Time Management

When frieght (loads) is plentiful...use no more than 8.75 hours on duty per day.

When freight is slow...run as hard as you can...by the time you need a restart, the lack of freight usually catches up with you.

Sounds backwards...but its not.

 

Leave the door closed.

 

Sounds like a Smokey looking to find ways to check a drivers log and get the inside scoop.
If you're a driver, you'll figure it out for yourself and if you're the DOT, I've got nothing else to say.
Have a nice day

 

I run as hard as i can .... Max my hours every day then take a restart and start over. AT 8.75 x 7 = 61.25 Which is 8.75 hours a day for seven days i could only run 61.25 hours. If i max out every day in 5 days = 70 hrs i would take a restart now im at 6.5 days 5 days running and 1 1/2 days for restart and have used 70 and still have the rest of the seventh day to run so i run the remainder 12 of the seventh day and at the end of the seventh day i have ran a total 82 hours in seven days compared to the 61.25 if i would have only used the 8.75 a day. just how i do it some people dont like to run that hard and can still make good money and keep there dm happy. And some people dont like to sit and take a restart so you will have to find out what fits your way of running.

 

How do you do that when you have a 650 mile run you have to deliver tomorrow?

Know your recap and know how to do ETA's. Know how to maximize your logbook. Plan your breaks with your trip planning, knowing where you will stop and how long. The most important part is to maintain good communication and a healthy relationship with your dispatcher. The rest will come.

 

Yeah cuz drivers are so good at out smarting them


OP do the loads you legally can. Don't whine when they suck we all get a crappy azzed load time to time. As above keep that left door closed, shut off the rambo machine worrying about cops scales or seat covers.........


Just do your job in an orderly, legal, proficient manner and the money will be there at the end.

 

If you're looking to make as much money as you can you run as hard as the law allows and don't limit yourself to 8, 8.5, 9 hrs/day. That strategy may allow you to run for weeks on end without a restart but you make more money quicker if you exhaust all 11 hours or close to it every day, take your restart and then roll hard again.

The other thing is communicate well with your fleet manager. Let them know when you expect to be empty and how many hours you'll have left at that time. If you are running ahead of schedule call the receiver and see if they'll take you early, often times they will. If you don't mind sleeping at the receiver you can arrive the night before. This will help you in two ways: first, you can be first in line to be unloaded provided they take first come,first serve.. and second you can delay starting your 14 hour day. You must show 15 minutes unload time on your logs. So regardless of how long you were there, start your log book 15 minutes prior to sending your unloaded call.

Also trip plan so that you drive through congested cities at offpeak times. If you're taking a load from Columbus to Milwaukee you must drive through Chicago. If at all possible you plan it so you go through Chicago between 2300 and 0500, that will ensure you don't sit in a stop and crawl nightmare for hours, Same goes for NYC, Dallas, Atlanta. LA traffic is almost always bad but your best bet there is from 2300 to 0300.