Stevens Transport Aviary . . cont'

Well guys, after everything, all of which is better suited to Jerry Springer than the Aviary, my last day driving a keyboard is July 19th. I start training Aug 5th. The recruiter (as expected) promised the sun, the moon, the stars and everything underneath. Luckily, I know better. Thanks to you guys.

 

Welcome aboard and congratulations.

 

Ok. I really need to learn the trick to not running out of 70 on my HOS. This is a headache trying to plan around midnight, especially being a night runner who's dreadfully bad with math... lol
I hate taking 34s. Such a waste of precious productive time.

I have talked to other buzzard drivers that claim they haven't taken a 34 on the road in a long time; they just never run out.
Is it possible to plan around your hours and still run hard? I know some of these drivers are the types who won't drive more than 450-500 miles a day.
I run 600+ miles a day, and it seems to have made me a go-to driver, which I like (I guess its my silly need to feel needed and appreciated). Can I continue being go-to and get my hours under control?

 

I run 500 to 600 a day, but seldom do repowers so usually a restart is not needed as there is always one or two days a week spent loading or unloading...

In did just do a repower though because I will be one hour short on HOS to deliver. Such is life.

If you are running mostly nights, you need to learn to run your recap hours because as of July 1 a restart will require two overnight periods between 1 and 5 am, meaning you will have to take two nights off to get a restart, and unless you begin at 1900 it will take more than 34 to do a reset, and 168 hours will have to pass from when you started your last reset before you can take another. 1 week in other words.

In the old days, pre 2005 however, there was no such ting as a restart andnitnwas only 10 hrs a day... so everybody ran recap. Different world back then.

 

short answer nope.... if you choose to run hard, ie use up your 11 hours driving every day/night, then you will run out of hours every week. Now if you get some 2 and 3 day runs, then spend 1 day unloading and loading, which uses very few hours, then spend another 3 days running, you can run recap hours all the time, until a meat plant gives you a 34 hour reset while you wait for your load. Learning how to maximize your hours to your preferred schedule is the tricky part, and still make OTD.

 

Now do you guys get the unload/load bonuses?

 

What is this word "BONUS"? Never heard of it before.

 

I'm not even sure what you mean by load/unload bonus?
Extra pay for bumping a dock?
Nope. Part of the job, get used to it. That'd be like getting a bonus for backing into a spot at a truck stop or rolling onto a CAT scale...

Extra pay in the form of lumper fees for loading/unloading yourself?
We can supposedly do that, but I've never seen a Stevens driver do it, and some places won't let you on the dock, let alone load or unload...

 

Any more it can be pretty tough to do your own loading/unloading. Most consignees won't allow it. They require a 'pallet jack license' or some other reason you can't lump your loads, or they don't have a pallet jack for you to use. Once in a while.
Most of the major accounts won't accept Stevens lumper receipts.
I think I lumped about 4 loads my last year. One in particular that swore me off of it was a hand jack and 1200 pound skids.
It ain't easy and not worth it to me.
There are some loads, such as plant loads, where you are paid a little more to move the load to the rear of the trailer for the customer to take off.

 

Still at the house, working 5 days a week & babysitting our 20mo old grandson one day a week. BUT, I do have the desire to 'stow away' every Monday morning when he rolls out. He's doing OK, having the usual 'adjustment' problems you always get when you go somewhere new, but each week is a little better. The big bonus is he's home every week-end!!!