A Little FYI On Log Books.

All through school and during my OTR training, we were "taught" how to use the E Log's system.

Ours is called Qualcomm. I don't know how wide spread they are, but not a bad system so far. Still getting all the quirks worked out with it.

During school and in training we were always told to watch our hours. Keep a close eye on your hours. If you go over, you get what is called an "HOS" violation. Hours Of Service.

They can range from "Oh well, it happens" to "Oh man am I in trouble now". But if you are careful, you won't have any problems. It does all the figuring out for you. Well except for your stops. It tells you how much time you have. It even gives you the last 8 days.

But in all the talk about watching how many hours you have left. I have found out this week, totally by accident. You also have to be careful to make sure you use enough hours. I know, that sounds confusing. Let me see if I can explain a little bit. I don't like doing 34 hour restarts. When I am setting, I am not making any money. Therefore, I try to work on my roll over. But this week, I ran into something I never had run into before. Even in the bus industry.

Last week, I had two days back to back where I almost ran out of hours. Not my fault. I can't tell a dock crew to load any faster. When you go there with 5 hours left, you should have enough right? Not always. When they take 4 1/2 hours to load you and you can't overnight on their lots. You now have 30 minutes to find some place to bed down for 10 hours.

Well I had two of those back to back. Then the next two days, they were really short. Just over 5 on both days. Where here I am working on my roll overs. (Hours you regain as the week rolls around).

I have just had my 10.75 hour day today. Tomorrow I get my 11.75 hour day. But the next day, I only get 5 hours to work on. I made my day very short today and gonna try to not use all my hours tomorrow. I have 450 miles to drive. I hope to save about 3 hours to carry over. But it will all depend on how long the unloading takes.

I know this sounds a little confusing to those that are not using logs yet, or are not familiar with logs. But just let me say this. When watching how many hours you are using so you don't go over, make sure you use enough so when that roll over day comes, you have some time to use.

I hope someone out there can explain it better than I am trying to.

And the idea about working 8 1/2 to 9 hours a day so you can work without having to do a 34. Sounds great. In theory. I had it all worked out when I finally go my truck. I would try to start my day around 3am and shutdown about 5pm. Yeah right. What is the old saying? "Best laid plans of mice and men".

Works great till you get to that dock that takes 4 1/2 hours to unload you. You had hoped to use some of that time as your drive time. But guess what. Now you are almost out of hours.

Keep an eye on those logs/hours. Make sure you don't go over but also make sure you use enough.

Keep it safe out here. The life you save might be your own. Joe S.

As you know i run teams with my brother so the long unload tes in docks dont effect me. If one of us run out of hours while in the docks we switch and no problem. We do JIT loads so most (99%) of our loads are preloaded and drop trailers. I do know what you ar e talking about with low hours to run a trip. Even teams have that problem. And using only 8.75 or 9 hours a day does not work for us due to timing. If we get a load that will take 15 hours to complete we got 17 hours to do it in. Now weather or accidents are not our fault and the load times can be adjusted.

Those new to trucking may think that is a tough scheldule but its really not. This is where 16 years of experience comes in and i have learned to be super efficient. Its tough to explain the "hows and why's" and maybe Brett cant explain it better than I can. For example pretrips. You get to know your truck and you just know when something is wrong or all is right. I can pop the hood and tell within 10 secs of looking if something is wrong. Most of what we do of pretrips is visional. Very few times will you ever touch anything unless you suspect something is wrong and you want a closer look at it. I hope that sounded like i meant it to. Not saying i short cut pretrips because i dont at all but i have learned what to look for.

And the idea about working 8 1/2 to 9 hours a day so you can work without having to do a 34. Sounds great. In theory. I had it all worked out when I finally go my truck. I would try to start my day around 3am and shutdown about 5pm. Yeah right. What is the old saying? "Best laid plans of mice and men".

Yeah, that goes with about everything in trucking - your plans last about 10 seconds after you make them and get stomped on by the trucking Gods.

What you're saying makes perfect sense to anyone that understands the logbook rules. And the debate over "run your butt off and take a reset" versus "run steady and never take a reset" is one we just had not too long ago and everyone differs on their approach. There is no right or wrong really. It's just a matter of what works for you.

Some drivers like to run as hard as possible all the time so that they're ahead of the game if there's a breakdown or a lack of freight for a day or so. They run til they're out of hours and figure, "Hey, that's great! I made a ton of money and now I'll take 34 hours off...well deserved." Absolutely nothing wrong with that approach.

Some drivers would rather try to keep their daily hours steady so they don't have to sit for 34 hours at a time watching John Wayne movies at truck stops with a room full of guys who have all the time in the world but still do not shower or change their clothing often enough. They'd rather put in reasonable hours every day instead of blasting through hours in intense stretches and then sitting for long periods of time. Totally understandable and again, nothing wrong with the approach.

Trucking leaves plenty of wiggle room for drivers to implement their own styles and preferences along the way. You learn a ton that first year running solo and this is one of the great examples of something you really can't teach. There is no right or wrong way and there's no one way that works for everyone. You simply learn as you go.

Those new to trucking may think that is a tough schedule but its really not. This is where 16 years of experience comes in and i have learned to be super efficient. Its tough to explain the "hows and why's" and maybe Brett cant explain it better than I can

This it absolutely true. The longer you're out there the more you learn about using your time in a way that's efficient and conforms to your preferences as often as possible. The logbook example above is a great one. Your approach will depend on your preferences. What might work perfectly for Guyjax might be a nightmare for me and vice-versa.

You also learn to use your time for efficiently in a lot of other ways. For instance, let's combine the logbook example with other "chores" drivers have to do on the road. Maybe one driver likes to run as hard as possible and when their 70 hour clock is used up they take a 34 hour reset. During that time they do everything they can - get repairs done, laundry, showers, paperwork, food shopping - knock it all out at once. Others might prefer to sprinkle those chores in a little bit each day so they don't get too far behind and have to do everything all at once.

And like Guyjax mentioned the pre-trip. When you've been doing pre-trips for many years and you know your truck it takes about 3 minutes to do it. When you've negotiated big city traffic for years you know the "staging points" outside the major cities and you know when to go in and out during slower traffic times. You learn after a while to watch the weather so you can anticipate storms and be out of the way or shut down in time. After a while you learn to call ahead to customers to alter appointment times when possible to squeeze in an extra load or two during the week.

There's sooooooo much to learn out there that just really can't be taught. It just takes experience to pick up on all of the little details that go into making a safe, efficient driver.