Best Clock Management Strategies?

Good morning folks!

What are some strategies you’ve learned over the years to maximize your clock?

Specifically, HOS strategies you WISH you knew during your rookie year, that you had to learn the hard way or through experience? Thanks!

One of the biggies is Don't Forget To Change Your Status!

Pull into a truck stop to do a break? Don't forget to put yourself Off Duty.

Eugene, I would often sleep at my customer locations. That does a lot for you in a sense of cutting out possibilities of things that might unexpectedly go wrong. Here's what I mean. I once had a load of big light poles going to a construction site. Our instructions said the crane would be onsite at 0700. This was a live unload. I am a flat bed driver and I knew there would be a lot of other trucks there with the same material. All of us were needing to get unloaded. As I got near the job site, the afternoon before we were scheduled to be there, I noticed a bunch of flat bed trucks at the nearby truck stop. They all were loaded with the same material. I decided to move on down to the site and park there. The site had a gate barring my entry so I just parked right there at the gate and spent the night. In the morning there were 17 trucks lined up behind me. A few of them had spent the night there with me, but the majority had parked at the truck stop.

Our crane got delayed for some reason and he was three hours late. Most of the folks behind me were burning up their fourteen hour clock. They had to start their clock just to leave the truck stop. I never started my clock until the crane arrived and was set up and ready to go. Not only did that strategy take care of one of my plans (First In, First Out), but it also saved me from burning up precious time out of my fourteen hour clock for that day.

Remember to save as much time from your 70 hour clock as you can. Most of that 70 hour clock should be dedicated to driving. There has to be some on duty non-driving time, but you want to preserve whatever you can for driving. People say, "Time is Money!" But that isn't so in trucking. A lot of time can be wasted if you aren't mindful of how you are managing things. Productivity is money in trucking. You will always be making the most money while driving. Preserve your available time for driving. That's how you capitalize on time management.

Question?? If the trucks that spent the night at truck stop switched to off duty after arriving, while waiting for crane, wouldn’t their 14 hr clock stop during that time due to the split sleeper rule?

Question?? If the trucks that spent the night at truck stop switched to off duty after arriving, while waiting for crane, wouldn’t their 14 hr clock stop during that time due to the split sleeper rule?

They had to move from the TS, to the job site - move a truck - start a clock. The 14 starts the second you do ANY WORK (including PRE-TRIP) and doesn't stop until you either take a split, or take a 10. You have 14 hours to DRIVE 11. So the guys that overnighted at the truck stop (instead of taking the 10 at the locked gate of the site) - had to start their clock and THEN WAIT THEIR TURN to be unloaded. They could have been OFF DUTY while waiting - but the 14 clock STAYS RUNNING REGARDLESS.

Rick

Yes, I understand the 14/11 clocks. What I am wondering is could they use the 3 hrs as the 1st part of the split to conserve the clock?

Reason I ask is from this question from the practice test section! Could you do the 2 hrs 1st and the 8 later that day or does the longer period have to be completed for it to work

Yes, I understand the 14/11 clocks. What I am wondering is could they use the 3 hrs as the 1st part of the split to conserve the clock?

Yes. The new rules extends your clock.

The problem with this though is that it is in 2 or 3 hour blocks. If you're delayed 1.5 hours you have to wait 30 minutes for the extension or if you're delayed 5 hours you only get a 3 hour extension.

You can also go directly to the receiver even if you get sent away. Then you can go to the truck stop on personal Conveyance. Then the next morning you can return to the receiver on personal conveyance because going to and from the truck stop from your receiver point was for valid personal conveyance reasons.

If the trucks that spent the night at truck stop switched to off duty after arriving, while waiting for crane, wouldn’t their 14 hr clock stop during that time due to the split sleeper rule?

That's a good point, but that scenario took place during a time before the new rules were in place. Things have changed lately, and you pointed out one of those changes. The new split sleeper rules will help us manage our time easier out here on the road.

Thanks Rob and Old School, I read about the new HOS rules a few weeks ago. Just making sure I understood them correctly