The only way to stop the 14 hour clock is to log 8 continuous sleeper berth. Before '04 you could be line 4 on duty all day long and still have 10 hours drive time.