So, Just how tired are you ?

I've been feeling great since I left OTR. I only work 8 hrs a day, 5 days a week at 50-100 miles per shift. My employer pays by the hour, so there's no rush to get from point A to point B. My employer also pays OT. Time and a half for anything over 8 hrs a day and/or 40 hrs a week. They pay double time for anything over 10 hrs a day and/or 48 hrs a week.

 

I've settled down to a drive pattern. I TRY to drive 0300-early afternoon. Since I'm naturally an early bird, this works well for me and allows up to a 14 hour day without being exhausted. If they try to get me too far outside of that pattern, I say no (within reason).

 

Take Saw Palmetto capsules and that will stop the getting up several times a night to pee. They're cheap at Walmart vitamin section. Get the highest mg. ones they have and take one, three times a day. It may take a couple of months for them to fully kick in. I had the same problem, but now sleep all night without getting up.

 

I'll take two,please...

 

Coming right up.

(if you send me a PM, I'll tell you who I drive for)

 

how tired am I? hold on a minute let me ask my elog. it knows better than I do and tells me when i'm tired and have to rest and when i'm not and need to drive.

all sarcasm aside, there will be days you'll be tired and days you won't be. i'm very much a night person and at my peak after dark and try to run nights whenever possible but it isn't always possible. your days and nights will get turned on end due to pickup or delivery times, length or lack of on the trip, many many factors goes into what time of day or how long you run.....and correspondingly how tired (or not) you find yourself during the time you're expected to run.

as others have said, you have to know when to say no. both to your company and to yourself. sometimes they'll give you a run you just can't make and sometimes you'll sit waiting for a load or waiting to get loaded or unloaded and then boom there the load is or they're done and you've already been up and couldn't sleep and already gotten a 10 in that time or an 8 and there the hours are back and now you have to run all day (or night)......I always pad my eta by an hour or more when i have time on a run to do so.....to allow for fuel and traffic delays, an anticipated stop for a short nap, any number of unforeseen things that can happen......

but learn to say no to yourself when you have to. I won't hesitate to stop and take a nap if I find myself in that position where I need to......just did last night after having sat most of the day at a shipper and not being able to sleep because I had to go inside during loading and then had to sit and wait for paperwork. and wait. and wait. and wait. finally got moving and found myself nodding a little and got right off the road and got a nap and was good to go for the rest of the time I had left to run for the day.

after you've run for awhile you'll get a good feel for how much additional time you have to factor in on a trip for these things, the area you'll be running in, and whether or not you may need to stop and get a quick rest break. don't hesitate to do it if you have to. no load or customer is worth compromising safety for. yours or others.

 

As another poster stated I am not tired behind the wheel but soon as I get off work I'm very tired. Too much responsibility on my shoulders to be tired while driving.

 

If I had my druthers this is the schedule I prefer, especially if I'm needing to get through a major metro area just before rush hour. Another advantage to this schedule is that you generally finish and find easy parking at the truck stops.

I just finished almost 11 hours of driving at 09:00 in the morning. Not my ideal driving time per se, but I do enjoy night driving because of the lack of traffic. Ready to "crash and burn" in the sleeper at 10:30 after a shower. I did take a 90 minute SB at around 04:30 to 06:00, had to get a "sleep cycle" in to refresh myself and be much more alert on the last leg of the drive.

 

First they will tell you what you want to hear.
Once your behind the wheel, they will tell you what you don't want to hear.
CYA no one else will.

 

The dispatch will do what they can to get more production out of you. The safety department will do what they can to make sure you're following the rules, and most of the time, safety has the say-so over dispatch.

I think one of the biggest problems is drivers not communicating with dispatch about their remaining available hours. A lot of the big companies will have macros on the qualcomm or what have you that are used for submitting your availability. This will help the load planners keep your truck productive while at the same time not pushing you over the limit. But a lot of the times, they don't receive your hours because no one has let them know - so they just book and schedule, being pressured by their boss to keep the fleet productive.

Communication is key, and we are not the Borg, we are not all connected to the hive mind (not yet, anyways), so the transfer of information throughout the company can be extremely difficult - and the bigger the company, the more this is a problem. So I think its important that the drivers be the first step in providing information.

That being said, some drivers can drive more than others. I routinely run 3,600mi a week, and get about 40 hours off. After 7-8 weeks of this, I normally take a week off to recuperate. I think an important factor is your schedule. If you're on a dedicated run, you quickly learn how to maximize both your working day and your sleeping time. Being irregular route = irregular sleep schedule as far as I have experienced.

As a new driver, you will have to build up your stamina. My first few weeks on the road wasn't the most productive, but my body got used to all of the driving.