Dutch Maid Logistics -- Orientation/Training

It is a split sleeper rule and 6 hours in sleeper OR Off duty WILL pause your 14 hour clock if the "will pair" check is marked. This is new as of September 2020 and some experienced drivers are still not familiar with it.

So if you stopped at the customer with 5 hours of drive time available, sat in sleeper OR off duty for 6 hours... You could still drive out with 5 hours available. Then you would need to do at least 7 hours in sleeper and it that point you would get 6 hours back.

11 hours minus the time you drove between the 2 breaks is the drive time you get after the 2 breaks.

ANY amount of time longer than 2 hours will pause the 14 clock as long as "will pair" is checked. However... You MUST follow the next break with a corresponding minimum. So if you take 2 hours off... You must do at least 8 sleeper next. If you take 3+ hours off... You must take at least 7 sleeper next. You can check the will pair Nd pause the 14, but if you dont do the sleeper next you will violate.

It is a split sleeper rule and 6 hours in sleeper OR Off duty WILL pause your 14 hour clock if the "will pair" check is marked. This is new as of September 2020 and some experienced drivers are still not familiar with it.

So if you stopped at the customer with 5 hours of drive time available, sat in sleeper OR off duty for 6 hours... You could still drive out with 5 hours available. Then you would need to do at least 7 hours in sleeper and it that point you would get 6 hours back.

11 hours minus the time you drove between the 2 breaks is the drive time you get after the 2 breaks.

ANY amount of time longer than 2 hours will pause the 14 clock as long as "will pair" is checked. However... You MUST follow the next break with a corresponding minimum. So if you take 2 hours off... You must do at least 8 sleeper next. If you take 3+ hours off... You must take at least 7 sleeper next. You can check the will pair Nd pause the 14, but if you dont do the sleeper next you will violate.

Yeah, that's definitely not how my trainer is explaining it. Thank you very much for the explanation. Much appreciated.

Keeping the miles rolling... The following narrates some activities during my drive from the Southington, CT rest area to load destination of Lewiston, ME.

Got up yesterday and decided to make sure we had a plan for fueling and eating. Trainer has an attitude that we shouldn't expect to be able to eat sufficiently while out on the road. In reality, if he planned ahead, he would always have an opportunity to stop and eat. He wastes time stopping at rest areas where there isn't anything and not planning the stops ahead.

I didn't like the route that my trainer's GPS wanted us to take. It was going from I-84 to I-91 and then taking US-2 to Maine 26 to Maine 219, and I can't remember after that. Using a trucker GPS on my phone, I found a much better route that has a Pilot (where we have to go to fuel) and no crazy mountain driving. (The app I use specifically checks for restricted roads according to the size and dimensions of the vehicle provided. It also allows for avoiding tolls and a long list of other potential encounters. I also use a road atlas to verify that the route is clear of restricted roads.) I explain this and he gets upset that I should have told him that I want to stop to eat because he had other plans. He said next time I don't tell him, we will do what he wants. Hmm, I guess next time he will be driving because if I am doing the driving and the route planning, then I will stop where I want. I am only saying this because my trainer has never put any effort into route planning when he is driving.

After he realizes that I was in the right because I planned a better route, found a place to fuel, and gave myself a place to get food. So, we left at 14:30 and took I-84 to US-20 to I-495 to MA 125 to US-202. When I first got in the truck, my trainer couldn't get a simple P&D delivered on time. He forgot to calculate driving to pickup the trailer. Not even a week driving and I get this load delivered in plenty of time. Our scheduled delivery was 23:59. I got us there at 23:15. As we were leaving, trucks were lined up for about a 1/4 mile.

24 hours of driving so far. About 1200 miles driven.

Going to sleep now. Have a load to pickup at 15:30 later today in Wareham, MA.

My advice is to stop criticizing your trainer. So what if you think it is a better route? I ALWAYS take my students down US 65 with hills, twists, curves, small towns, lights and 2 lanes then across I 40 through Memphis/Nashville...over Monteagle for the downgrade, then around atlanta. And I plan it for rush hour traffic.... For them to learn.

I could cut out 100 miles but guess what? Its a learning experience and there is no point to have them drive better roads and less mountains when they need to learn it.

You will have your own truck soon enough, then you can run it your way. If you told me "I'm driving where I want when I'm driving" I would have taken you right back to the terminal.

Your arrogance and over confidence will be your down fall. Sorry... But I have seen this here before. When you get too arrogant, trucking has a way of knocking you back down... So be very careful.

My advice is to stop criticizing your trainer. So what if you think it is a better route? I ALWAYS take my students down US 65 with hills, twists, curves, small towns, lights and 2 lanes then across I 40 through Memphis/Nashville...over Monteagle for the downgrade, then around atlanta. And I plan it for rush hour traffic.... For them to learn.

I could cut out 100 miles but guess what? Its a learning experience and there is no point to have them drive better roads and less mountains when they need to learn it.

You will have your own truck soon enough, then you can run it your way. If you told me "I'm driving where I want when I'm driving" I would have taken you right back to the terminal.

Your arrogance and over confidence will be your down fall. Sorry... But I have seen this here before. When you get too arrogant, trucking has a way of knocking you back down... So be very careful.

You are 100% correct about my attitude. I have to keep myself humble. I would be inclined to agree regarding the routes my trainer plans, but there is no planning involved. Even when the GPS indicates that there is a problem with restricted roads on the route, he tells me to just follow the GPS. He doesn't take the time to figure out how to get into places. When I was out of hours and he had to take over, we got to a location for a drop and hook. He followed the GPS to the address, which then had a sign telling truck drivers to use the entrance on another street. He had no idea how to get there and was relying in me giving him point-by-point directions. I don't have a problem doing that because I just want to get the job done however it gets done. What would he have done if I had not been in the truck? My trainer gave no thought to pulling over somewhere to figure out how to get to the entrance. My whole point in this is that taking me to certain places to experience different kinds of driving just isn't what he is doing. I would really appreciate it if my trainer were more intentional in the way he has routes planned. We were told by the training manager during orientation to never rely entirely on the GPS, yet this is what my trainer is teaching me to do.

He is a great guy and generally a good and patient teacher. I make mistakes and he corrects me without being too critical. He also tells me when I am doing well. He has even told me that sometimes he sees me start to make a mistake, but he recognizes that I am doing what is needed to correct it. He allows me to figure things out on my own when I am correcting myself.

I will say that along with the lack of trip planning and the lack of planning in getting into shippers and receivers, I don't like the way that my trainer will start touching the GPS while driving. I think this is definitely not a good example to set for a trainee.

I have taken your comment about me being arrogant over confident to heart. Thank you.

I'm by no means a driver, yet.. (one day) but I personally think that your trainer may actually be doing a good job, it seems to me like it's kind of like a reverse training. He may want to see what you know and understand, and if you can utilize said understanding and knowledge in real world situations, and is effectively playing dumb so you "teach" him. At least that's my understanding from what you have posted so far.

Safe travels! -Canaan

Years ago another driver.... (Hmm hmm you know who you are lol) called me saying "My trainer sucks, he is late had an accident and.never plans anything."

I said... "Uh huh. Uh huh.. What have your learned?"

He replied "nothing in just told you how bad he is. Should I get a new trainer?"

I said "you learned to GOAL when backing or you will hit something... You learned to arrive early... And you learned to fill out and accident report and best part os that it wasnt yours."

You can learn from the mistakes of others.

As for "what would he have done if I wasnt there?"

Guess what... He has been driving longer than you have been on the truck. It probably happens often.... He would have figured it out. You being there made it more convenient. Learn from his mistakes instead of constantly griping about how you know.more than him. I guarantee you in a couple months you will be posting about how being solo is so much harder than you thought.

Several of my students told me "you made it looked so easy!"

Good luck

Hey Kerry, I was over on I-84 in Connecticut at a TA last Monday. There really are no truck stops on that road lol. There are barely any in that region period. Got my first taste of snow driving that day also.

What trucker GPS are you using on your phone? I think that might come in handy. Glad to hear your out on the road getting miles in. Drive safe.

He is teaching you, you just aren't aware of it. Stop and think for a minute. This gent has been driving a long time, he's obviously been employed and knows how to get where he needs to go.

He's making you look at different routes, making you think more. As Kersey said, he probably had vey good reasons for taking you down more complicated routes, in fact what better Time to go through tough places than with your trainer on board.

What I don't know is, are you asking questions? I would have been asking how every device on the truck works, how to negotiate hills, weather, road conditions. What's the history of the Jake, why does it work? When should I not use it?

My trainer didn't volunteer information, I got it because I politely asked....all day and night. Your trainer has been doing this longer than you have. Are you watching him when he drives? How's he negotiating things? How does he use the controls, where's he look when he's backing, does he use reference points in turns, ask.

And on the eating thing...are you wanting to do a regular sit down breakfast every morning? I'd say no, and hell no. This is a job, not a vacation. That would burn up way too much clock. A quick healthy breakfast, and time to work.

I'm by no means a driver, yet.. (one day) but I personally think that your trainer may actually be doing a good job, it seems to me like it's kind of like a reverse training. He may want to see what you know and understand, and if you can utilize said understanding and knowledge in real world situations, and is effectively playing dumb so you "teach" him. At least that's my understanding from what you have posted so far.

Safe travels! -Canaan

I have thought about this and it definitely seems like this is what he is doing at times. His lack of understanding HOS is what has me believing that he just doesn't know what he is doing SOMETIMES. While I was driving, we were discussing the 34-hour reset provision. I made a comment about some drivers who stay for months at a time not doing a reset and running off recaps. He said that at the end of 70 hours you have to do a reset. I explained how a person can run 8 to 9 hours every single day and never have to do a 34-hour reset. He said that eventually recaps will run out. I tried explaining that at midnight every day you get hours back from the time logged 9 days before the day just completed. My trainer told me that he has never gotten any more hours back other that what he had left the previous day. Basically, he thinks that a driver has a bank of 70 on-duty hours and once that is used up, a reset is mandatory. While that is technically true, he is not grasping that the 8 days are rolling. He said that he understands this, but his commentary says that he doesn't get it. Every 8 days, if not sooner, he does a reset.

I definitely agree that my trainer is training me well. I am not so sure if I didn't understand HOS or how to trip plan that he would be training me well. But, my driving has gotten pretty good, as evidenced by some of the areas that I have had to drive without an accident/incident. My backing is steadily improving. I have only my trainer to thank for that because he is the one correcting me and giving me pointers.