How to manage HOS, 34hr reset and trip planning.

I don't like 34's so I average my hours.
That means an average of 8.75 hours per day of on duty/ drive time.

Most of that needs to be logged on duty. During the actual loading/unloading you can go off duty or sleeper berth, but you need to be on duty until you are docked and when you pull out.

 

Do you have a CDL? The company you choose to drive for will explain everything you need to know during training

 

Using an average speed of 50 mph is a conservative estimate that allows you to calculate an ETA and probably arrive before that ETA. The way to avoid a 34 hour reset while on a round trip that can't be done in less than 70 hours is to drive/work no more than 8:45 hours per day. If you have a day in your 8 day period that stretched beyond 8 hours and 45 minutes you need one day to be less than 8:45 by at least the same amount you exceeded the 8:45 day. So one day can have 9:00 hours of drive/work (they both substract from your 70 Hours). And another day can only have 8:30. You need to average no more than 8:45 per day of driving and on-duty time. If you do that you can always drive 8:45 tomorrow. If your appointment times require you to drive and work over 8:45 for several days, then you will eventually need to take a 34 hour reset or just drive whatever hours you gain after midnight.

Here's what I learned having to do 34s on the road. From my location in TN I could drive out to the West Coast deliver, and make it almost halfway back to TN before running out of hours. If you are going to run out of hours somewhere on the way back and have to take a 34, it doesn't matter to your HOS if you stop with 1 hour left on your HOS or with 20 hours on your HOS. So the advice I was given and followed and ignored, so now I follow it all the time is "if you have to take a 34, pick the location for that 34 that will be the most comfortable for you". You gain nothing by waiting until you have 15 minutes of HOS left and take a 34 in a convenience store parking lot or on an off-ramp shoulder except you gain a lot of discomfort and poor food choices. For example on a trip from Nashville to San Francisco, I could run out of HOS on the way back east of OKC, with little HOS left. Or, I could stop in the more pleasant Flagstaff, AZ with better food, shopping, and recreation options with 20 HOS hours left. In either case I would get back to Nashville at the same time. The one difference is if you expect to keep driving immediately when you get back to your company terminal. If you expect that, taking your 34 closer to your terminal will give you more HOS for the next trip after you get back to your yard. I always got another 34 once I got back to the company terminal. You do you.

Nobody will give you a gold star for taking your 34 in an empty parking lot. Take your 34 where you can be the most comfortable or have the most amenities, like laundry, showers, food options, etc.

 

One last thing, often your company will decide whether you need to drive your maximum available hours each day, or the appointments will require you to drive nearly your maximum legal hours per day. Some training materials and explanations from other drivers may make it sometimes seem like you will just decide on your own if you will be driving max hours or driving on "recaps", attempting to keep your daily driving and on-duty times to 8:45. If you basically have to do what the dispatcher assigns you to do, you may not have much choice in which one of these way to drive you can choose. A lot of this would be explained by your first company trainer or company or CDL school. As I remember your CDL school was pretty short, and you have only ridden with a company trainer for a week. I fear if you start working with so little training you will only be able to learn the hard way, from making mistakes, and making mistakes on your own can really harm your career. Of course, everyone makes mistakes. But with newbies who ride with trainers for a long time certain mistakes are less likely than someone with very little school or trainer input.

 

I try and keep rolling, no resets out on the road, occasionally, a few times a year I’ll take a reset out on the road if the stars align and I’m in a place where maybe there’s something to do and get out of the truck and I need the hours back but typically I try and run on recaps indefinitely. If I’m off I’d rather be home if possible. Plus, I think in the long run you come out ahead Versus the driver who takes resets every week unless they’re doing it at home. If you’re taking resets every week out on the road, you’re not coming out ahead.

 

You have not been reading your own thread.
Look at post #2.

When you are actually working - like when fueling or doing pre/post trip. you log on duty.
When you get to a shipper/receiver you are on duty until you hit the dock and are just sitting, and then you can go off duty.

"Just a rant or question though, what's the point of a 34 hour restart. Couldn't the FMCSA have kept it simple, 14 hour on duty and 10 hour break, every day."
Reset - not restart.

And it is so you don't burn yourself out with all those 14/10's.
Run that hard for very long, your brain and body are toast.
You get overly tired and start making mistakes that cost lives. Yours could be one of them.

Do the math.
14 hours equals 98 hours per week of on duty/driving.
No one in their right mind would work that many hours week after week.
No one in their right mind would let you.

 

No, FMCSA does whatever the FMCSA wants and decides and all of our opinions do not matter to the FMCSA. Because OTR runs on a 70 Hour/8 Day limit. You would run out of hours you could drive and be stopped at least until midnight on the 8th day. Here's the brutal truth about the HOS and every other regulation. Logic and a better alternative do not matter. The regulation is what it is and the Feds only enforce that reg. Even if there was a slightly safer HOS pattern that was safer AND less complicated AND provided better rest, it doesn't exist until the FMCSA adopts the new idea. The 34 hour restart was implemented to give a driver at least two 10 hour rest periods before starting to use a brand new 70 hours of driving/work. It's 24 hours off plus a full 10 hours rest break. If you just keep working week after week, it's barely mush rest at all because you will likely need to wash clothes, do some shopping, maybe take care of some issue with the truck or your gear, and then start working again. If you ae taking a 34 hour reset just so you can have HOS to drive home, it is too many hours to wait before you can go home. Before the 34 reset was implemented, it was not unusual to come up a couple of hours less than needed to get back to the company yard or get home, so you were forced to take a rest break (they used to be only 8 hours long) before you could drive on in to the yard or home. You could spend half of your "weekend" in the truck waiting to get to the yard or truck. EVERY alternative to the current 34 reset regulation will have other pros and cons. No alternative will be good for everyone. You just have to live with the regulations as they are now.

If you run recaps that means ALL on-duty activities and ALL work driving should not go over 8 hours and 45 minutes per day. So those on-duty activities eat into your 8 hours and 45 minutes per day. The more time you spend doing the activities you listed, the less driving you can do. Remember, the 8:45 is what you need to AVERAGE over the 7 day period, so you can even have a 9 plus hours drive/work day or even 9:30 or 10:30. But for every minute you go over the daily 8:45 on one day, another day(s) has to be short of the 8:45 by the same amount. When I had the ability I just aimed for 8:30-9:00 of work/drive time. If one day went slightly over 8:45, I focused on being short of 8:45 the very next day so I didn't forget or accumulate hours beyond my 8:45.