How Do YOU Deal With Time Zone Changes?

For local deliveries, and reporting times in macros, use your CDL phone clock, on local time.

Where do you get those "CDL Phones"? Do Verizon or Sprint sell them?

Sorry Errol, I can't help but mess with you and your auto correct!

Its true about the QC and breaks...but I look at my phone for when to set it not the QC. At the end of the break if you hit the button to change your line of duty a d you are still out of hours it will say in red "you need 39 min to complete your break" or whatever.

Recaps suck cause our base is Central which means I get hours back at 0100 eastern time...that is the only real problem I had...trying to remember that

Everyone runs their truck differently. You have to find what works for you. One trainer told me "prime is on central and that is what you have to go by, so you have to do everything central." Uh....no...I dont. My FM asks for LOCAL time ETAs so that is what I give him. But I'm usually so early it doesn't matter. Lol

World Clock Widget 2016 is working pretty well. Free app . Has your time, then you add your destination and that clock pops up.

So your OCD list when leaving your truck should include keys, pen, whatever else and fingers.

Heh, I knew I forgot something back in 1996.

The only real hangup I've run across is working with your 10hr break.

Suppose you are based in Memphis (Central time) and you stop near Macon, GA (Eastern). The QC says 1720, so you decide 0330 to start up. Pick up your cell phone, set the alarm for 3:30am.

Your alarm goes off at the appointed time, you figure 10 hrs later. You look at the QC, it shows 9 hours break, 1 to go!! What the ....!

Answer: your phone is default set to show local time. The Qualcomm is always on your base time. Eastern time zone is 1 hour later than Central. Look at your QC clock (1720 CST), convert that to local time first (1820 EST), then add 10 hours for your alarm (4:20 am EST) The mistake is worse going west, you might oversleep an hour or two!

For local deliveries, and reporting times in macros, use your CDL phone clock, on local time.

I don't even look at the time for my 10 hour break. When the truck stops, I pick up my smartphone and say two sentences:

"Set Alarm for 45 minutes from now." Reminds me to change from on duty to off duty after PTI, before I go eat, shower, whatever.

"Set Alarm for nine hours and 45 minutes from now." That alarm will wake me up about nine hours after my PTI ends.

At that point I go do morning things, and when I get back to the truck I go to the Qualcomm, and enter the change page, and wait for the red letters to go away before I go into morning PTI for three minutes before driving.

The only issue I have run into is trying to remember the exact area of delineation. Example: most of KY is on eastern time. The western portion is on central. So if the RCVR is near 65 or 75 it is eastern. Near 41A it is central. The line between central and eastern is between 65 and 41A, but closer to 65. Since 65 run N/NE, in Kentucky, If I remember right the southern portion is in central.

I keep my QC and watch on central. I keep my phone to adjust to local time. Time zone differences doesn't bother me. 17 1/2 yrs in the military has got me used to time differences. At least in Trucking I only have to deal with 2 times. Base and local. In the military, during deployments, you have to throw GMT (Zulu) time into that as well. Since all operation are based on the "zero" clock.

Drive Safe and God Speed.

This is one reason why I love this forum and all of you folks who contribute. It is full of different but helpful people, ideas, technology and humor. Put me in the same older class with the likes of Old School if you want but at the very least, having the atlas on board would be a must for me and then all of the others after that. I had similar training and FAA testing as well when I went for my pilot's license. You are tested on good old map reading and math calculations and even when flying, can only use a portable GPS as a back up. Maps are issued every 6 mos. and you MUST have a current one in your plane.

On another note, I hope that none of you on this forum were involved in any of the truck accidents shown on the news of this week.

Keep smiling, keep helping one another and God Bless you all!

That's why part of my trip planning includes writing every thing down on paper, including delivery times. In the QC message, it does not state what time zone the location is in, so I'll Google the location to find out what time zone it's in. That's in addition to getting a Google view of where I'm actually going.

Then I'll look at my atlas and figure my route and compare it to the GPS directions and our Macro 19, which gives the last few miles of detailed directions and some specifics about the location. (Nearby washes, overnight parking etc...)