Need Advice On Managing Hours

I am trying to work out my hours for carrying amazon. I go one way and have to dead head home. Here is what I got going on, I log on the eld at 11am. I drive to amazon, pick up, then head to Nashville. They will have me unloaded by about 5pm. Sometimes they do a great job and have me finished by 330pm. But, worse case 5pm. So, they amazon has trips from La Vergne back down around Huntsville, but they don't start until 11pm, 12pm, 130 am. I want to stay up there and catch a load coming back. But I run slap out of hours. Does anyone know how I can work my hours out to catch some of these loads coming back without running out of hours. I thought about sleeper birth, but I am in a 26' box truck without a sleeper. I also thought about the 150 mile range. I just don't know how to do it. Oh, and I have not had my new entrants inspection yet. I want to be able to pass that. Thanks in advance.

I am trying to work out my hours for carrying amazon. I go one way and have to dead head home. Here is what I got going on, I log on the eld at 11am. I drive to amazon, pick up, then head to Nashville. They will have me unloaded by about 5pm. Sometimes they do a great job and have me finished by 330pm. But, worse case 5pm. So, they amazon has trips from La Vergne back down around Huntsville, but they don't start until 11pm, 12pm, 130 am. I want to stay up there and catch a load coming back. But I run slap out of hours. Does anyone know how I can work my hours out to catch some of these loads coming back without running out of hours. I thought about sleeper birth, but I am in a 26' box truck without a sleeper. I also thought about the 150 mile range. I just don't know how to do it. Oh, and I have not had my new entrants inspection yet. I want to be able to pass that. Thanks in advance.

Phillip, I've been hoping one of our Trucking Truth 'veteran' drivers would've jumped in here by now; I'm just not thinking anyone really has anything CLOSE to a similar situation.

Rob T. (Hyvee, food service, et al .. and moderator) 'might' be able to offer up some sage advice, but as much as we miss him, he's not been around in a minute. His last post actually was IN an HOS thread, hehe! I'll try to 'raise him in here' .. but no guarantees.

I'll ask 'my' guy when he comes home; he's a day cabber, but...not on 'air miles.'

I'm trying! Hang in, hang on...

~ Anne ~

HOS thread, with Rob T. is: Advice on HOS thread...

ps: Welcome to Trucking Truth!!

Are you able to push back the time you leave for your first run (11am)?

Otherwise Air miles rule may help in this instance. Look at this from JJ Keller:

16 hours would give you until 3am to make it back to Huntsville. The only problem is then you need to get unloaded as well. I believe for air miles your time also needs to be documented when you start and end your day but not logging every activity. You would need to be relieved of all work and no longer moving the truck by 3am. This would then also bump the earliest you could run the next day back to 1pm.

Whatever you do its very important to leave no doubt that you're 100% legal especially before your inspection. If your business plan requires you to violate HOS or any other laws its not sustainable and needs to be adjusted.

I'm not very knowledgeable on it, but for a couple decades my uncle ran a box truck under Dynamex (formerly roadrunner) and seemed to do quite well. He's been retired over 10 years though. Perhaps it'd be more beneficial for you to run the Amazon load and try to get a return load through a load board that's NOT amazon.

Out of curiosity would you mind sharing what Amazon pays to run those loads? And what kind of profit (after ALL expenses) you're seeing? An overwhelming majority of semis I see pulling their freight are pretty beat up which makes me think it isn't a very lucrative gig.

Is this all in one state exclusively for every load?

It is not all one state, it is from Alabama to Tennessee. I don't mind sharing at all. I own everything out right so my cpm is a little lower than some others. My cpm is about $1.09 per mile(based on 2000) miles. So the loads i am picking are paying anywhere from $2.31 to $2.77(so far) per mile. Amazon has the trip at 131 miles for this particular run. Problem is I have to dead head right on back to Huntsville from Nashville. So that being said, cut the price per mile in half and that is about what I am making(not great). To reply to Rob T....I am aware of that rule, it would be great exept for I still run out of time. It still won't work out because 3 am end time would leave me about two hours short on the return trip. I have to drop at post offices at specific times. That is why i thought about the sleeper birth rule. But I wonder does sleeper birth mean I could stay in a hotel for 7 hours? Then pick back up and I would have the hours to make it home.(I think)

I dont know anything about the rules for B, Are you guys allowed to split Berth like we can?

But I wonder does sleeper birth mean I could stay in a hotel for 7 hours? Then pick back up and I would have the hours to make it home.(I think)

No. On top of that it'd take out a nice chunk of your revenue making it nearly pointless to snag a return load.

I dont know anything about the rules for B, Are you guys allowed to split Berth like we can?

If they have a sleeper they can. Only box trucks with sleepers I've seen have really only been Panther or Fed Ex Custom Critical.

Thanks guys. My best bet is going to beat the bush to find a return load. That being said, my plan was just to run Amazon until I worked the kinks out of my new to me Freightliner M2 106. Then go OTR. I think I have except for one thing. I can't get the air to come out of the vents. I have defrost and floor, but no vent. I have replaced the control knob panel and two blend doors. I am betting there is a third, but I can't find it. At least not yet. I have put new steers on and new drives. For a box truck, it is riding pretty decent. I drove in the oil field in North Dakota for a while, class A and B. The heavy B's ride pretty good. Schlumberger takes care of the vehicles they have. Or at least they used to.

Google your model truck for air distribution, I'm sure someone, out there has posted something on it lol.....Google is your friend!.....I learned more on it learning about Ford's POS 6.0 diesel engine in 2012-2014 working at a shop in Az, had lot of customers running em. I got to the point I could have the turbo off, and on the floor in 10-15 minutes, working on the oil pump, system repair, to make em run again....oil pressure, under 500 psi, they wont run period. Those were $3,000-$4,000 jobs all day long, sometimes, I was working on 3 repairs at once.

Thanks so much for all the replies