Not much time on clock

My experience so far they are not going to understand the situation you are in.

You might shut down to avoid rush hour in Chicago, because you don't want to run out of hours in the middle of that city.

Also what time are you running out of hours, because of legal parking.

And also other anomalies you can't always plan for, like if you just become to tired.

They will not always understand it, because they are sitting in an office on the other side of the country. They will tell you just drive to your last hour, then "park at a truck stop somewhere." LOLOL

There are a lot of places to park, but you have to find them. And some of those spots you just don't really know how someone is going to react you parking there. They might call the cops, they might not. You do not know because you have never been there before.

Some service stations will have truck parking, but are not shown on Trucker's Path. You have to find them. There's one right next to where I live on home time. You need to get off the beaten path and find them. So far I have been able to find something, most of the time, somewhere. I might have to get off the freeway 2 or 3 times, then get back on. But something will show up. Maybe just a piece of empty gravel. But something will turn up. Park it there, and go to sleep.

The exception I make is large cities. It adds complexity and if you are approaching Chicago during rush hour, maybe think about stopping before you get there.

 

That is from people trying to make you push the limits of the clock and your own endurance.

And that is a good way to become burned out very quickly, thus being a danger to yourself and everyone else in your path.

 

They are never going to be happy. They will even tell God himself that 24 hours in a day is never enough. Not even if the arch angel Michael stood on their own clocks. //part satire.

YOU take care of YOUR time. IF you find a spot somewhere safe and legal to sleep restful with a hour to go? GREAT. Stay there and be happy.

When a company starts nicky picking bullying drivers about a few minutes of time versus the overall schedule appt then its time for another employer.

Ive had dispatcher bullies in the past about that clock. I simply tell them two things. First F-off and second: "Your griping about my remaining time just used it all up. My recap says I cannot do anything until the second morning."

The more they grip the faster that time is lost too. In other words it does not make me do the work faster and risk make the load late.

They'll get the message, just dont be late and give them excuse to fire you. If you were being bullied and looking for another employer so much the better.

I cannot wait for robot trucks to become common, it will be the dispatcher problem to have 20 legal minutes remaining and try to use it with legal parking more than a hour away. Serves him right.

When I started all they wanted me to be somewhere say next monday at sunrise. Dont call me for anything. Be there at sunrise monday. Provided you are on time you were never bothered about nicky picky decisions you make each day until customer gets his load.

 

One time I pulled into a parking lot that offered parking for about 4 different businesses. The parking lot was empty for the most part. I just wanted to hang out there for a few hours. My driving partner didn't have the hours to start driving yet. And I was tired. I wanted to go to bed.

I noticed that there was a man standing outside smoking a cigarette and just looking straight at me, like the whole time I was sitting there poking at my QC with my nose picker. So I got out and walked around the parking lot a little bit and picked up a few pieces of trash and threw it away in a near by trash can. The gentleman watching me went back inside and I wasn't bothered. lol

I don't know if he would have ever called the cops or knocked on my window to tell me to move. But after I made his parking lot look better I could sleep a lot better.

 

I agree with what’s been posted above. Also, I do my best to set myself up for success the next day. Time I could have driven today, but DIDNT, is time I HAVE TO drive tomorrow. Maybe dispatch has a good load for me, but can’t give me that one because I don’t have enough hours to do it, but would have, had I driven out my time yesterday. So maybe I don’t get as many miles, or maybe I don’t get home for the weekend. There is quite a bit to consider, when deciding to park.

 

That's what I tell the new guys that get on my truck. Especially when we are schedule to go home. When one of us only has 20 hours left on our clock, one of us or both us needs to get a 34 hour reset. So one of us needs to do more driving to reset the other driver. It doesn't matter even if we are scheduled for home time.

Do you want to go back out and drive to Portland Oregon? He would answer, yes, of course. Then we need to make sure we have the hours available to get up there. Otherwise she will just give it to someone else. It doesn't matter to her, it only matters to us.

So we need to manage our hours and make sure he both have about 40 hours available.

This will differ depending on the driving you are doing, and also if you have a partner and also what kind of driving you are doing with your partner. But with my specific duties, it's about 40 hours, and with the right planning, it's completely doable. The driving team just needs to think ahead about a week do a bit of planning and each driver shouldn't complain if they need to drive two days in a row in order to reset the other guy's hours.

 

Is the issue not using drive time or extending off duty way past 10 hours.. both will extend trip time if used incorrectly..

 

2 drivers, each with 40 hours available... By my figures thats enough time to make it from ANYWHERE in the country to NEARLY anywhere else in the country AND BACK. The only exceptions I Can think if would be traveling from the extreme North West to the extreme South East or vis a versa... Or some such similar run.

I dont see how one would really need to plan that far out unless your planning back to back dedicated runs.

I would be interested in a little more detail of when and why one would need to plan that far out.

 

Yes, I am allowing for a 10 hour buffer. Assuming two full shifts for each driver to get from Dallas to Portland, that knocks off 20 hours. We don't usually get that run right before going home, but you need to leave the time open in case you get it. you want that extra money, of course. Then you need drive time to reset the other driver. So assuming worst case scenario only one driver needs to use his full clock two days in a row after that to bring the other driver current. Then after that, the driver that didn't drive can reset the first driver with his final 20... assuming that final driver didn't already reset. When you plan it this way, you will all your appointments without being late, and you get to make a lot of extra money, should that gravy run go your way.

This is specific to what I am doing because we drive full time over the weekend. Then we start our pick ups during the week and park and sit overnight and do not drive. So during the night and during the week, depending on miles and which run we get, it's fairly easy for each team driver to reset the other guy.

 

All you guys saying, “I drive all the way to the end of my clock less than an hour left every day“ come on man. The load you’re running dictates how many hours you’re going to drive in any given day. If you’ve got an 800 mile load in two days to get it there, you’re not going to drive down to the last second each of those days. You’re gonna be sitting somewhere for an entire day if you do. Especially if it’s a hard appointment time and you’re not allowed to deliver early. 90% of the time the load you’re running will dictate how many hours you’ll drive in a day.