Quick Question About The 34 Hour Reset

Hey all,

When everyone is talking about making 35-40k first year as a driver and then more after that, what sort of hours does that entail? The 70 hour workweeks I can deal with, as well as being away from home always, but if most companies are going to expect me to basically never take the reset by starting work again at midnight on the 8th day (or however it works), I think that might be the proverbial last straw for me in terms of whether or not to start this career.

Thanks

I've been out nearly a month solo and have never taken a reset. If you work your clock right you don't have too.

While this means working every day, I have had days where I was off duty nearly 24 hours.

Keep in mind, if the wheels aren't turning, you aren't making money! So taking 34 hours off can potentially hurt you financially.

You will generally run on recaps, for most OTR jobs. It will not likely be starting at midnight on the day when you get hours back (although it can be when you are running against the 70 on a tight delivery).

Although at times you will be fighting against your 70, for the most part you will have a little bit of time banked and most people keep to some kind of schedule.

For example, I like to run nights so I'll usually start my days at 8 or 9 pm. Now if I get a load that doesn't fit into that schedule for either the delivery or pickup I'll run whatever times I have to and get it there. But most of the time I'll be running in that schedule.

The busier you are, the more miles, the more likely you are to get away from the schedule you like to run.

You probably won't take many 34s unless you get a home weekends type gig where you run hard 5 to 6 days and 34 at the house. Generally when I was solo I would only do 34s when I had too much time on a load and couldn't drop it at a yard or deliver early, not often.

I think I only took two because I ran 70 hours up in 6 days, over the course of a year and a half.

Richard, the top tier drivers who turn the big miles will run whatever schedule it takes to keep those wheels turning. They also learn a lot of tricks along the way like how to get loaded and unloaded ahead of schedule and they get along great with dispatch.

As with any other career you'll find various levels of ambition out there. Some drivers are happy with 2,200 - 2,500 miles per week. Others try to hit 3,000 miles every week. The biggest factor that determines the type of miles you'll be getting will be you. If you're safe, hard working, reliable, and easy to get along with the company will give you as many miles as you can stand. If your performance falls short of the top tier drivers you're simply not going to be given the big miles the way they will.

Now there will be times you'll have the opportunity to either run a load extra hard and try to get it delivered early, or you can keep the existing schedule and have a more relaxed run. There will be times you can push your dispatcher to give you all the miles they can dig up, while other times you might be getting run down from several weeks of hard running and you can let dispatch know you won't be angry if they give you a couple of easier days.

But in the end, no matter how you would like to run, there will be times you'll have to run all kinds of crazy hours. Your schedule will be pretty erratic. And the company will expect you to be incredibly flexible. That just comes with the territory. If you have hours available they will expect you to use them if they have something for you to haul.

Will you be forced to run harder than you would like? No, not really. They can't force you to drive. But what they can do is let you sit around going broke. If they find you're simply not as ambitious as the top tier drivers they'll put you on a lower tier and feed you whatever leftovers are available, if any. So while other drivers are averaging 2,700 miles per week, you might average 2,100. Trust me, that's a lot of time sitting around at truck stops twiddling your thumbs and a lot of money that will never make it to your wallet.

I don't think there's many people out there that would consider OTR trucking a "casual lifestyle" or "pleasant travelling". It's pretty hardcore. You'll put in a ton of hours and most nights you'll be asleep before your head even hits the pillow. Over time you'll learn to push yourself hard enough to make a good paycheck but no so hard as to burn out. In the beginning that's probably about 2,200 - 2,500 miles per week. Once you get even a few months experience you'll learn how to manage your time better and you'll adjust to the erratic schedules. You'll be able to turn 2,500 - 3,000 miles per week consistently without burning out.

Thanks for all of the insightful replies, everyone.

Due to the need to cut some expenses and just make money to pay off some looming debt, I'll probably end up just sucking it up and running as hard as I can anyway. I appreciate knowing how it actually works out there though.

Honestly, either way you can make good money, as for me and my co-driver, we decided we like to bust our tails for a week and take that 34 reset to recoup, granted its usually a rolling reset with teams so 24 hours off but that feels like vacation when your teaming.

But in the end, no matter how you would like to run, there will be times you'll have to run all kinds of crazy hours. Your schedule will be pretty erratic. And the company will expect you to be incredibly flexible. That just comes with the territory. If you have hours available they will expect you to use them if they have something for you to haul.

So, I assume, DMs/LPs have up-to-the-minute access to what their drivers have left in the way of HOS... and they make their load assignments based on that data, unless the driver has planned time-off and/or has left them know they prefer something different... right? In other words, they likely will not assign you a load that you have no way of delivering on time.

But in the end, no matter how you would like to run, there will be times you'll have to run all kinds of crazy hours. Your schedule will be pretty erratic. And the company will expect you to be incredibly flexible. That just comes with the territory. If you have hours available they will expect you to use them if they have something for you to haul.

So, I assume, DMs/LPs have up-to-the-minute access to what their drivers have left in the way of HOS... and they make their load assignments based on that data, unless the driver has planned time-off and/or has left them know they prefer something different... right? In other words, they likely will not assign you a load that you have no way of delivering on time.

Based on what I've seen so far, that would be my guess. My DM always knows how many hours I have when I call and how many hours I'm getting back in recaps.

I've gotten loads that I didn't know how I was going to deliver on time but they always worked out. Dispatch even explained how to work the 8/2 split so that I was able to deliver on time.

Although I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to work this next load... Sometimes I get lost on how the recap hours work and why my clock is what it is.

Thanks Chickie... you're killing out there... stay safe.

I've been out nearly a month solo and have never taken a reset. If you work your clock right you don't have too.

While this means working every day, I have had days where I was off duty nearly 24 hours.

Keep in mind, if the wheels aren't turning, you aren't making money! So taking 34 hours off can potentially hurt you financially.

it can also make you more money. burning your 70 and doing a reset can get you over 80 hours in a week.

Resetting is not bad when you are not getting hours back for a few days.