Will I have enough time to make this delivery tomorrow?

I’m in a bad position. I have a delivery tomorrow in Kissimmee FL at 8 am. I tried to get within 15 miles of the customer but there was NO parking anywhere at 8 pm today. I then had to drive 50 miles back the way I came to one of our terminals to park. I got here at 10 pm. The customer is about an hour away. I’m driving through Orlando and so there maybe traffic so I was going to wake up at 6:20 am. Thing is, I just realized I wouldn’t be able to do a 10 hr reset so I called my dispatch. He told me to do a 7/3 split and walked me through what to press on the ELD. How does 7/3 work bcuz he didn’t explain it. Do I get the hours back I had on my 14 left? I had 1 hr 20 mins on my 14. GPS says I’m 1 hr and 7 mins away from customer. That will most likely turn into 1 hr 30 minutes tomorrow morning because of traffic. Am I SOL?

 

If you’re in Sleeper Berth you’ll get 1:20 back after 7 hours.

 

That’s what I thought. This is bad. Night shift acts like they don’t know anything.

 

Split sleeper birth!

 

In theory, yes you'll be able to make it. You'll probably run out of time very close to delivery. At that point you have two options- switch to yard move and creep in or go full send and eat the violation. Either way make sure you document the discussion you hade with OPs.

Going forward, while getting close to delivery is ideal, it isn't always practical or productive. There are a lot of times laying up short is the smarter plan. Had you stopped at the terminal you'd be able to easily make on time delivery AND would have two more hours on your 70. Sure, if you'd found a spot where you were hoping to you'd have an extra hour on your 14, but it's a big risk with little reward.

A couple years ago I had a load heading to somewhere near Rocky Mount, VA. I elected to shut down early at the Beckly Travel Plaza and set my availability accordingly. The computer plan figured I'd be able to make it all the way to the customer and overrode my inputs. I got assigned a load I couldn't do, so I called in. The person I talked to told me I had drive time available so I should press on. My response was where am I going to park? Sure I could have run OOR to Ft Chiswell and gotten a hour closer, but still wouldn't have made OTD on the next load. She listed a couple of truck stops close to delivery, but none I'd try and park at after 1700 local. She tried to push the issue and I told her to service fail me so we could set up a meeting with her, the planner, and the Medium Sized Safety Critter to discuss my failures as a driver. I even suggested we invite Training Video Stu to record the whole thing as an object lesson.

The moral of the story - plan conservatively unless you have a guaranteed spot to park. I will gladly run into a company terminal or someplace like Iowa 80 with 1 minute left. Anyplace east of the Appalachia Mountains, yeah no. Anyplace within an hour of a major metropolitan area? Forget about it. Strict appointment time? Take the guaranteed spot even if it means shutting down early.

Good luck and let us know how things work out tomorrow.

 

I personally wouldn't care what dispatch says. Make the delivery on time and if you're fired, don't worry, we'll find another job for you.

 

You probably cut it real close if you didn't make it on time. Florida isn't exactly the best place for trucks when it comes to parking. It's a good number of truck stops and rest areas in Florida, but the problem is that its a million and one trucks traveling in Florida. The idea to making a split work it to leave drive time available. You sat for 7 hrs so you'll drive out that one hour and 20 min. Once that tike is ran out, you'll need to park for 3 hrs. Then that finishes the remainder of your 10 hr break. At that you point you'll have 9 hrs and 40 minutes available to you. The system will have already accounted for the 1 hr 20 minutes you drove, so its basically a continuation if your day. The 8 and 2 works the same way. It doesn't give you more hrs to drive, it just pushes the 14th hour farther back. I always tell drivers that if they are at a shipper for 1 hr and 30 min, it makes sense to just sit there the last 30 min. That way, you have 2 hrs out of the day that mean something. Drivers need to learn to make every minute mean something if they want to maximize earnings and productivity.

 

Did you make it ? Another option to remember is Personal conveyance. It’s not legal but unless the DOT stopped you to check logs in the next 7 days. If company let driver do personal conveyance they won’t say anything if is something reasonable. Remember you stoped because run out of hour. Then Personal conveyance to McDonalds to get something to eat

 

I would drive to the receiver on the my drive clock entered at receiver then pc to a safe parking put forced to move and get the security guards name and pc back for appointment

 

Well, you probably don't have a lot of experience, but once you do you'll probably know better were you can and can't find a place to shut down. I had probably a dozen different 'emergency shutdown locations' I knew of all across the northeast and the upper mid-west before I started doing a regular route. I remember a nearly-abandoned mall lot on US 6 in NW Indiana, a snowplow turnaround on top of a mountain jut north of Breezewood, PA, an an old parking lot outside a closed factory near Wilmington, DE, etc..... Never expect to park at a receiver overnight unless you call first! Otherwise, shutdown somewhere you can count on within a 1 hour drive...