Requesting that your 34 hour reset be done at your home terminal

I prefer to stay away from that home yard. Give me 6 months worth of spare forms for everything and I'll see you back at the yard next year sometime lord willing for a set of winter tires. But not until then.

Part of trucking is that your office is up front behind the drivers wheel and your home is in the sleeper. So whereever you go, there you be. Pick your 34 spots carefully in trip planning. Remember it's just a optional. Keep up your recaps so you know what hours you get back on midnight of the 8th day. (New 70 hour week)

If I was still running today and found that my recap 8th day only gave me 4 hours driving, and the 9th day (I go back 15 days on paper) only about 7 hours roughly give or take a little bit. That's two days lost to get one driving day worth out. So... I would take the 34. But if I can see it coming a few days in advance, Im already choosing a town to sit in, I intend to not only rest up but hunt me some activities too.

One of the biggest reasons I don't stay in yards or home terminal any more than I have to is because its full of bosses in one end of building and full of drivers not working wasting time on the other. I like to keep my dispatches tidy and orderly for that time passing through when possible and not be flipped onto something really awful by another dispatcher or manager.

 

It is common. Many people do it.

 

All they can say is no its not possible at this time

 

Anything is possible.

See, in the way we were treated in our time, any city with friends, family or known attachments to us, dispatch has a slip of paper with our names over that list of cities. We NEVER see those cities. Period for as long we work for some such outfit. It's a way of maintaining productivity and revenue by keeping left door shut.

When people tell you one thing like it's Gospel in the burning bush, never is never.. forgetaboutit (As they say in NYC...) anything is possible any time. You wait long enough. Sooner or later you might just plan to wind up there on your 34. Heee. Do it quietly though. Have the logs with you when they spot you and ask why are you still here? =)

 

Your question is funny to me. Funny because your assuming planning and foresight by your company. Think about that one for a minute. However I need a question answered. By home terminal are you saying home time or are you saying just getting to home terminal to sit? Almost all drivers are going to reset while home. Remember a reset is not an action. A reset is simply the passage of 34 hours fully off duty.

 

I did my 34s while on hometime, so I would get routed to my home terminal, do laundry, stop at the J in my pickup on the way out, shower, and head 60 miles South to the in-laws where we stayed when not on the road.

I did a few 34s on the road at a ts, but those were few and far between. One cause I was snowed in for 4 days in Indianapolis, once in Terra Haute cause I was getting ready to start a dedicated route and needed a full 70, and one near South Haven, MS cause I was so tired I saw cars going backswards up an exit ramp. Had been running hard for 6 weeks, running re-cap.

 

I don't have a home terminal...I get my 34's where I can, or at home on hometime(I park my trailer on pads I have poured, and I park my tractor inside the fence so it's easier to carry all my crap in the house and back out when it's time to leave.)

 

Drive for a "most weekends home" regional carrier and problem solved. Drive anywhere else like many OTR coast-to-coast carriers, and don't count on this happening very often. There, you run on recaps or squeeze in a restart when and where it works out.

 

You can request anything you want. You can request a new truck, complimentary NFL package, and a pay raise.