Team Driver Log Books

Easy. Drive solo run 2 log books.

 

We drive 11, then post/pre/fuel at the same time.
Time lost in 24: two 30 min DOT breaks, 3 driver changes including fuel 1.5 hr =

22 hr rolling. 2 hr mandatory compliance for breaks, fuel and inspections.

Our truck is governed at 80mph. But we don't run it that fast. We figure about 1400 miles a day flat out with no stops for load/unload. Figure you lose 60-70 miles for every hour of stupid. More miles rolled in the overnights due to less traffic, etc.

That puts you on 12 hour days. 5 days full schedule, 6th day 10 hrs = out of time. Guaranteed you will need time for shower/groceries/laundry. First driver will spend his first 10 in sleeper while driver 2 finishes his week. Park for 24hr. Driver 1 fires up and the last 10 of driver 2's reset is rolling in the sleeper. This is how teams do a rolling reset.

To keep rolling isn't always possible under load. Basically you can only run 8.75 hours a day including pre/post/fuel. You can work the split sleeper, but at some point you're gonna have to park until one of you can come back on. That's if you never want to run out of hours. Odds are, your customers hired a team for a reason and they need that load ASAP. So, not always possible.

Plus, you'll still need that shower, cowboy.

 

Unless you are on a dedicated coast to coast team run, it's rare to not be waiting at some point to load, unload, or get a new dispatch. As @miss elvee noted, your best bet is to split the day into 12 hour shifts. It doesn't matter if you had to wait to load, unload, or get a dispatch on your shift, when your 12 hours are up your partner takes over.

Sometimes you may not work at all during your 12 hour shift. THEN you can get what's known as a "rolling 34". Let's say your teammate delivered a load and parked at a truck stop, but you don't yet have a dispatch. You log off duty and wait all day for a dispatch and when it comes it is just in time for your teammate to start his shift. Now you are 24 hours into not working, 12 hours in the sleeper berth and/or off duty. By the time your teammate finishes their shift you have been off duty or sleeper berth for 36 hours, so you get a "rolling reset".

Eventually one or both of you might run out of hours, so you might have to park the truck for 10-12 hours. Sometimes it's better strategy to BOTH get a 34 hour reset because you are both low on hours, BUT you don't have to park the truck for 34 hours, only long enough for one of you to have a 34 and let the other catch a rolling 34.

I ran a dedicated coast to coast for six months. The customer required our teams to have 34 hour resets every week on the west coast, then run cross country and back in time for the next 34.

 

What @Lepton1 said is true. You only use 12s on a turn n burn dedicated. Although Mr. E and I try to keep the same general schedule. It helps with fatigue. Anything after 1800 is my pick up, anything after 0600 is his. It will be very rare to push that hard with no dedicated lane.

Except around Christmas. Some years they just run your tail feathers off.

 

I did the team thing for a while. One thing I can say about teaming is that I NEED a 34 almost weekly if not every other, whether I have hours or not. Constantly moving even while sleeping can't be healthy. Your quality of sleep with be absolute garbage no matter how soundly you sleep. I was averaging about 4 hours of broken sleep per night between climbing up in the sleeper to see what all the engine braking and the airborn sleeper time was all about. Needless to say you welcome a 34 after a 7000 mile week. Especially if there is no downtime between loads. We found ourselves making the 34 a weekly reward for a week of turn and burn and we always set it up so we would be in Denver so we could park and stay at the Marriott up the street that had a lunch and dinner menu, with a full bar.

Constantly moving, I wouldn't be able to last very long teaming. I also prefer my 34 not to be rolling.

 

I think the only reason I have teamed for so long is that I team with my hubby. I can only sleep in a moving vehicle when two people drive: my dad or my hubby.

For everyone else I am the perfect road trip companion: the navigator who never sleeps and knows all the best routes. Lol.

 

Wow! All that drama just to run team, with no time to really relax.
I hope you know that all the added stress will simply shorten your lifetime by several years, or decades.
I think one has to be either young and gung-ho or old and desperate to run those hours. But it will burn you out.

You don't have to run like that to get decent miles and money.

And you do not have to demure to your company to get your way. All you have to do is set some personal standards.
All it takes is some backbone, and the ability to say "NO" when you feel the need.

 

What most drivers out here do not understand is that WE control how we run our hours.