When Do I Start My Day?

I am stopped for the night about three and a half hours away from my destination. My 10 hour break is up at 4 a.m. so the soonest I could arrive is around 8 a.m.

The planner confirmed a live unload appointment at 1 p.m. tomorrow. I tried to call the destination this afternoon, but they had already gone for the day. So my question is, when should I leave? If I wait for the 1 o'clock appointment that is a lot of extra time doing nothing. If I leave early and suppose I arrive at 8 a.m., I might get a time slot to unload but then again I might have to wait, and burn my hours, until 1 p.m.

The basic difference between going in early and waiting until 1 p.m. is about 5 hours (about 1/3) of my daily HOS time. Even my DM at the moment is not sure which would be the better choice. Any suggestions?

Maybe call when they open? Dunno just throwing it out there

Do you have a preplan for your next load? Thats usually how i set up for something like that. I am usually always early, and most of the time they can unload me early but ill base when i start my clocks by when i have to pick up the next load

Completely depends on the company you're delivering to.

I tend to not agonize over decisions like this. As long as I'm burning my 70 and have next to no hours when I get hometime it doesn't make much difference either way.

If you take a lot of 34's then I can understand trying to burn through the 70 as fast as you can. In that case, it's a crapshoot either way.

However, get there as early as you can, and even if they won't unload you early you probably will have an 8 hour sleeper berth break by the time you are unloaded and dispatched again, halting your 14 and giving you the same time remaining as if you had showed up at 1pm.

If it were me and I had no follow up assignment yet, I'd get there 2-3 hours early. Most of my live load/unloads can take me that early.

If, however it is a big food distributor with lots of live loads or one of the factory types, I might go closer to the appointment time.

My logic is that if I'm 3hrs early and they don't get me until appointment time, there's 3hrs built into your 14hr clock.

You're a really smart guy though. I'm guessing you just wanted to see how many people agree with what you were thinking.

:)

You're a really smart guy though. I'm guessing you just wanted to see how many people agree with what you were thinking.

Errol- is Steve right? To see how many people agree with you?

I would probably get there early.

Pastor suggests:

Maybe call when they open?

Assume they open at 7am. I call, get the go ahead, drive 4 hours, arrive at 11. That's two hours before my scheduled time! What's the use?

Jake Brake asks:

Do you have a preplan for your next load?

A small jet crashed in Akron yesterday afternoon. You may have seen it on the news. It cut out the electricity at my shipper so I had to wait overnight to pick up this load. So I lost my next pre plan. My DM has not sent me a new one yet.

Daniel points out:

Completely depends on the company you're delivering to.

Yes it does. I don't know how close they stick with their appointment times.

Matt just burns the hours:

As long as I'm burning my 70 and have next to no hours when I get hometime it doesn't make much difference either way.

The destination is near Greenville SC. My next stop is home at Memphis. I need the right hours to live unload, deadhead to a pickup, and arrive legally in Memphis by Friday night. (Greenville to Memphis is a 10 hour trip itself.)

Chances are someone here has delivered to the same place if you post it and might have an idea.

Early and 8 hour sleeper still gives plenty of time to get another load and get to Memphis. On time and using the rest of your 14 shouldn't be an issue either.

The 8 hour sleeper also gives the option of taking two more hours or a split for any wonkiness on a specific dispatch to get you home. When loading to a specific location there's not always a wealth of options so might be a load picking up later that night or even early am Friday.

Steve makes an observation:

You're a really smart guy though.

Jetguy asks two questions:

Errol- is Steve right? To see how many people agree with you?

#1: Yes

#2: I haven't come up with a solution yet, so there is nothing to agree with yet. But I do appreciate the input.

This is a real situation. I'm not sure exactly what to do. Obviously I will deliver this sometime tomorrow I just want to see what other people's thoughts are. And thank you all for your contributions. I will keep you all posted to what I do and how it all turns out.

This is a dedicated run , & I almost always get home for the weekend and a 34 hour break there.

I think the problem to solve is to have at least 15 hours of drive time left to make it back to Memphis by Friday night. At the same time, my DM prefers I'm driving, not sitting, don't you think?