First Week And HOS Headaches

Absolutely go off duty when you're not driving. You have that 3 hours of cushion between your 11 hours of driving and your 14 hour clock that's going to cover your 30 min break and the time you take finding your loaded trailer, checking in/out etc.

Personally, I show: 7 min check-in (on a live load or unload), 15 mins for a drop and hook (no check-in time), and a 7 minute pretrip. THAT'S IT. I was taught to log this way. We need every spare minute we can squeeze.

While I'm not a home daily dedicated driver like a few here, I'm OTR , my company specializes in shorter Regional hauls for the most part and we tend to run out our clock daily with several shorter trips and sometimes a single run that will take your entire clock to complete. Because I'm what we call network fleet (I run everywhere the company goes) I sometimes get slightly longer runs, however like Thursday I had to play in Chicago most of the day, and yesterday I was running around Nashville, before heading home. Yayy home. I try to sleep as close to a receiver as possible, allowing me to not start my clock until AFTER I'm unloaded (or loaded) and ready to roll out. In that case, I'll show a 15 min pretrip/unloading (or loading) and roll.

Susan wrote:

You have that 3 hours of cushion between your 11 hours of driving and your 14 hour clock that's going to cover your 30 min break and the time you take finding your loaded trailer, checking in/out etc

Exactly what I tried to point out in my original reply. The above train of thought definitely applies to OTR type jobs, but not necessarily for the type of job (intermodal) the OP has and I have with multiple stops and pickups that increase the chance for delays.

This type of work quickly exhausts the 14 hour on-duty clock, to the point it catches up with the drive clock and reduces available drive time. As a result clock management at the micro level becomes necessary and is part of the challenge he is working through.