Team Driving and hours of service

I know a few guys that run teams and they split the daylight hours. So if the sun is coming up at 6 and going down at 8 they would switch halfway through the day that way both had day and night driving and sleeping.

Also I think resets are easier because in theory the truck could be moving for 11 hours of your reset.

 

Start your 34 when you'd normally end your shift, then finish it w/ your regular 10 hour break.

 

I think it is best to split the day 12/12 in order to keep your biorhythm equilibrium. No matter whether you have a lot of wasted time and few miles on your shift, stick to the schedule. At times one partner or the other will have used more of their 70, but stick with that 12/12 if you don't want to be constantly running against "jet lag". Don't be a hero driver on the team, trying to use your 14 to the maximum to get your total 11 hours. Be equal with the 12/12 as much as possible.

Regarding the 30 minute break, I've driven team before and after that rule. One thing to remember about team driving is that you are often on long multi day runs, with rare opportunities to stop and shower. I use the 30 minute break to shower. Before my shift I have my shower kit on the passenger seat, ready to go. I've consistently been able to shower and shave and be back to the truck with plenty of time for a smoke before my 30 is up. Another use for the 30 is a quick stop at a Walmart to restock the cooler.

By far the most aggravating aspect of the new HOS is the 34 hour reset, requiring two consecutive 1 to 5 AND you can't take another reset within 168 hours of the last one. I'm hoping congress acts on this one.

 

Can someone please explain how a team does their hours day by day with the 34 hour restart? Is there a team on here that can give me their routine day by day over a week period? Also how does driving during the day compare to at night with the responsibilities. We are thinking of splitting ours 7a-7p and 7p-7a. What is it like for the day shift person vs the night shift person? Is one more difficult than the other?

 

We do the 12 hour windows. Night shift driving can be more taxing on the alertness, but it's much easier to turn miles due to the lack of traffic. Whoever drives days may have shifts with considerably less miles than the night shifter but more stress involved during those miles.

Loading/unloading varies from customer to customer, but Mike and I seem to have a 60/40 split (rough guesstimate), with a bit more day time stops than night.

If you go the 12 hour window route, I wouldn't pass judgment on the daytime driver simply because they're not driving as many miles because the night shifter has the opportunity to really shine in that department. If the night shifter isn't turning the miles, it's time to look into ways to improve performance.

 

Thank you Stile your answer was VERY helpful to us. What company are you and your team mate with? I agree. We are not fretting over who gets more miles over the other because I know there is more traffic congestion in the day time. I (Samantha) will most likely be the day driver because I don't seem to have the best night vision. He (Terry) will probably do nights. Would anyone say it is harder or easier to drive one shift over the other? I would think days would be more difficult or stressful because you have to deal more with more idiot drivers and traffic. How tiring is it to drive a manual truck in traffic with the shifting?

Also does the 12 hour window seem to work best? My CDL school instructor was saying something about how we should do 3-3 then 8-8. That it would be a way to "bypass" the 30minute required breaks.

 

Bypassing the 30 minute break isn't optimal for every team. I typically take 1-2 breaks during my shifts to maintain alertness. It's easier to keep alertness up than it is to fight the sleepiness. Breaking the shift up into 3 segments works well for me on nights. YMMV, of course.

Mike & I are with John Christner Trucking. Under their new lease program, I wouldn't recommend teams come here unless you want to own a truck quicker than other lease opportunities, because 1/3 of your settlement will go to your truck (practically speaking, not on paper).

JCT is primarily a solo driver operation, so it can be a challenge to keep things rolling smoothly as a team. That said, the people are quite nice and work hard to keep us happy.

As far as ease of driving, I've been a night owl since my teens (quite a difficult time in high school!), so I naturally opted to do the night driving when Mike & I teamed up. He was thrilled with that because he loves daytime driving. It's really up to what the driver is most comfortable doing.

 

I always did 10/10. My body clock is tuned to that. My girl doesn't do well at night so we will be closer to 12/12 now that she is on board.

 

Stiles comments are spot on. I run 5 pm to 5 am and generally get more miles during the night, depending on where our EC destination is and whether we hit traffic. Generally day shift is the one bus picking up live loads (unless we do a drop and hook) on a dedicated account. As Stiles noted, it is more stress and deals with most of the traffic issues. I run night. You REALLY need to be committed to shutting down and sleeping during the day. Even on my 34 I maintain my schedule. If you get tired, you get tired. I stop and take a 1 hour nap sometimes (extending a 30 minute break to a full hour). I like to break my 11 hours with 3 breaks for 4 shifts. More if I have to.My team runs coast to coast (LA to EC and back) each week and take a 34. The 34 is the biggest hassle for team driving right now, often causing us to lose far more than 34 hours for the night driver each weekend. Still we are able to run coast to coast easily with 5,000+ per week. We would run until our 70 was out, but the customer has loads ready only on certain days.