What Is Your Company's Policy On 34 Hour Resets?

When I was at GTI/Heartland, I picked when I wanted a 34hr.. if I ran hard and exhausted my 34 in 7 days, I'd call and let my DM know and work on getting a 34.. I was never told when and where I could take it though... if I was in Vegas and had 3hrs left on my 70, with no load, I'd definitely take a 34...

The way that DM talked to the driver though, even through a message, It felt more controlling.

I only usually get 34's on home time or if in the terminal for repairs/doctors visits. At that point I say "can you find me something that leaves tomorrow night so I can get personal stuff done." I can also push my availability back anytime I want...but he preolans me so far in advance I ha e to let him know ahead of my delivery.

Only one time this year did he say "hey, I'm giving you a 34". And he gave someone else my load, then gave me a 2600 mile load when I got loaded back on hours. He even apologized that the location for the reset was "the best he could do". Uh it was perfect...walmart, Applebee's Hampton inn and much more in same lot. I was good. Lol

However I have Implied to him in the past with a "I'm parked at a safe truck stop and only have a few hours left on my 70. If its easier for you to give me a 34, I'm in a good spot." I once got down to eight minutes on my 70. Hi

His response..."not necessary. I'll find something ". If I only have five hours on my clock that day he will find something for me to run with. I once got down to two hours on my 70. He had a guy drop off his load to me by 2200 so I could run my last two hours before midnight then got back hours at midnight to give me at least a full day of running.

However....if he gives me a load and I pick it up way early and can fit in a reset, weekend/night dispatch won't say anything. But if I had say 15 hours on my clock and was getting back.8 more. He wouldn't let me sit the 34 til i dropped that load. He'd have a "non runner" type of driver sit on the load and have me get in another 1100 miles the next couple days.

I don't take just 10 hr breaks though. Sometimes I take longer, sometimes I take two hours in the middle of the day to break it up. I usually get a jacuzzi suite once every two weeks. And when in Springfield terminal, I get the room for a couple days.

If I'm running low on hours he'll give me a high mile load and say "run it as far as you can and I'll repower it later". He's more concerned with the customer service side.....and grabbing the high mike loads from the boards to keep on his fleet.

I work for CFI I've never had someone outright reject any 34 hour resets, but they do just outright ignore the requests sometimes. I literally have been down to 2 hours left on my 70 with no chance of regaining any the next day, and then give me a load for 5 or 600 miles or so and then get all upset when I don't move the next day.

I work at Knight as well, I've never heard of an outright policy on 34s but each terminal is almost it's own business. My terminal is very hands off with me because of my level of performance and communication.

They ask me what I prefer to do and how I want to manage my clock, it's known that I'm always watching my clocks for opportunities to gain more miles and prevent any possible violations.

When I first started, and I think for most new drivers, my DM and planners were much more hands on because it's not expected for a new driver to have as much knowledge of their clock and experience. Also, we become more efficient as we gain experience and can thus pack more miles in our available hours of service.

It's always about performance and communication. I let my DM know what I'm planning to to and how I'm planning on running for the week as well as adjusting, so I am light on my feet too and can respond quickly to what they need.

I usually run out my 11 or more likely my 14 (or close to it) each day so I always do resets. My Fleet Leader preplans me for all weekend before he leaves on Fridays, sometimes not taking into account I'm low on 70 and not getting recaps but those loads can almost always be pushed back due to what we haul (a lot of scrap paper). So I take my 70s wherever I happen to be, like a random Loves in anytown.

I prefer resets as they let me forget about the work for a bit, but also be productive like grocery shopping and doing something fun.

I never catch flack for it. Recently I've had two or three instances with a lot of time on the load (which isn't normal) and I was able to 'sneak in' a reset before delivery so I had a fresh 70 going forward.

Here’s an unusual way to get a 34 hour reset whether you need one or not.

I’ve been running around on recaps for a while because my company likes for us to do that until we can’t run any longer. So Friday night in Kentucky I had to pull into a weigh station that was open. There was a rest area about 10 miles before the weigh station that I pulled into, but it was not just full, it was overfilled with improperly parked trucks so I had to move on. So I came to the weigh station that as I said was open, but I would have pulled in there anyway since I only had 24 minutes left on my drive clock. Plus I had less than 6 hours left on my 70 (but had 10 hours coming back at midnight). So I still had plenty of time left to make my Kansas delivery if I took my 10 hour break.

Well as bad luck would have it (or maybe it was good luck as it turns out), I was picked for a random inspection by the trooper parked there. Level 1 inspection, paperwork and ELD. To my great surprise, the trooper told me he was going to put me out of service because my current Fed Med card was not registered with my driver’s license state, even though my wallet card was valid. I just recently switched my residency from Wisconsin to South Dakota and there was a glitch in the process that didn’t update my med card to the SD system. This problem could have been resolved the next day, but since the next day was Saturday, I now have to sit all weekend until SD DMV opens up on Monday. And the company had to send a relief driver with an empty trailer to me so they could keep my loaded trailer delivered on time. Ouch.

So, presto, an automatic 34 hour reset as a result.

Perhaps it was a blessing in disguise. If there had been an accident, my Med card status might have become a serious legal issue. I’m glad I won’t have to find out the hard way. BTW, I got a nice $200 fine along with the out of service time. Bummer.

My company is a bit different. They want everyone to be off 2 days a week or for a 34hr break. Nobody runs recaps, not even the team drivers. We work hard those 5~6 days in a row and then home. My 2 days off happen to be Saturday and Sunday. The majority get either a Friday-Saturday or a Sunday-Monday off and a few drivers get a Tuesday-Wednesday off.

Wolding (now Bison USA) expects us to take our 34, and you can take more if you want.

I used to take 2 days when I ran northeast.

Now I’m on a dedicated run and run 3,000 miles a week and I’m rolling when my 34 is up. I can’t run resets because of the way the relay is set up. 3 loads a week, reset, rind and repeat.

I actually wanted to run recaps when I was northeast and Bison insisted I take a reset. I mentioned it to the laid planner a couple of weeks later and he said you should have called me, I would have kept you rolling. Lol