Whats Best?

No rude comments. Good luck!

 

You're correct; no reason for a 34 hr. reset unless you just want to waste time.

 

I had a terminal manager like that; had no idea what he was doing concerning HOS. He threw a fit with me because I only drove 7 hrs. one time, then took a 10 hr. break. I tried to explain to him that I still would get to my appointment about 13 hours early and Fuji was very strict and would not let the truck in even 5 minutes early. He said, that doesn't matter, you should always run out all of your driving time. If I drove like he insisted, I would have gotten to the customer about 18 hours early and have to sit in a dirt lot the whole time with no restroom or food facilities. He still couldn't understand my rationale. If I had taken a break at the truckstop about 20 miles away, he still wouldn't understand why I stopped when so close to the customer, even though the customer won't let you in the gate even minutes before the scheduled appointment.

 

The best is to stay flexible and do what is best for the situation you might find yourself in. Sometimes a 34 makes sense and sometimes it don't.

 

You can run more miles overall by running your time out as quickly as possible and then doing a 34.
That means you can make a little more money.
And it is assuming that you get the miles to run like that on a consistent basis.

But I have found that running that way creates an easy burn out situation, and it may be a main cause of driver fatigue.

Running 12-14 hours a day, everyday for a week, and then crashing for a day and a half - then repeating the process over and over again - is just asking for an accident.
In my opinion, anyway.
Especially with the demanding nature of our work to be alert and responsive through hours on end driving a big rig, then being expected to do everything on either end of the load with the same alertness in even more difficult backing situations.

Some would say that, that is what trucking is. If you can't run that way then you have no business being a truck driver.
Many DM's seem to think that way.

But to me, this is simply the job I am doing at the moment.
It may be a career and a lifestyle and all that, but it is still just a job. Pure and simple.
I won't burn myself out to please someone else.

 

Youre not losing anymore than 11 hours driving by doing a 34. Figure a 10 hour break - 14 hours to drive 11 followed by another 10 hour break. Personally I always preferred to run my clock out. Do a 34 and run again. You’re losing much more time trying to manage your 8.75 hour day or whatever the math is.

 

It's funny, but we have a computer program like that.

I'm sent a 'suggested trip plan' message with every load. It is computer generated.
It says when to start my clock, based on when I sent my empty call.
Do the pre-trip, then drive 8 hours. Then take the 30 minute break and drive until...
Get to the final and wait there until the delivery time.
And at every step in the process it spits out the hours I have left on my 70/11/10/8...

No accounting for fuel stops, short rest stops, longer than a strict 10 hour break, delays due to traffic or construction, actual speed limits, etc..
And many planners seem to think those time are very reasonable.

A person, or many people, were paid a lot of money to come up with this lame excuse for a program.
It is totally worthless, but it is still in use after several years.

 

That's true. Sometimes it does make sense. The driver should have the final say on that also, not some pencil pusher in the office.