Would You Have Stopped Sooner?

If I had to, I could do 620 in a day. I do not like having to do that. I always plan where I will sleep. I know that before I start or before I finish my 30 minute break. I like to stop with one to two hours left on my clock. I don't like playing beat the clock. I can and will do what it takes to legally and safely get the load in on time.

For example my new student and I are on his fist load. We picked up in Pittsburg, KS and are taking it 931 miles to Fountain Inn, SC. It's due 3-7-19 @ 00:01. Today is 3-5 and we will be there some time tomorrow evening.

When we first start our solo career we more days of running our clocks out by accident.

Neek did a good job of making it somplace safe with a few seconds to spare. Good job.

After all this discussion, I just pulled into the OC at 2100 with 15 minutes left on my 11 hr clock. My truck is wounded and I needed to get here so repairs can get done. So we’ll see what tomorrow brings and how long I’ll be stuck here. I have to remember to warn the shop not to wash the tractor because at this point I think the dirt is the only thing holding it together.

To those of you who said I did good, thank you. I really needed to hear that after these past two stressful days. This business is not for the faint of heart.

To those of you who said I pushed it too far, you're probably right 😁. I just wanted so bad to do good. From now on, I think I will give myself an hour safe zone or something along those lines. I'm still trying to find my stride.

And I'm off to Suwanee, GA in the a.m. Be safe y'all and thanks for the help.

Last week I was standing by my driver manager and got to listen in on the call she was handling. One of her drivers ran out of drive time and was stopped on the side of the road. She told him that the company was sending a wrecker to tow his truck and trailer to a safe parking location. Ouch! She was very calm about it but let the driver know that it was a one time favor.

Don’t be that guy!

My $.02: you didn't do anything /wrong/ by cutting it so close, but it is and always will be better to take your last 30-60 minutes and find somewhere to park. The only time I don't do that is if I'm going to be spending the night at a company terminal where there is room to park. Even then it's a calculated risk because something can always happen to your day, and as mentioned previously stretching your clock like that ~~requires~~ a perfect day.

So TL;DR: best to not make a habit of it, but if you're running a route you're familiar with it can be worth the gambit. This isn't to say it's wise though, and it's something I think each driver has to figure out on their own to an extent.

Back when I was out with my trainer three years ago, he taught me something that I still use to this day “when you take your 30 min break, take a few minutes to plan where you’re going to stay the night, and should something go wrong (it’s trucking after all) have a back up plan” he also taught me to start looking for parking with an hour to an hour and a half left on my clock. My company pays for parking, so if I know it’s going to be late when I stop, I call ahead and reserve my spot for the night, that gives me piece of mind knowing that I’ll have a safe and legal place to park for the evening.