Avoid Running Out Of Hours Or Enjoy Time Off?

So after a couple weeks on the road I have already had 2 resets and am wondering if it is better to just accept a reset or just push 8:30 min days and avoid the reset?

I have no problem working everyday and I have done it for years now for 12+ hours a day but what is the best way to go?

(7) 10s or (8) 8:30?

I figure that, mathematically, it makes more sense to try to push as hard as you can and take a reset.

If you want to never take a reset, you have to average 8.75 working hours a day. Thats total driving plus on duty time. I usually add 10% to drive time estimates to account for on duty not driving stuff, so take 8.75 and divide by 1.1 to find the amount of actual drive time: 7.95 hours. 7.95 x 8 is 63.6 hours, and at an average of 60 mph, that means you can drive 3818 miles in 8 days.

If you want to drive 11 hours a day, you add 10% to get 12.1 hours a day total work time. After 5 days of that, you're sitting at 60.5 total hours, which means you have 9.5 left on day 6. Dividing by 1.1 gives 8.64 hours of driving time on day 6. So 8.64, plus the five 11 hour days previously, gets you to 63.6 hours in 6 days. That's the same number of driving hours that took 8 days to achieve in the previous example. Now if you take the rest of day 6 (after working the 9.5 hours) plus day 7 to restart, and perhaps a little bit of early morning on day 8, that means that on day 8 you can drive 11 more hours. 11 + 63.6 is 74.6 hours in 8 days, or 4476 miles.

Obviously these are ideal examples and reality would never let you run exactly like this, but I think this shows that the harder you push towards maxing out your hours as soon as possible, the more miles you can generally squeeze in. Plus you can get more loads done, customers get their goods quicker, dispatch loves you, you show yourself as a go-getter and most likely get a raise quicker, you get an extra day off every week, and everyone is happy!

As a real world example, I started my 70 last Saturday and pushed as hard as I could. I've logged over 3400 miles as of tonight (Thursday night), with about 8 hours left to drive tomorrow before taking a reset on Saturday. And that's only because I got worn out and slowed up over the last day or two. If I would have kept running hard, I probably could have hit close to 4000 already and taken my reset tomorrow, leaving me with a fresh 70 Saturday morning (day 8). As my road stamina increases, I hope to be able to eventually do that regularly.

I guess the point though is that if you want to maximize your earnings, you have to maximize your miles each day. For me, the main reason I got into driving is to make as much money as I can as quickly as possible. I'm already out here away from my family, so why not make the most of my time? For others, the money may not be as important, and I completely understand that. In that case, driving a casual 8 hour day would probably be more relaxing and less stressful.

One more example: when I left on Saturday, it was on a 1300 mile load. Now I could have taken it easy and driven 400-500 miles a day and delivered late Monday or even Tuesday morning. But I chose to drive 650 miles each day through the weekend and was able to deliver first thing Monday morning. This set me up to be available for a reload that same day, which in turn set me up to keep getting more miles. I think dispatchers love that kind of stuff. Any time you can push yourself and get ahead of a delivery, I think it makes sense to do so. That's why I try not to leave any hours wasted in a day. Its like leaving money on the table. You never know when wasted hours might come back to bite you, like when you barely miss making a Friday delivery because you didn't push hard enough earlier in the week and thus couldn't make it there in time, and now they're closed for the weekend.

Sorry I got a little off topic there, but I think it all relates to the concept... right?

Due to scheduling it will be impossible to only maintain 8 hours and 30 minutes a day all the time. I don't worry about it. I drive what I drive to get the load there. Sometimes it's 5 hours. Sometimes it's 10 hours and 55 minutes. Pickup/delivery times will dictate how you do your drive shifts.

I have been pretty successful with trying to average 10 hr days. You will have some days you really have to push for all you have, others not so much. As GuyJax said, your load will dictate what needs to be done to pickup/deliver on time.

So the fact that you have had to get a reset just means that is how the cookie crumbles sometimes. I have had times when I went for weeks without a reset and others when I have had to run so hard I needed 1 everytime I turned around it seemed.

Ernie

Just getting started this week myself, but I imagine in seven months the weather will decide when you drive.

The weather is just apart of trucking and you take it with a grain of salt. Year before last we got caught on top of Downers Summit in a snow Strom that only effected the top of the mountain. Had my brother record it while I was driving. Donner's Summit Snow Storm

Sometimes you have no choice but to drive cause it's to dangerous to pull over and stop. BTW that was without chains on also. Simply no place to pull over.

I figure that, mathematically, it makes more sense to try to push as hard as you can and take a reset.

If you want to never take a reset, you have to average 8.75 working hours a day. Thats total driving plus on duty time. I usually add 10% to drive time estimates to account for on duty not driving stuff, so take 8.75 and divide by 1.1 to find the amount of actual drive time: 7.95 hours. 7.95 x 8 is 63.6 hours, and at an average of 60 mph, that means you can drive 3818 miles in 8 days.

If you want to drive 11 hours a day, you add 10% to get 12.1 hours a day total work time. After 5 days of that, you're sitting at 60.5 total hours, which means you have 9.5 left on day 6. Dividing by 1.1 gives 8.64 hours of driving time on day 6. So 8.64, plus the five 11 hour days previously, gets you to 63.6 hours in 6 days. That's the same number of driving hours that took 8 days to achieve in the previous example. Now if you take the rest of day 6 (after working the 9.5 hours) plus day 7 to restart, and perhaps a little bit of early morning on day 8, that means that on day 8 you can drive 11 more hours. 11 + 63.6 is 74.6 hours in 8 days, or 4476 miles.

Obviously these are ideal examples and reality would never let you run exactly like this, but I think this shows that the harder you push towards maxing out your hours as soon as possible, the more miles you can generally squeeze in. Plus you can get more loads done, customers get their goods quicker, dispatch loves you, you show yourself as a go-getter and most likely get a raise quicker, you get an extra day off every week, and everyone is happy!

As a real world example, I started my 70 last Saturday and pushed as hard as I could. I've logged over 3400 miles as of tonight (Thursday night), with about 8 hours left to drive tomorrow before taking a reset on Saturday. And that's only because I got worn out and slowed up over the last day or two. If I would have kept running hard, I probably could have hit close to 4000 already and taken my reset tomorrow, leaving me with a fresh 70 Saturday morning (day 8). As my road stamina increases, I hope to be able to eventually do that regularly.

I guess the point though is that if you want to maximize your earnings, you have to maximize your miles each day. For me, the main reason I got into driving is to make as much money as I can as quickly as possible. I'm already out here away from my family, so why not make the most of my time? For others, the money may not be as important, and I completely understand that. In that case, driving a casual 8 hour day would probably be more relaxing and less stressful.

One more example: when I left on Saturday, it was on a 1300 mile load. Now I could have taken it easy and driven 400-500 miles a day and delivered late Monday or even Tuesday morning. But I chose to drive 650 miles each day through the weekend and was able to deliver first thing Monday morning. This set me up to be available for a reload that same day, which in turn set me up to keep getting more miles. I think dispatchers love that kind of stuff. Any time you can push yourself and get ahead of a delivery, I think it makes sense to do so. That's why I try not to leave any hours wasted in a day. Its like leaving money on the table. You never know when wasted hours might come back to bite you, like when you barely miss making a Friday delivery because you didn't push hard enough earlier in the week and thus couldn't make it there in time, and now they're closed for the weekend.

Sorry I got a little off topic there, but I think it all relates to the concept... right?

All i can say is even with a reset you can still, go WITHOUT zeros on that 3rd and 4th line so ... for instance i ran like 3 hours until, 3am then took 34 and ran again i have no zeros in my 8 days bjt still reset because i hit 69 hours right after an emty cal ... 34 hours isnt a whoe lotta time. slee eat shower lau,dry over. 34 p lus 9is 43 add 5 thats 48 you can run 5 before and 9,after and never miss a days work

When I run recaps, I have ended up with a few 5-hour days. Then next week, those come back to bite you, as it might take three days to go 800 miles, or you sweat it making a delivery and race to a decent truck stop before your DOT time is up. Maybe one day (34 hours) sitting in a truck stop ain't so bad.

WHEW!!! Ive got alot to learn!!