What I don't understand about the new HOS regulations...

LMAO I love the smartphone hours available app! We should present the idea to FMCSA

 

I didn't run close to 70 much but ran 3 or 4 12 - 14 hour days in a row pretty often running turnarounds between KY and TX or KY and VA .

 

I get too antsy waiting on a reset..can't stand being still that long. Haven't done a reset in months

 

That's exactly right. Back when I started driving (2000), there was no such thing as a reset. You had to manage your hours within the 6/7 day window, or you would have to take a day off to allow hours to "drop off" your recap.

 

That would really screw those of us who work local.

Then again, I think those of us who work local need a different set of HOS rules than do those of you who run OTR.

 

only thing is you can set your minimum driving hours per day but loads and customers don't work that way.

 

To some extent, true. But one would be surprised how they can set things up so that it would work. We have done things for so long a certain way, that we forget we don't actually have to do it that way. There are many times that, as part of the load plan, I work out the delivery time on what I am bringing. I start working on it even before I pick it up, and finalize it usually after I get loaded. I don't just settle all the time for the "written in stone" nonsense unless it doesn't put all the pressure on me. Communication is everything. It can make a huge difference in how things get done if folks would just communicate with each other. When I run into those situations, and no one will budge, and they want me to be some sort of miracle worker that puts my rear end at risk, I usually just pass and go on to something else. I am not that desperate to haul someone's product, and if no one is placing a serious premium on what I get to do it, then they can find another truck. You don't get premium, air freight service for the same rate as regular stuff. I had one of these situations a couple of weeks ago. I just turned the load down, put together something for the next week, and went home early for the weekend.

 

In those days I worked for an industrial cleaning company and we would run trucks on site at power plants running 12 hour days for 2 weeks or more straight . When the job was completed the company would pay me to sit in a hotel for a couple of days to have enough hours to drive the truck back to the shop .