Hos Rules About Passenger Seat Time

So I really enjoyed the log book section in the highroad training program. The only thing I wish there was more of is tips for teams, everyone says someone has hours in a team but it seems like the 70hrs/8day rule would catch up with you.

Also I have done a little research elsewhere online and have found that there is a rule about how long you can spend in the passenger seat as a codriver. It was 2hr maximum, from reading the hos rules here it seems like this would be classified as on duty not driving time? Or is there another area for passenger seat time?

Thank you again for all the awesome help and info here!

Beyond the two hours, anytime in the passenger seat should be logged on duty not driving.

Remember you still have to rest and be available and able to run your shift.

There is no team in America that would log on duty time when they are chilling in the passenger seat. It makes me think of people that log on duty while sitting in a dock. In the refrigerated world, you would be driving about 1,000 miles a week if you did that.

I team with the wife. If the truck is moving, whoever is not driving is logged as sleeper berth. Whether they are in the jump seat or the sleeper. Sometimes she will come up to chit chat or smoke, but most of the time she's in the back sleeping. Team driving is one hell of a schedule, not too often they both are going to be up front unless it's a training situation.

We would run up against our 70s back when we did cross country round trips when we were otr drivers. We could cover about 1350 miles in a 24 hour period, after 6 days we'd both be plum out of hours. The trick with teams is you can get both drivers a 34 hour reset by shutting down for ~ 24 hours. One drives their full shift, shut down 22 - 24 hours, the other drives their full shift. Both drivers were off duty for 34 hours.

Running 6000 and even 7000 mile weeks for weeks on end gets very exhausting. The money is great though.

We would run up against our 70s back when we did cross country round trips when we were otr drivers. We could cover about 1350 miles in a 24 hour period, after 6 days we'd both be plum out of hours. The trick with teams is you can get both drivers a 34 hour reset by shutting down for ~ 24 hours. One drives their full shift, shut down 22 - 24 hours, the other drives their full shift. Both drivers were off duty for 34 hours.

Matt! Thank you! That is exactly the kind of tip I was hoping for! Do you and your wife drive refrigerated then? My husband and I are just getting started trying to decide between refer and dry van , any thoughts? Thank you!

We drive in Prime Inc's refrigerated division. The irony is I never haul refrigerated freight anymore, but we jumped on a dedicated account they have that's all dry loads, frequently hazmat.

I enjoy reefer , but appointment times are more varied (often in the early am hours) and you will be sitting at docks more often than dry van. Also spending time getting trailer washouts (dry vans are usually wooden trailers that you don't really wash out, just sweep). The work is steady year round though, people always got to eat. It seems most company's offer a higher per mile rate to offset the extra downtime.

It's not uncommon at some grocery distribution centers to be sitting for 8 or 10 hours to be unloaded. I enjoyed pretty much any downtime I could get running team though, so it never bothered me much. This is because they often break down and repallet your stuff for individual stores. This is usually done by lumpers you have to pay. Your company reimburses you.

I enjoyed refrigerated but if you are allergic to sitting in docks or 1am appointment times, you may like dry van better.

The husband and I have a couple, that we are great friends with, that run 'SUPER SOLO' .... Whether or not one has to be an O/O team to do so, is out of my league, but it sure works for them.... 8 driving hubby, 8 driving wife, 8 mutually off. (working in all the other details, of course...) but that sounds like a perfect 24 that IF I ever get out there w/ my hubs again, that'd be the way to go.

Just a thought. 3x8 is 24.

Maybe PJ and Packrat could clarify, whether this is 'company' doable.

Matt, Thank you for the great info! It seems like a tough choice still, it sounds like the down time in refer would be helpful for staying more rested. Starting school on Monday! Here we go! Thank you again for the info

No problem, good luck.

I think in general otr company driving, the super solo scenario is not going to be largely successful. There will be times you can drive that way, but overall operations is just trying to cover loads with trucks and won't be able to necessarily cater to getting you slower loads. Maybe there are some companies that will though.

That said there are niches and we kind of found one. We only run 4,300 miles a week on the account we run for so we both are only working a little over 40 hours per week. There are two stretches where we run straight 24 hours. There are two where we run straight 15 and shutdown kind of like the super solo team. I only take one 30 minute break a week the way it works out, so I only drive more than 8 hours one day a week (the other 24 hour stretch is coming off home time so I drive 7, the wife drives 10-11, and I drive 5 to our destination). I know, I know, bad husband lol. I do all the docking and dealing with customers though.

The husband and I have a couple, that we are great friends with, that run 'SUPER SOLO' .... Whether or not one has to be an O/O team to do so, is out of my league, but it sure works for them.... 8 driving hubby, 8 driving wife, 8 mutually off. (working in all the other details, of course...) but that sounds like a perfect 24 that IF I ever get out there w/ my hubs again, that'd be the way to go.

Just a thought. 3x8 is 24.

Maybe PJ and Packrat could clarify, whether this is 'company' doable.

Doubtful to see that for a company, team concept. If they are employing two drivers, a company is going to want their asset moving as much as possible. That's just economics. Not moving means no income generation, a problem with the already thin profit margins.

Beyond the two hours, anytime in the passenger seat should be logged on duty not driving.

Remember you still have to rest and be available and able to run your shift.

I'm not 100% sure on this. If you are a TRAINER - and are REQUIRED TO BE IN THE PASSENGER SEAT for a CLP driver, then it's ON DUTY/NOT DRIVING. If you are an off duty driver that is NOT REQUIRED to be in the seat, I believe it can be logged OFF DUTY.

Obviously - there's the "technical point" of being logged SLEEPER, while not actually BEING IN THE SLEEPER.

Rick