Question about the 70 hour/8 day rule

Just wait until the new HOS, where they want 2 periods, someone is going to have to explain that to me.

 

The regs only say that it has to be 34 or more consecutive hours. Although as mentioned, it would be a neat trick to do that without a midnight to 6 am period.

You may have the proposed change in mind where they are thinking of requiring TWO midnight to 6 am periods during a 34 hour reset.

 

Based on my calculations this means that every restart will have to start between 8:00 P.M. and Midnight. I assume any time before that, not on duty, would be off duty and not count toward the 34 hours.

If you went off duty at 2000 hours on Saturday your 34-hour restart would be over at 0600 hours on Monday. If you went off duty at 2400 hours on Saturday your 34-hour restart would be over at 1000 hours on Monday.

Starting your restart between 2000 and 2400 hours is the only way to have two periods between 2400 and 0600 in that restart period. It looks like they are looking for two sleep periods, that they consider normal, in a profession that doesn't have normal hours. What it means for drivers is that a reset will be between 34 and 48 hours depending upon when we go off duty.

I looked at the proposed changes and I don’t see anything that will require a restart and it appears they will continue to allow us to run on recap. It appears to be another attempt at making things safer that will work backwards or serve no purpose. I would think it is likely to cause fewer to take a restart.

I prefer running recap and fell that taking a day off every 8 days is safe. It appears to me that in an attempt to dictate when they think you should rest for a restart they will just cause it to often be used only when it fits with the time a driver starts a waiting period. The rest of the time the driver will just take a day off and continue running recap.

Many drivers think they can run more hours using the 34-hour reset over running the recap. No matter how many ways I have figured it, I can’t come up with any difference. With these new rules there could actually be lost hours when you run the 34-hour restart. Somehow I don’t think they intend to do what they usually do.

 

If the goal is increased compliance with the HOS why propose to make them more difficult?

 

Because it's the government, and that's what they specialize in!

 

+1 for what Lilbit said.

 

We had this discussion on another thread that I can't find at the moment; but you definitely can run more hours doing a reset. At the end of 8 days your way, you've used 70 hours. Now if I work 12 hours a day for 5 days, and 10 on the sixth day, I've used my 70 and need to reset. I take off the seventh day and go back to working on the eighth, and work 12 hours that day. I now have 82 hours in 8 days.

82>70

 

In your example I can't disagee. However you can only drive 11 hours per day. Since we only get paid for driving give me an example that works for that. Obviously an intellegent driver can control his on duty not driving hours.

 

Oxymoron much

 

This has always been a gray area with me. I was always under the impression 70 within 8 days. Then you have to reset with 34 consec. On the duty total side it states last seven days on duty . Hours availble tomorrow. So if you worked 70 hrs in 7 days or 8 the total available would be 0. To me that says you have to reset.