RECAP running - what happens to your 34 reset?

No, the 34 reset is optional.

You could run recap all year if you wanted to. You're just gonna have some short workdays once in a while.

My company likes to run reset, but when we get busy I've been out long enough to run recap.

 

The 34 reset is optional. You can run on your recap all you want.

My current company run us basically 14 hour day 6 days a week. So they plan on us doing a 34 reset every weekend. Some time I wish we did not have the 34 reset rule, like under the old HOS. It get old running 14 a day. But it pay pretty good money. It's not required and you can run recap all you want.

 

You can only drive if you've worked less than 70 hours in 8 days (7 previous and today). Once a day's hours are no longer within that window of time, they don't matter. If you take 34 conscutive hours off, that clears out your hours worked, resetting it to zero. For the next few days (until that 34 hour break is no longer in your previous 7), you're only counting the hours worked back to that reset.

You could work 8.75 hours per day, 7 days per week, 52 weeks per year, and never shut down for a reset. It is optional.

 

Running on recap hours is what happens when you burn up your 70 hours. You may still have hours remaining on your 70 hour clock, but those are due to continuing to receive recap hours available to you each midnight.

Your 34 hour reset is what provided you with the fresh 70 to begin with. To regain a new 70 hour clock means sitting for another 34 hours.

You might say your 34 hour reset 'expires' when you burn through your 70 hours.

Keep in mind that if you burn up your 70 hours in seven days, you'll have to wait at least 24 hours to begin recap hours.

Your Qualcomm will display hours that will become available one and two days ahead. Dispatch will know what hours are available beyond that.

 

I may be mistaken, but I believe the FMCSR rules allow you to take a 34 if you want to, even though dispatch may want to keep you running. And running. And running.

 

I run re-cap pretty often. Stay out three-four weeks.

Usually, run hard most of first week. Then dispatch gives me shorter loads.

Essentially, if you never work (on-duty time) more than nine hours daily, you’ll never run out of hours.

There aren’t any hard & fast rules. It will matter the specific job description, AND the way the company likes to keep the trucks moving.

At one job I had quite a lot of accessorial pay. So miles didn’t matter so much. Today, it’s all about daily miles. (And it ain’t the pennies per mile. One job is pretty well the same as another EXCEPT how you feel about it. Pay VERY close attention to specific feelings about specific responsibilities: you’ll be old someday like me).

Look at what you earn EACH DAY. The average of that tells you how it’s going. If I’m out three weeks then the daily earnings can be quite high AND quite low. So over that three weeks was I staying at $240/day? (for example). Or was it $180/day?

Some jobs the earnings don’t vary thru the year. Others, it can be quite high seasonally (crybabying drivers in the slow months).

So there’s a daily and a monthly earnings average. So now you’ll want to know on average what is my hourly pay? (Study logs).

Some guys can flat work harder than the rest. Others, like me, start to burn out at a high pace (you’ve enough experience and great record to choose the jobs; this is vital), so being willing to cover a few of those crappy runs the others don’t EVER want means I’ll also be given some of the fresh plums.

A typical trip for me is that I start with the runs for the customers to whom I’m dedicated. Run hard. Then a few crappy runs. Then some back-to-back GREAT runs as my hours have accumulated under those shorties.

Those shorties are where I can hit Wally, do laundry and get a haircut. Clean the truck. Work the latest radio gizmo project. Irritate my son with some long text messages. Etc. (Have to plan ahead and/or take advantage of a day’s situation).

Note: I don’t need to do truck re-supply or laundry when I get home. That’s done beforehand. Part of being OTR.

Understand that I have chosen a linehaul type drop & hook job with several major customers. So I can choose to start my days as early as 0300 and be done by or before 1600. Traffic is worst from 1100 to 2300. I barely move during those hours.

I get a shower, buy fuel, do laundry, etc sometime after I get up near 0200. (Do I care if the low-life’s park in the fuel line during the day? Why should I?).

As much as possible I work at my own pace. Before I leave the truckstop my Garmin GPS is loaded with every destination or waypoint for that day. I almost always know where I’ll stop that afternoon before I start the motor (no, other guys doing my same job aren’t doing this). The point to it is that there is a baseline. Dispatch calls and changes me up. Easy.

One has to be well-organized. It’s a roller coaster that doesn’t move all that fast. But it’s still up & down on daily/hourly pay. Have to be ready for any type run on any day. I might have to haul balls to meet a team to re-power. Burn every hour I’ve got. Not the time to run out of food or clean clothing. Etc.

At the end of a trip when I’m home that month for three days, how did I do? If I want “more” I have to further tighten what’s already strapped down. Then I can talk to dispatch about more miles weekly. (But they may not want to re-classify the way they dispatch me).

Can’t drop the ball. ELD & traffic plus weather can screw you big time running constant re-cap (no allowances for extra time per run). Organization, understanding compensation, and ready for anything is what works.

Did I say that organization matters?

Good luck.

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I don't believe there is such a rule anywhere in the FMCSA HOS regulations. There might be something like it in a union CBA.

 

Nothing happens to the 34. A 34 is not optional either. A driver does not "take" a 34. All the 34 hour does is after being off duty for 34 hours and otherwise following the requirements you get the 70 hours back. This is automatic. The carriers logging software is setup to reset itself when this happens. Hopefully better understanding what the 34 hour reset is NOT will help you with this question.

This 34 hour period is great for local and regional drivers that have scheduled days off each week. They can go home relax and start fresh on that first day back. All of this puts an OTR driver is no mans land. I have always said and will continue to say do not lock your self into one way of doing this. Back in my trucking days if I was running off recap or stopping long enough to reset was totally dependent on how the freight was running.

 

Another point of view.
The focus is your 70. Not your 34.
Don’t go over the 70. Bozo NoNo.