Terminated From CR England

Same with the company I work for... no line 5/personal conveyance, and also no 10/2 split sleeper berth allowed. Company policy is to take a 10hr break. Can't say that I've needed either however; definitely haven't been challenged to the point where the 10/2 would have proven useful, and I must admit I don't fully understand the 'personal conveyance' rules.

It is an 8/2 split sleeper berth provision. It has saved my hide more than I care to admit. I had to do almost an entire week with a rolling 8/2 sleeper. That week sucked.

And how that week would be without the 8/2 sleeper ?

A lot less hectic. But, I am willing to do what it takes to get the job done. I want to be the go to guy the load planners look at, when needing to get a hot load delivered that doesn't require a team. Simply put, I want to be considered one of my companies top tier drivers. I will do what it takes to get there. I take every load offered. I do favors for the load planners when need a load rescued. I want to be that driver that gets it done when others can't or won't.

A lot less hectic. But, I am willing to do what it takes to get the job done. I want to be the go to guy the load planners look at, when needing to get a hot load delivered that doesn't require a team. Simply put, I want to be considered one of my companies top tier drivers. I will do what it takes to get there. I take every load offered. I do favors for the load planners when need a load rescued. I want to be that driver that gets it done when others can't or won't.

Yes the 8/2 split is there to help us wen it suits us.

For the rest of your post,I totally agree... it is a must for those who want to be in the top tier driver's.

Response to G-Town Thanks for you're response.... So basically each day is an 11 Hour Driving day Limit? Once I have driven a total of 11 hours, must be off duty for another 10 consecutive hours before driving the truck again? So lets say I start a trip on a Monday morning at 6:00am, I can drive until 5:00pm Monday evening, then I would log in the log-book off duty until Tuesday 3:00am (10 hours) then start out and log in to log book on-duty? Thanks for the feedback Ken

Yes, you can only drive 11 hours in a day. However, there's a lot more to it than just how many hours you can drive. You have your driving time, which is when you are behind the wheel driving the truck (or stopped in traffic). Then you have your On Duty time, which includes all other working tasks that are not driving (sending messages on your truck's communication device, pre-trip inspection , post trip inspection, fueling, loading, unloading, etc...). Then you have your Off Duty time, which includes your breaks and your home time.

In any given 8 day period, you can work 70 hours (Driving and On Duty not driving time). Each day you have 14 hours of total working (again, including Driving and On Duty not driving time) time available. As said before, you have 11 hours of driving time available per day. These are typically referred to as your 70, 14, and 11 hour clocks. You must take a 30 minute break within the first 8 hours of driving. When you take a break of 10 or more consecutive hours, your 14 and 11 hour clocks reset. If you take a break of 34 or more hours, your 70 hour clock resets.

In your example above, when you start your day Monday morning at 6am, you'll typically have a 15 minute or so pre trip inspection, which will put you on the road at 6:15 am. To keep it simple, we'll say you stop at 4 hours in to take your 30 minute break, so you stop at 10:15 and break until 10:30, then get back on the road at that time. That leaves you with 7 hours of drive time remaining. You're probably not going to drive 7 hours straight, so we'll say you stop again for 15 minutes at 3.5 hours in to this leg. You stop at 2pm and get back on the road at 2:15pm and drive your remaining 3.5 hours. This puts you out of driving hours at 5:45 pm, so we'll say you cut it dangerously close and got the truck parked right at 5:45pm. At this point, you would have been on duty for 11 hours and 45 minutes, 11 hours of which is driving. Now you have to do your post trip inspection, for simplicity's sake, we'll say it takes 15 minutes to do. It's now 6pm, and you've been on duty for 12 hours, 11 of which was driving. Now say that during your post trip, you noticed that one of the headlight bulbs were burned out. For simplicity, we'll say this takes 15 minutes to fix and you fix it yourself. Now you've been on duty for 12 hours and 15 minutes, so it's now 6:15pm, nothing is left to do, and you go off duty with 0 hours of driving remaining for the day and 1 hour and 45 minutes remaining for the day that you could work (you can work past the 14 hours, but cannot drive again until you take a 10 hour break). You can go back on duty at 4:15 am Tuesday morning with a full 14 hour duty day and 11 hour driving day available, provided that you have at least the 14 hours available on your 70 hour.

There's more to it than this, but this should give you an idea of how it works.

As confusing as the HOS (Hours of Service) seems, once you start living them everyday it becomes much easier. With e-logs things are also easier as you have a computer yelling at you and beating you over the head with the correct answer, lol.

Dart, you made this statement...

Each day you have 14 hours of total working (again, including Driving and On Duty not driving time) time available.

Just for clarification...

The 14 hour clock is not a limit on how much you can work in a single day. You can legally work, or be on duty for 16, 18, or even more hours if need be. That 14 hour clock is merely the window of opportunity you have to get your 11 hours of drive time done within.

I'm only pointing this out because it is a common misconception.

We have some really great training materials on this subject in our High Road Training Program

Here's a direct link to help folks who want to learn more about this important part of a truck driver's duties.

Learn The Logbook Rules (HOS)

Dart, you made this statement...

Each day you have 14 hours of total working (again, including Driving and On Duty not driving time) time available.

Just for clarification...

The 14 hour clock is not a limit on how much you can work in a single day. You can legally work, or be on duty for 16, 18, or even more hours if need be. That 14 hour clock is merely the window of opportunity you have to get your 11 hours of drive time done within.

I'm only pointing this out because it is a common misconception.

We have some really great training materials on this subject in our High Road Training Program

Here's a direct link to help folks who want to learn more about this important part of a truck driver's duties.

Learn The Logbook Rules (HOS)

Which I did state later in the post (near the end of the example day) by saying that you could work past the 14 hours, but not be able to drive again until taking a break of 10 consecutive hours.

Dart, you made this statement...

Each day you have 14 hours of total working (again, including Driving and On Duty not driving time) time available.

Just for clarification...

The 14 hour clock is not a limit on how much you can work in a single day. You can legally work, or be on duty for 16, 18, or even more hours if need be. That 14 hour clock is merely the window of opportunity you have to get your 11 hours of drive time done within.

I'm only pointing this out because it is a common misconception.

We have some really great training materials on this subject in our High Road Training Program

Here's a direct link to help folks who want to learn more about this important part of a truck driver's duties.

Learn The Logbook Rules (HOS)

Thanks Old School...somehow I missed responding to this.

Also Dart mentioned about the 70 hour on-duty clock in 8 days, these parameters are relevant for most OTR work. Some additional clarification and perspective; there are dedicated accounts like Walmart and Target where the 70 hour clock is close to depletion by the end of the 6th day due to multiple retail store delivery stops per single dispatch, requiring a high degree of live unloading, designated for driver oversight (especially reefer) thus performed as logged "on-duty". It's typical to use almost 14 hours of on-duty time per day on these accounts.

Hey Dart, not picking at ya. I just like to clarify some things. A lot of people will read this, and I try to avoid possible confusion when I see the potential.

No worries.

I know there's MUCH more to HoS rules, but I just wanted to give a basic response to Ken H.'s question about it and use his example to give him a bit more of a realistic expectation about it.