I'm Running Out Of Logbook Hours. Need Help!

I’ve been running pretty hard and now I’m running against my 70. I only have what I get back each day. It makes it really hard to trip plan. Can anyone share some experience with this.

Honestly it comes down to what you need to run that day to make the load on time. If your in the mountains or city add time. But for the most part you learn from experience.

I have as of late been staying out for a month or longer and almost never get a 34. Like once in six months.

It helps if you really pay attention to your planning and when you can, shut down an hour or two early to gain some time back.

But this is kinda tricky because it's less miles on that load for that day. Others will chime in and can probably say this in an easier to understand format.

When planning it's easy to use 55mph as a tool to gauge mileage for a specific time.

But the reality is that unless your in the mountains or a large city your going faster, yet a lot of people use 55mph as if they can't go faster.

Also... And this may be frowned upon by some. Editing has it's rewards. I have up to six dispatchers and all of them are different. So my first week out it might take me 18 minutes to pretrip, or 45minutes to unload. Where later in the week I'll "remember" it didn't take me that long and I'll edit a few things and magically have enough hours to make a delivery on time. If needed.

Also the split sleeper berth will get you out of a jam occasionally. Like when you shut down about 4pm and your clock resets at midnight with a few more hours. Always helpful.

And as I mentioned I'm horrible at explaining things. But surely others will chime in.

Donna, your question is a little confusing. Are you running on recaps? ((And I don’t mean your tires) Please re- state the issue with a little more detail.

Honestly it comes down to what you need to run that day to make the load on time. If your in the mountains or city add time. But for the most part you learn from experience.

I have as of late been staying out for a month or longer and almost never get a 34. Like once in six months.

It helps if you really pay attention to your planning and when you can, shut down an hour or two early to gain some time back.

But this is kinda tricky because it's less miles on that load for that day. Others will chime in and can probably say this in an easier to understand format.

When planning it's easy to use 55mph as a tool to gauge mileage for a specific time.

But the reality is that unless your in the mountains or a large city your going faster, yet a lot of people use 55mph as if they can't go faster.

Also... And this may be frowned upon by some. Editing has it's rewards. I have up to six dispatchers and all of them are different. So my first week out it might take me 18 minutes to pretrip, or 45minutes to unload. Where later in the week I'll "remember" it didn't take me that long and I'll edit a few things and magically have enough hours to make a delivery on time. If needed.

Also the split sleeper berth will get you out of a jam occasionally. Like when you shut down about 4pm and your clock resets at midnight with a few more hours. Always helpful.

And as I mentioned I'm horrible at explaining things. But surely others will chime in.

Are you editing stuff from earlier in the week? If so, are you using a Qualcomm or other eld?

I may not understand this right but I thought you are not able to edit logs once you've approved them, which you are supposed to do everyday. I forget here and there too but just curious really.

I understand what you’re saying. I’m getting pretty good at my 8/2 driving. My truck only goes 58 mph so I always use 55 however I drive the south east mountains constantly where speed limit can be 45. I am in Atlanta at least once a week. Yesterday had to drive across Atlanta to pick up a load then had to turn around and go back across Atlanta at 17:00 traffic was horrible. I usually don’t certify my days just in case I get in a tight and need to edit. I guess it’s just put a sort of edge to things before if I needed to run 11 to get the load in okay, now I don’t have 11.

I’ve been running pretty hard and now I’m running against my 70. I only have what I get back each day. It makes it really hard to trip plan. Can anyone share some experience with this.

You'll have to predict all time spent on duty and driving for that run to trip plan accordingly. When you are on your 70, on duty time will eat up your drive time. Usually running on your 70, or recaps, will be much shorter days for you.

If you know you will be running recaps you can run a certain way to plan for it and always have 8-9 hours a day. Experience is the best teacher when running this way.

When running on recaps, as i understand that's what you're trying to do, takes a little extra to trip plan, yes. It gets easier to understand though. For each load, you calculate how much time you need to complete it successfully, then you calculate each day you're going to be on the load, (i.e. how many hours you'll start with, use, then get back each day), then compare the hours you'll have to the hours the load requires, and if you have enough, plan the trip... route, weather, construction, etc.,... taking into account the loading and unloading appt times. At this point i usually know if i can do a load legally. Not sure what your routine is, as everyone has their own, but i usually run my clock out each day. Just the way i get dispatched at this company. So, if i were to run recaps, i would get back max hours each day. When running recaps, bear in mind, that the hours you don't use and off duty hours stay in your 70. Hours in on duty and driving come back on the 8th day. So... the more you drive, the more hours you get back. The more on duty you have, the more you get back.. however! The more time you spend in on duty, or off duty, the less time you have to drive each day, so keep a close eye on your clock and try not to waste time.

Does this help at all? I'm not so good at explaining either lol.

Donna, if your truck only does 58mph, and you do Atlanta often, and mountains too, I personally would use a lower mph speed, because the avg isn't really 55. When i trip plan my loads (I actually do a quick calculation for 50-75mph in 5mph increments, for a worst case/ best case scenario, but that's just me), I use a low mph avg not because that's what I'll actually avg, but because it gives me a cushion of time if I need one for unexpected accidents or other delays. If there are none, then I have a less stressful trip where i can enjoy the drive and scenery lol.

When running on recaps, as i understand that's what you're trying to do, takes a little extra to trip plan, yes. It gets easier to understand though. For each load, you calculate how much time you need to complete it successfully, then you calculate each day you're going to be on the load, (i.e. how many hours you'll start with, use, then get back each day), then compare the hours you'll have to the hours the load requires, and if you have enough, plan the trip... route, weather, construction, etc.,... taking into account the loading and unloading appt times. At this point i usually know if i can do a load legally. Not sure what your routine is, as everyone has their own, but i usually run my clock out each day. Just the way i get dispatched at this company. So, if i were to run recaps, i would get back max hours each day. When running recaps, bear in mind, that the hours you don't use and off duty hours stay in your 70. Hours in on duty and driving come back on the 8th day. So... the more you drive, the more hours you get back. The more on duty you have, the more you get back.. however! The more time you spend in on duty, or off duty, the less time you have to drive each day, so keep a close eye on your clock and try not to waste time.

Does this help at all? I'm not so good at explaining either lol.

If you drive 10-11 hours a day, you are almost forced to take a 34. Conserve your 70 and then if you find yourself running recaps try to even out your hours to about 8.5 a day so you can run that non stop.

Also off duty time will not effect your drive time unless you're running up against your 14. Maybe I'm misunderstanding your comment but I disagree with your logic.

The company I'm with likes their drivers to do a 34 each week, so I don't really run recaps here, but I have before. Thank you for clarifying the 8.5 hrs each day...I forgot to.

As for off duty, no it doesn't affect drive time until your 11 hour clock is lower than your 14 hour clock... which happens when you waste time in off duty (like shopping each time you stop for fuel, or taking a longer than 30 min break, or .. well those minutes add up and before you know it, you've used up that 3 hour cushion to complete 11 hours of driving.

And that's assuming you're not waiting at shippers and/ or receivers, which can also eat up your 14 hour clock, and leave you with less than 11 hours to drive.