To 34 Or Not To 34, That Is The Question!

My FM doesn't allow them. If I have five hours left on my 70 he wikk run me that five hours then get my hours at midnight.

Only get 34/on home time

My last dispatcher was like that. I hated it, I felt like I was always pressed for time and stressed out. Running out my days and reseting makes me feel better and I'm less stressed and yeah just a generally much better person to be around then lol.

I'd rather get as far as I can as fast as I can and take a reset. This week I did 2900 miles and got a reset in the middle of it. The load I'm getting in the morning won't allow me to do that, so on Monday I'll be 2000 miles from here with about 12 hours on my clock and nothing coming back for two days. Hopefully I can get a shorty in there.

About a month ago my dispatcher and I both looked at my clock and thought I had hours coming back Sunday night. Oops! Not till Monday night. Could've gotten a reset if I'd just sat for a day, but he was worried about being a day late so spoiled the reset by having me drive two hours to try to repower the load. That ended up not working out. Delivered the stuff a day late and the customers were still happy. (I always pitch in unloading when I can, which cuts the time by a third at least when delivering a steel building that's being unoaded by a property owner rather than in a yard where that's what they do all day.) I was sort of stuck for hours and didn't get another load in that week. Would've rather had the reset and would've gotten farther.

This is great info. I will consider this when coming into the industry in December! It seems exciting! Haha

......... leave yourself on duty and let that clock run until midnight so that you can make up for some recap hours. ....

Robert B. I really don't understand what you are saying here.

Sorry, a better example might be this. You get a load on a Monday morning that doesn't deliver until Wednesday afternoon or evening but it's a drive you could feasibly make in two days yet not close enough to squeeze in a reset before delivery. You drive Monday and Tuesday, leaving yourself a couple of hours driving on Wednesday before the delivery. Your next pickup is on Thursday with plenty of time to get your 10 hour break in so there's no worries there. Drive the time you need on Wednesday to get to your delivery and let the on duty clock run. Instead of only getting back a few hours on recap when they roll back through in 8 days, you can burn the clock and get back 7-8 and still get your 10 in before the next pickup. That way you don't wind up with a day coming back to you with really crappy hours available because recap hours include both your drive time and on duty time.

Drive the time you need on Wednesday to get to your delivery and let the on duty clock run.

I'm guessing you mean stay in "on duty loading", instead of going into sleeper berth?

Forgive me Robert but i dont see the value in wasting hours on your 70 like that.

Forgive me Robert but i dont see the value in wasting hours on your 70 like that.

As someone who frequently has days of few hours due to very long waits at Wal-Mart DCs, I do see where that could help me, Sue. Especially when I'm running team and we have tight deadlines, which we almost always did, once they got us straightened out in this fleet's system. There'd be days I would have 3 hours or less to recap because I'd be on duty for an unload, then for the reload.

If you continuously run on recaps, you're not wasting your 70. You're keeping yourself from being stuck with a day of only having maybe 3 or 4 hours coming back to you which could cost you a potential load. The example is a situation where you're really not losing anything because your drive time for that day is already set. Your appointment for the following day is already set and if you don't use the available hours for that day, you're not losing them but they're not going to help you by rolling them into the following day. That's why I said it's all about trip planning and time management. Sometimes that includes creative ways to use your clock when you can't squeeze in a 34 but don't want to jeopardize the hours you'll be getting back. I don't take 34 hour resets, so I'll always work my clock to make sure that those recap hours are consistently as many as I can get back that following week. Some places you go, you don't want a 34 because it's possible that it can turn into a longer wait depending on when you get there. Laredo and Jacksonville area are two locations that quickly come to mind. Roll into Laredo for a Friday noon time drop and there's a pretty good chance if you take a 34, you won't get out of there until Monday. Time is money in my book and I'd rather work my clock to keep myself moving, rather than potentially have to sit.

We are always preplanned well in advance and i never seemed to have any trouble using my available hours. If we even thought about padding our on duty tim like that, Im sure we would hear about it. When solo i did a lot of 8/2 splits. Especially if it was a live load or unload where they were notorious for ridiculously long delays, Id check in logging my on duty time to check in and then go to bed. If I was delayed 6 hours, for example, i would stay an additional 2 hours to preserve my 14 hour clock.

I ran on recaps for 4 weeks before we took hometime earlier this week. I drive the day shift typically when most of the loading or unloading is done and never have poor recap hours coming back.. Of course I do drive til late into the night at times.