Recaps or 34 hour reset?

Personal preference here only
I like running non stop 7 days a week so I usually run off recaps I just don’t go over about 8.5 -9 hours a day. $ isn’t an issue for me and my company so I’m not saying recaps are better financially I just don’t like sitting for a day or 2.

 

This honestly depends on what ur AVG hours a day is. I Normally burn my 70 up by day 6.. We run hard here so its better just to do a 34. Even doing a 34 my Avg is 3000 miles. last week was 3600 miles with a 34 in. week before that was 2964 with a 34.

 

I set my PTA for 34 hours after each load.

 

Number One problem for the hard charger. The majority of the dispatchers/travel agents will not be able to keep up. “Stand by, driver.” There is no standing by after you have started your 14 hour clock. You are now losing possible revenue.

The only way to possibly know which is the best use of time, is to either run a dedicated route or have your next two runs pre-planned. If you have a 600 mile run, do you get after it or do you run 8 1/2 hours and shut down?

 

It really depends on your company. How you are dispatched plays the biggest role in whether you run recaps or reset. We do 100% drop and hook no touch freight, so we run our miles and go home for about 50 hours on a dedicated run. We could leave earlier or run later but this is the work-life balance we want.

When we ran out our 130-140, did a rolling reset in a hotel, then ran another 130-140 hour week ending up at home, we were useless and completely exhausted often needing 3-5 days off to mentally and physically recover.

Now, we can enjoy time with our adult kids, grand puppies, and have weekend getaways flyaway and local. We get to hike, bike, and kayak on the weekends... life is infinitely better. The money is also more because we can do the occasional favor and knock out 600-1200 extra miles to make up the difference.

My health has also greatly improved.

 

So very true... At my company there are 3 dispatchers. 1 does Eastbound, 1 does Westbound, 1 does Local/Regional... And all three are in constant communication with each other to plan and schedule loads.

Once a driver has proven himself as reliable and quick he will start to get the really good quick turn around loads... Often his entire run is already planned before he even leaves the yard, that means his next 3 loads are already scheduled.

 

600 miles, I better have that load delivered and be getting closer to my backhaul before the end of day 1.

 

Im trying to figure this out along with you. Been running teams for a few years so we just did rolling resets. But now that I am solo I am trying to figure this out.

So far my largest checks are when I get my resets. If I try to run recaps I just run into problems. That's not saying recaps are the problem, maybe I'm just being a noob. My company prefers that I run recaps.

Resets aren't a problem for me though. I don't mind running hard and then sitting for a day to do some laundry, sit at a restaurant and get some good food and watch a couple of movies.

I have talked to some drivers saying they are doing very well running off of recaps. So maybe it's just a personal preference, I dont know.

 

Really depends on the average loads for the company. Where I work we have a lot of loads that are only 7ish hrs. Those loads pay $380 out loaded and $180 back empty so you see that sitting for a 34 could mean missing out on $560. Also if I don't have enough hours for one of those, there are local dedicated percentage runs I can do which pay $100ish for 2-3 hrs drive time. I recently did two in less than 4hrs. $200 for less than half a day of work.

I do still take resets as I appreciate the break and chance to do laundry etc, but my pay absolutely suffers when I do.