The more hours that you are available to drive, the more miles you can go, and the more money you can make. Learning to manage your time and logbook correctly is a huge part of your success as a driver.
While much of the loading/unloading process is beyond the driver's control, there are some specific ways to manage your time to maximize your availability.
Essentially, the government only allows you to drive 11 hours a day, within a continuous 14-hour window.
You will be required to take a 34-hour break after driving 60 hours in 7 days, or 70 hours in 8 days.
Trucker's Forum Topics Tagged Hours Of Service
Today, the major carriers are all on electronic logs and before long everyone will have to switch over to electronic logs by law. But right now there are a ton of smaller companies out there that still do it the old school way. They expect you to "work the system" and figure out a way to make it happen.
Wiki - Hours Of Service Regulations (HOS) For Drivers
As a truck or bus driver, you will generally only be allowed a certain number of hours in a row behind the wheel, during a specific period of time, with a minimum amount of off-duty time, per the U.S. government. Any time spent working a second job, even a non-driving job, or carrier job in a non-driving capacity, will count as "on-duty time".
Time management will come with experience, but we are always here to help.
Increasingly, and soon to be by-law, companies are using electronic logbooks to track drivers hours, rather than paper. This generally requires more drivers to be driving "by-the-book".
Article - Rookie Drivers: Time Management Tips And Mileage Goals
If you're considering becoming a truck driver or you've recently attended a truck driving school you'll want to have some reasonable mileage goals in mind to shoot for when you start running solo and some ways of managing your time well.
Forum - Trip-plan my load for me
What I'm about to give you is a real world load that I just did. It's a tough one and any error in trip planning would cause a late delivery and service failure. But the good thing is, it's just practice... For now.
Forum - The Least Stressful Job For A Rookie Driver
I'm going to be the first to say "If you're CDL, you're always going to be stressed" You could try local company's, your local lumber yard, cement co. etc... BUT, the customer is going to want it his way, in this spot and at this time.
Article - Mama Said There'll Be Days Like This
Suddenly my plans are destroyed. I see a road sign that says "Indianapolis [however many] miles". NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!! This can't be happening! Someone is playing a joke by moving road signs, right???