Not much time on clock

Usually when I get dispatched I want to leave immediately regardless. It's better to collect layover close to your appointment as opposed to collecting it then leaving.

From Dallas to Portland is about 2000 miles, fastest route if that route is available. That's about 2 full shifts allowing for shift change, showers, and maybe some slow down. My truck drives at 65, no faster unless a downgrade.

I see what you are thinking. 99% of the time my time management is never stretched that thin. The few times it did it drove me crazy. My truck or my reefer could break.

If my guy arrives to the first pick up early in the morning and goes off duty, I need to be able to start driving after our labor for as long as needed, and maybe the full working day until we get parked for the night next. The other guy might not drive his full time, use some of his 14 in that time, park for weather reasons, have other issues that delay us...

Then we arrive and are looking at a full day of labor, then depending on the run we are on, one of us might be looking at a full night of driving after laboring all day to get us to the first stop on the next day. Then we both work the next day, loading again. Most of the time, this schedule is not needed, but it does happen.

And I have found it's always best to plan for that, because due to our scheduling, we are in a position where we can plan for it almost always, and I haven't seen a situation where we shouldn't. At least in my case.

 

With me, it all depends on the loads. Basically, when I am on a longer load, I average about 550 miles in around 9 hours of driving. But, trip planning determines many things. Yesterday, as an example, I was on 2 lane highway where truck amenities are scarcer and ended up stopping at 475 miles. My alternative would have been to push it to almost 600 miles and hope the parking wasn't full. I erred on the side of caution, especially since I was still reasonably able to make my destination on time.
When I can, I like to start early, about an hour or two before sunup, so that I can end my day earlier when parking is easier to find. I also have little qualm about reserving a parking spot. If I will be driving past about 4ish, commonly while I am on my 30 minute break, I'll figure out how much farther I think I can get and see what parking is available. Often times reserving a spot. It is like this, I'm paying more for not having to worry about finding a parking spot than I am the parking spot itself. Some areas I already know parking gets tight really quick and some areas have plenty of parking options. I adjust accordingly. If I'm on I80 in Wyoming or Nebraska, I don't worry about it, plenty of parking generally available around there. But, I35 in Texas is a whole different animal. Places there tend to fill up early and quickly. My experience anyway.
But, overall, how many miles I get a week is usually effected most by the nature of the loads I have. The week before last I got over 3000 miles in 6 days and had to take a 34 reset to get any time back. This last week, I only got between 300 and 400 miles a day and only 80 miles on one of those days. All due more to the dynamics of the loads than anything else. But, when I can, I like to get between 550 and 600 miles a day.

 

And if you are going to be late, communicate early and often. Don't cry wolf but be honest about where you're at and what's going to happen. Something gets you behind the eight ball on day one of a three day run, let them know on day 1.

 

Wife and I in a FFE 63 mph 515 horse tractor with a minimum of 335 gallons useable and one fuel stop either Holbrook westbound or Knoxville eastbound with Cumberland Plateau as a alternate) can do LA downtown to Avenel NJ in around 48ish hours. Give or take one. We usually were back in LA in another 50 hours which includes waiting for local daycab to bring us hot trailer load west.

It was for us and also for FFE the very best work. They gave us from 6 and half to the 7th day off to lie around and feed ourselves plus laundry then we start all over again for another round trip in 6 days. Right about close to 6000 ground miles a week. Did that for 7 weeks. Give or take.

Most of the time we like to be straight through somewhere anywhere in North America (That includes Mexico or Canada or even down the Pan American if we were sent that far south... no problem) then sit and be at the customer a day early if not more eariler. See if they will unload it right quick. Sometimes they get cranky and try to say we were wrong for being way too early.

HA. Too early wrong. Too late REALLY wrong and on time you just lost a day. Forget it. Its there early.

To be really early you need to give me a ungoverned truck. Enough with that 63 BS. I would have shaved about two or three hours off that cross country run legally. On the side note if you needed Boston in say... 36 hours overnight then its going to be expensive.

 

Late afternoon or later, I start looking with about 2hrs on my clock unless there’s nothing ahead of me. I get routed by shortest distance which I’m supposed to follow... and sometimes there’s limited choices on where to shut down and I’ll stop earlier. I always msg them if I can blame it on routing.

Morning to mid-day I’ll go under an hour, depending on weather. I was running my clock down in the rain and a got into violation after a traffic backup due to a weather related crash.

 

I average 3700 miles every week... And I usually complete my runs in 5 to 7 days. 2 weeks ago I run 3600 miles in about 5.5 days, left on Saturday evening and got back late at night Thursday. I dont dink around, I hate it when I dont get at least 600 miles a day. If I know I'm going to be very early I get ahold of the broker and/or reciever to reschedule for an eaelier appointment. Most of the time this works out in my benefit. But yes there are the rare times that I end up sitting and waiting for my appointment.

800 miles is a regional run... I dont do regional, I do OTR... Minimum of 1600 miles one way.

 

A lot of these types of problems are due to the fact that companies have driver managers that were never truck drivers, or have no clue about the business. And then when they screw up they are not held accountable and the driver ends up on the short end of the stick. Here is a nice little story...

My first job out of trucking school was with Steven's Transport. I did 10 months with them and decided I wanted to try flat-bedding, for the challenge and the higher pay. So I started working for Melton Truck Lines. In my second month, I made the Top 100 (which is a big deal at Melton). I was #87 out of 1378 drivers.

So one day I picked up a load near Lake City, FL., heading to Mobile, AL. I stopped for the night at the Love's in Mossy Head, FL. (exit 70 on I-10). My appointment was for 0900 and was exactly 128 miles away. It was one of those construction loads (insulation) that had a very strict window because the materials were needed for that morning. So my plan was to get rolling by 0600 at the latest. Well, around 0200 my Qualcomm starts going off and wakes me up. It was the evening DM wondering why I wasn't rolling yet! My 10 hours had been up around 90 minutes before. I asked her why the hell she was waking me up at 2am when my appointment was at 9am. She replied that she didn't have to answer to me! I went off on her. She told me that she was going to report me and I told her that she could call the CEO for all I cared. Then she says, "As long as you're already up, why don't you start driving?" I explained to her that it was MORONIC to start my 14-hour clock that early (and I mixed in a few "colorful" adjectives). This wasn't the first time that the DMs had screwed up so I was already almost at the end of my rope with them, hence my behavior.

So I deliver the load around 0845 and then I get a message to deadhead up to Birmingham. I assumed I was picking up some steel at one of the mills up there. I get to Birmingham and stop at the company terminal there to wait for the load confirmation. It didn't come so I spent the night at the company yard. The next morning they knock on my door and tell me to go see the manager. He asked what I was doing and I replied that I got sent there and I was waiting for a load. He said that they had instructed him to terminate me! He looked at my record and noticed I was Top 100, so he asked me what happened. I told him everything and he was visibly pissed. But I was happy to be rid of that company, because when you have DMs that don't know what the hell they are doing, your life on the road will be miserable.

 

I have a habit of stopping in McLean Illinois for Chicago or similar distances from Large Cities like Memphis and so on.

Certain cities I will stop 2 hours away. One spot is a literal pad by a river on US 322 near the US 15. From that one I can access the entire NE in less than a day. Or reach close to Raleigh NC.

Disapatch gets antsy. The one thing I learned not to do is sleep in a company yard. Dispatcher will absolutely come out of there at the stroke of the 8th or 10th hour and hammer on my bunk while I am pulling coffee and a smoke getting ready for another 1000 mile day in quiet moment. They bring chaos.

And good morning to you too [profanity]

!

And you wonder why they learn to leave me the hell alone LOL. She'll be moving in a moment, but not a minute before my mind and body is fit for the battle to come that day or night. Not before.

High dollar pharmacy loads dont stop for nothing. Straight through.

 

You are correct, sir. A dispatcher will tell you to go to a slow shipper who will not allow you to park once loaded, with 50 minutes on your 14. As far as your safety goes, they don’t care. Back in my company truck days, I’d get empty, and the dispatcher would tell me to stand by. There is no STAND BY. Once you start the clock, you have to go. STAND BY means to go find a safe spot to park.
Suddenly, they find you a load and they want you to hurry. Hmmm, if you’ve been ‘standing by’ for more than 3 hours, now you are pushing against your 14. Start your clock at 0600, get empty at noon, go to an A Hole shipper in the hood to load at 5pm and find a parking spot for your 10. Unless you can stage up at a shipper or receiver or know of a decent hidey hole somewhere near, you really want to be cautions what you in the major metro areas after 3pm.

What will really piss you off is when they tell you to stand by, have you sit around for a few hours and then tell you to go pick up a load that was right next to where you emptied and was waiting to be picked up the day before.

 

That's when you drive untill your clock runs out and then tell them they need to call a tow truck to legally bring you to a legal place to park.

No, just a joke.

 

I’ve learned there’s two types of trucking companies that run their business model two different ways in general. There’s a company that will run your ### off for five days straight getting between 500 and 600 miles per day and then they’ll incorporate a couple days off of Hometime with a reset. Then there’s the trucking company that likes you to sit at their disposal so they can cherry pick loades and distribute them to you and want you to stay out for like 4 to 12 weeks at a time usually getting somewhere between 1800- 3000 miles a week if you’re lucky and they do that by robbing your days off. If you look at both business models over a year period of time you realize the driver in the first model will spend about 115 days plus his week vacation at home. The second driver, will be lucky if he spends 35 days out of the whole year at home. And get this, here’s the final kicker, the guy who drives for the company with the first business model? He still ends up Making more. Most truck drivers don’t take the time to figure that out but when they do it’s a real eye-opener. You can quickly see that your company is just using their drivers as there #####