Question For Rainy

Rainy, About a year ago you started a thread about managing your clock. Can you post a link to it please. Now that I'm so close to making the jump,i would like to re read that.

Not Rainy's thread, but a good start:

Learn The Logbook Rules (HOS)

Bolt, Swift will cover HOS & logs in the Academy, at least 1 full day, plus written test. No worries, they will "fire-hose" you on this.

I don't know which link that was, sorry. The HOS logbook link G Town posted is great. And you will get the clocks drilled into your head. It is all part of training.

I will say that one of the downfalls of prime team training is not enough emphasis on solo time management.

They expect the first year to be a learning curve of time management. Knowing when to start and stop, knowing how far you can get in X amount of time, and knowing how to make up for lost time are all part of it. Also just spending time on the roads to know which ones are good, which are bad. And where the good truck stops are. For example US 65 is a good road north of I44 in MO, but south of it until I40, it sucks!!! That section can add hours to your trip. Then below 40 its awesome at 65mph. Knwoing which roads to avoid can help. These are things you can only learn from experience.

And every driver will do things differently. I usually leave ASAP to get to my shipper , especially if the customer has overnight parking. The other night i got to the shipper at 11pm for a 2pm appointment. They loaded me up at 7am and got done just in time for.my hours to come back and i rolled WAY earlier tgan i would have. Some customers, like my receiver today, will say "no parking and don't arrive more then 15 min early". This is a lot more hassle cause you have to be able to guage your driving, try to park nearby and get there with enough time on your 14 clock to get out after unload.

All of this is jumping the gun though. Take your baby steps first. Do the High Road to pass your test ahead of the others, and study the APEX pretrip video on YouTube. Knowing the pretrip before you get to school will set you far far ahead of the others when it comes to test time.

That is what I did. Being prepared for the written and pretrip allowed me to relax and concentrate on learning to drive.

As for time management, it comes down to " Early is on time and on time is late".

Good luck and keep us posted. :)

Bolt, the HOS rules are one of those​ things that may drive you crazy in the classroom (30 minutes, 8 hours, 14 hours, oh my!) But once you start living with them on the road, it's not so bad. Just go through G-Town's link, and also study the HOS section of the High Road Training Program.

I'll just add that if you limit driving to 8.75 hours a day you never need to worry about running out of hours or running recaps. It's hard to only limit yourself to that though.

I'll just add that if you limit driving to 8.75 hours a day you never need to worry about running out of hours or running recaps. It's hard to only limit yourself to that though.

Adam that's great advice as long as the delivery schedules align with that rate of travel.

In addition, many Dedicated Assignments (like mine), do not work in that fashion. My goal quite frankly, is to finish my 1 or 2 runs each day, exhausting as much of the daily 14 as needed to return MT to the Distribution Center. The beginning of day 5 (of 6 total), if I have maximized my clock, I should be sitting at between 16-20 hours of remaining time on the 70.By the end of day 6, I should be at or below 6 hours remaining on the 70. Day 7 is the 34 hour reset (aka-day-off). Due to the nature of most direct-to-retailer type of accounts, many times a full 14 hours of on-duty time is required to complete the daily work assignment.

A typical "good" 6 day week is like this:

Day 1 - 3 stop dry run of 405 miles

Day 2 - 5 stop reefer run of 382 miles (includes a drop & hook back haul from Tropicana OJ)

Day 3 - 2 runs; 1st 3 stop dry run of 227 miles, 2nd 2 stop reefer run of 165 miles

Day 4 - 5 stop reefer run of 375 miles

Day 5 - 4 stop dry run of 310 miles (includes a drop and hook back haul from Kellogg's)

Day 6 - 3 stop dry run of 205 miles.

Total on-duty hours = 67 hours 11 minutes before 34 hour reset.

Day 2 and 4 (5 stop runs) went beyond 13.00 hours of on-duty time. The reason for the excessively high on-duty hours vs. driving hours (of 43 hours in this case) is the time required to "live unload" at each store stop. Ingress, docking and egress required for each store stop.

Thanks for the info guys and I will check the links. Rainy, the post I was referring to you pretty much summed up. I have a basic understanding of the hos as I have in the past fallen under DOT guidelines. One construction company I worked for I had to run log books, maintain a health cars, and pay attention to HOS.

Thanks for the tip on the pre trip video. I will check that out. I have been studying the high road training.

I have a lot of skills and knowledge that will help me through my training. I am excited and looking forward to,this. Especially after a day like today where I can hardly move after work.