Serious as a heart attack

On that it is going to come down to your planning itself. I've had 1 occasion where an unforeseen and unavoidable traffic screwed me up (overnight driving had a wreck on a 2 lane that blocked up traffic for over an hour. I was allowed to use the "2 hour rule" for unforeseen traffic conditions in order to get to the next stop, no further. Getting caught up in rush hour traffic though like alot of these guys do, won't give you that "luxury", since you should be planning for the event. I personally will run a split sleeper option in order to avoid those hours of driving, but then again not all companies even allow their drivers to do that.

 

Sounds fair to me, although I still like my "options" with the paper
With a good outfit, I see no reason not to be able to make a living with e logs. Just a shame that it took the government's intervention to make carries run legally IMHO. I know our safety guy is more anal than any DOT cop I have run into over the years...


Martin

 

YES !!! There is something you're missing.

Maybe the company you are looking at CAN actually spell logistics.

That's how you make money with electronic logs.

Otherwise, you're just a broke ### parking lot attendant.

 

Yea our safety department is extremely uptight, but they have to be since we do hire trainees. I had an incident and had to go and run the "obstacle course", luckily I can still learn a thing or two.

 

Martin its not that hard to plan for any of thos things you posted. Is there going to be an accident on the Freeway? Yes. Is there going to be bad weather? Yes. Are there roads where the speed limit is 45 or 55 ? Yes. Are shippers and recievers going take longer than they should to work your truck? Yes. Will there be screwed p/u and delivery times? Yes. Using an average of 50 MPH as a standard speed will give you a good idea whether you'll be able to p/u or deliver on time. Most of the time a driver will be able to travel on average faster than this,if they only stop to use the bathroom. Does it always work ? No,but most of the time it does.

 

So swap one problem for another that is even harder?
Not likely.

It is easier to find a driver with enough hours to run the load from Salt Lake than it is from, say, Laramie WY.

So it is better that I turn down that load and let them do it right, than make them improvise mid-route.

 

you're assuming the company isn't forced dispatch

 

I love "forced dispatch". Because it usually winds up biting a hard head in the ###.

I get a load. See I can't do it. Accept it. Send in my hours, along with my ETA. Then watch the fur fly.

Load = 400 miles
I have 6 hours left on my 70.

I drive a 60 MPH truck. It ain't getting there in 6 hours. I don't care what they think.

 

Bad logistics, but just because a company does forced dispatch doesn't mean they are bad logistically. I spent a week running nothing but relays, and still managed 3100 miles. got a 34 hour restart and got back to long runs with more time.

 

True enough, bad logistics.

But they generally get it squared away at my company, and all is right.