Comments By Bob H.

Glad you are ok. Know how startling that can be. Had a similar situation on Rt15 below Selinsgrove with a duck at dusk. Hit right in front of the drivers side . Maintained control and never even swerved, although it's a good thing I had a college football team onboard because the ensuing comments uttered in surprise were not suited for mixed company!! Never saw it coming and glass dust everywhere!!

Same with running loads, when I am calm and don't worry I am always on time. When I try to rush it always leads to me getting myself into some trouble.

“The hurrier I go, the behinder I get.”

― Lewis Carroll

I've gone"on duty, not driving" in a stand still to take the time off duty clock vs drive clock occasionally. Might be bending the rules a little but I'm not moving so.....

So if you drop - go off duty for at least 8 hours - you in fact are NOT in violation

Agreed Rick. In fact, that would reset his entire 10/15 clock.

Off-duty time is not included in the 15-hour period

However, if he was only off for 7 hours before returning to duty, he would still have the balance of what he had left when he signed off duty

The HOS summary is correct and speaks for itself. Just make sure that you are totally relieved of duty and free to pursue other interests as per the definition of "Off Duty". I currently drive motorcoach as well and my company operates the same way, as does every other driver i've encountered. One word of caution: Make sure that you are especially well rested before your trip. Utilize your downtime wisely. If you return to a hotel, take a nap. If you are physically too tired to drive, notify dispatch you need relief. This flexibility can be a curse in that it can make for some long days and you can't just pull over half-way home and take a nap with a bus full of people. And before someone else says it, yes it is odd considering the amount and type of "cargo" you are carrying.

The main question here, to me, is how to account for time spent at job #1. I totally agree with Rick that the best course of action would be to discuss this with the safety guy at job #2 to verify On Duty/Not Driving as the appropiate way to account for your time at job #1, as they would be the ones that would need to CYA. I was in a similar situation for a while. I worked a non-CDL job and drove motorcoach part-time. G-Town hit it with the "Time Worked Statement" being required with new and/or intermittent drivers, but I drove on a somewhat regular basis (worked non CDL job 4 days on - 4 days off and drove in between) and handled it a bit differently. We used paper logs when I first started driving, and logged every day whether it was the driving or non-driving job. Later when switching to e-logs, I had the ability to add "on duty" entries from my non-driving job by home computer ( which made life a whole lot easier). This accounted for ALL my time worked to satisfy logging requirements of the bus company. Another suggestion to the OP is that since you have to keep logs for job #2, (you said that they told you that you had to "log in") is to track your worked hours on a calendar to see what kind of hours you available to commit to driving bus. Since you currently don't keep logs and have to worry about your available hours, I believe that you may be surprised how quickly you run into the 70hr/8 days HOS wall and not be able to drive bus that much.

I have noticed that a few guys I had always looked to for advice always said don't do it!

The only "don't do it" advice I can recall on this board are some that have suggested that it may not be the best way to go right out of school. The idea being get some experience under your belt before trying something more demanding. Nobody ever said there was anything wrong with flat.

I realize that this is a big step for you and that you are naturally nervous. But I agree that you need to relax and make this an enjoyable challenge rather than a chore. You would be amazed at how many people enroll in CDL schools and have never researched anything resembling a driver's manual or online study materials. A lot of them have just the first couple of days of classes to study for the written tests. You have the advantage of having found THE BEST FORUM that is full of people that sincerely want to help you and answer your concerns. On top of that, it also has the best online prep tool (High Road) that I have ever seen, BAR NONE.

I would read into that message that this particular dispatcher and/or company has experienced problems with drivers utilizing random 34's as a mini vacation (as Brett stated), or as an excuse to refuse loads. Also, the message didn't imply that the driver was expected to run illegally. I do, however, think that the message could have been worded a little more tactfully. Such as:

"If you have hours available and/or coming back on recap, you are expected to be available for loads. Otherwise, please call me to discuss the need for a reset."

Great start and advise right out of the box!