Weekly 34 hour resets

As a Canadian, the very concept of "running on recaps" baffles me (not that I don't understand how it works, I just am used to running a 14 hour day when running a highway log sheet). With a 70 hour in 7 day limit, it's impossible to do such a thing when you work 14 hours a day.

Sure, you COULD run 10 hours a day, but who in their right mind, running a truck governed to 105 km/h is going to do that? You are not going to make any money with only 750-800 km (I'd very much like to see someone running legally get their average speed up over 90km/h in a day with the construction we have on all our major highways in the summer).

Maybe @Dye Guardian has the answer I'm looking for.

This is why if I ever buy my own truck (very unlikely unless lottery winnings) it will be 1999 or older. Not that I don't like the prospect of less paperwork... but in case of emergency, the potential is there to make it work.

 

Don't forget the 24 off requirement!

 

Do you run 70 or 140 Dye?

 

But if you work everyday, how would you lose money?

 

I stopped trucking in 2001/2002 over the road, I stopped trucking permanently in 2012 as a foreman providing experience based help for those new drivers with CDL's either unfamiliar with Automatic or the old Manuals. Possibly air start tractors too etc. for a range of vehicles sent to auction in the heavy truck class.

I have never had a 34 hour rest. When we burned our 70 hours as a Team, we waited overnight for a nice night's sleep and got our hours back next day and rolling again. As a single it might take half a day's wait based on Midnight with the old paper logs to begin a new work day with fresh hours.

With that said, I know what a 34 reset is. Even old dogs can learn new things. I don't see this time period as any different than say a day consumed in doing laundry, showers etc that you neglected during your previous 8 days running your 70 hours off as a single driver. You can do quite alot in that 70.

Working a cement plant local ready mix put in 60 to 80 hours overtime, no logs in sight except for the handful of stone 18 wheelers and bulk tankers required to have them in Class A intrastate. I worked a front end loader most of the time so... it's not really considered work. I enjoyed it very much.

It is good, to have adquate entertainment in the form of a laptop with a DVD movie software and stream it to a larger screen in the sleeper cab or shell out the 70 dollars and get the CDL Discount cash for a nice Hamptons Hotel or something. Way better than suffereing in a sleeper cab for the supposed rest period in the middle of no where.

We have a long way to go with our Laws. They need to be more fluid and flexible. 16 hours rest is all I need and Im back up. These days not even 8 hours im good to go for the next 50 if need be.

 

8.75 hours in 8 days you can theoretically Drive is 70 hours. If I drive 6 days at 11 hours each, take the rest of day 6 and all of day 7 off get my hours back to start dy 8, I can run another 11 which is 77 hours in the same 8 day period

 

Well let's do the math. 8.75 hours times 7 days times lets say 50 miles an hour at $.0.40 cents per mile = $1225.00

Now let's look at 10 hours a day times 7 days times 50 miles perhour at $0.40 cents per mile = $1400.00

Now doing it this way, one week you'll be paid 7 days and the next week 6 days due to the nature of the cycle. So--

10 hours a day times 6 days times 50 miles per hour at $0.40 cents per mile = $1200

Take $1400 + $1200 divide by 2 = $1300 you have beaten the 8.75 hours per day driver by $75 bucks a week. Over a 40 week period that is $3000 extra dollars in your pocket.

 

Yes.

There to clarify for some, myself included... there was a sudden movement in these Truckers Report by some drivers who think they can make a good living (Paraphrasing....) at 1200 miles a week not driving very far each day. Theoretically never running out of hours. Theoretically reducing fuel costs, tire costs etc. Wear and tear would just be the chair and mattress among other things.

As a Trucker who is life long, anyone who do not show ambition to run 3000 miles or so per week which is one good Coast to Coast run by a single or 6000 plus miles as a team, a round trip coast to coast. Does not have debt, a house, kids to feed etc.

If you can make a living at 1200 or whatever self imposed limit then I congratulate you first and then call a underground strike effort second. Which would be successful anyway because most fleets average 2000 to 2600 per week with singles and twice that with teams.

The companies will not make enough revenue to keep you inside your assigned company truck at 1200 per week. I did that for 4 weeks once with Port East in Baltimore in a effort to join everyone else who likes to sit in the lunch room in Baltimore between boxes to and from yard and port. Transfer a couple boxes per day on what works out to be twice minimum wage if paid hourly for the least amount of physical effort, sacrifice and risk. I was pulled into the big Office and asked by the Owner "Are you independently wealthy? Are you pretending to be a Trucker while I pretend to pay you?"

That was in 1988. They identified the losses incurred by non revenue generating employees and closed the lunch room which by then had become a 24/7 truckstop to sit and tell stories in. Now a Coffee Pot serves the purpose, no chairs.

Im trying to stay on the topic of Young People going into trucking choosing deliberately to run very few miles a week. Call it one load picked up and carefully delivered with about half the potential hours run.

Now...

Considering this carefully, if the fear of the ELogs have caused our Young Truckers to behave this way fearing the almighty and all knowing Elogs to shut them down in places they refuse to sit (Understandable, Gravel lot on the side of the highway is not conductive to social development or actual rest....)

I throw my weight and support/Love behind the young ones who are not themselves feeling secure in the training in Hours of Service and Electronic Logs that they should have received and continue to receive until they are identified as Professional.

Uncle Sam made a large error which damaged our Industry and will continue to damage our Industry as a Mineral suffers a systematic fracturing along weaknesses identified with this new ELogs effort to crack down on and remove really dangerous drivers who disregard Hours of Service on paper logs. (Like I was at one time long ago...)

The States contribute to this damage by blindly repeating chapter and verse of Laws Written by Interns for aging senators and representatives who cannot be bothered to spend the time to learn about the Industry. Such matters as Hours of Service are best left to Tenured Experts who have not touched a 18 wheeler outside of DC, if ever in thier ivory tower think tanks I would argue. Since the Lobbying Industry is far greater in it's base of Power among the Industry Carriers, Owner Operators and Lease Drivers, all of whom have a voice in these new laws. One can argue even Maritime Shippers going to the Ocean, Trains and those in Express such as Fed Ex, UPS and many others too many to count here are all impacted by HOS legislation.

Some of you say go to Congress in Washington DC (OR better yet, get elected same...) and change the Laws you do not agree to or like in these United States. We are supposed to be a free country. But success in Commerce. Over the road trucking is not a guaranteed right as to that which provides for your Pursuit of Happiness.

I think some of your eyes have glazed over. Im just getting started. I'll leave it here. The more I think about our Young Truckers making a deliberate consious choice to run one or two loads a week for the imaginary 1200 miles or whatever value is way less than the industry average... the more I want to support same.

Computers serve us. They are not our Masters.

 

I do a 34 every week sometime two. I have absolutely no problem making good money.

 

70.