Reset Or Recap?

If anyone has ever done 4,000 miles in a 7 day week, please let me and also let me know if you would ever do it again.

Rob, there's probably some confusion going on when people talk about having a really big week. Let me tell you, if anybody can consistently run more than 3,600 miles in a week they are most likely breaking the law someway or another. I've had big weeks. In fact this week was big, but let's look at why it's big.

My paycheck will have 4,623 miles on it. Drivers love to talk about a big week like that. Most of us realize how that happens. You simply can't drive that kind of miles under the current HOS and log everything properly. We always have a specific "cutoff" time for turning in our completed loads. Mine is Tuesday mornings @ 10:30 Phoenix, AZ time.

Here's what took place for me to get that nice fat paycheck: I completed an 1,892 mile trip on Tuesday, but it was @ 12 noon in Phoenix when I wrapped things up. Then I ran two more loads before the next cutoff, making up the balance of the 4,623 miles. I also did a 34 hour reset in there somewhere. So, I had a full day off this week, and still managed a 4,623 mile paycheck. A good bit of those miles were run during the previous week.

There's a lot of people who "talk" about "running hard." We do run hard at times, but once a person has gained some experience at handling the realities of this career, you can pace yourself and pretty much max out your earnings without burning yourself out. You probably noticed how I tried to encourage the TMC driver you reference to take a different approach so he wouldn't burn himself out. This job can become dangerous, and absolutely no fun if you're stressing yourself out all the time.

Great point on the wearing yourself out. After running these 3 weeks as hard as i have i am really looking forward to hometime if i didnt have it scheduled theres no way i could have kept up my previous pace. How far out does everyone schedule their hometime?

Old School,

Thanks for sharing how the "cut-off" time can give you a big week.

Here's what took place for me to get that nice fat paycheck: I completed an 1,892 mile trip on Tuesday, but it was @ 12 noon in Phoenix when I wrapped things up.

I'll remember that when I run into the "Supertrucker" who is bragging about his 4,200 mile week. I plan to look at driving big picture and focus on being safe, professional, efficient and managing my clock. I know that it will be struggle during my first year, because despite how much I have tried to prepare myself, I won't begin the real learning until I'm actually out there doing it.

My goal is to learn as much as I can my first year so that I can manage about 2500 miles per week without getting too stressed and enjoy the things that drivers say they love about trucking.

We do run hard at times, but once a person has gained some experience at handling the realities of this career, you can pace yourself and pretty much max out your earnings without burning yourself out.

I did notice that you tried to guide that driver, but he seemed bound and determined to sprint to the finish line of his first year. I hope that he likes his new gig and I hope that he shares some of his experience here on the forum.

I have looked at many driver's comment histories (cause as Packrat says, I'm quite the stalker). But I do it to learn and try to understand what makes for a successful, content trucker. It's the ones that you see evolve into the "monks" as you call them, but are still running solid miles that give me hope that I'll be there one day and I'll actually enjoy trucking more than my current job. I wish that the ones who come on here and rant, or have this big long extended confrontational thread, would close the loop after everything is all said and done. Even if they came back and said, "I still think you all are a bunch of idiot and losers," at least we would know how they ended up. My best guess, is that most of them are too ashamed to come back and admit that the advice they were give on this forum was correct.

Thanks again and very soon I hope to join the ranks of the, slightly off in the head, flatbedders.

Driver C runs an average of 2,750 per week, which is about 137,000 miles per year. Old School ran about 130,000 miles last year. Most companies are going to love this driver.

Driver D runs an average of 3,000 miles per week, which is about 150,000 miles per year. Most companies will love this driver, but at the same time will be concerned that he would get burnt out and either 1) leave trucking or 2) leave for another company that pays more per mile.

Turtle Protege,

I ran cans for Interide....the company that is closing 29 Feb....to TraPac in the Port of Oakland CA for a year. Our routes figured out to be 2800 to 3300 mi per week. I stayed out 4 to 6 weeks. I usually ran on recap, tho a few times I did a reset on the road.

The straw that broke the camel's back was getting home that was put in for and approved one month ahead of time. I was staying out 5 weeks for 5 days home time and 5 days vacation time....10 days total was approved.

Got asked to run a load on my home time and I agreed as long as I got back to start my vacation. Delivered a bit early and expected to be dead headed home as that usually happened with every home time. Load planner scheduled a load and it went south. Missed getting home for my event...tho I took a partial vacation. Night before I was to go back to work, I saw fire trucks and an ambulance go down the road past my house. Then Life Flight landed in my goat pasture (no overhead wires and goats go to the barn). My neighbor who was 8 mths older than me had a massive heart attack and died. I realized that Interide was going to continue messing with any home time I put in for and I was burning out. At the time I had just turned 67 and I know myself pretty well....so I looked for another company and gave my 2 weeks notice shortly after.

Laura

Old School wrote:

For years now I've watched the noobs wrangle with this question. I honestly don't think we can answer it in the form of which way is better or more efficient, or even which way makes more money.

I actually agree with Turtle when he says you end up sitting and waiting more on re-caps. Here's an example: let's say you have five and a half hours coming back to you and you've already burned up your current day's hours by 0800. Now you've got to park at 0800 and wait for midnight to start driving. You can now drive until about 0500 and park it again for 19 hours. That is not fun - in fact it drives me way more crazy than planning and enjoying myself on a 34 hour break.

Yours gonna develop your own style and preferences. There's no right or wrong choice. You get 70 hours in eight days no matter how you slice it up. Wild Bill, just keep hitting it hard like you are and you'll be forced to take a 34. You'll see what I mean when you look at what you've got to work with after six days.

...and the "Wrangling" continues...

Please,... not trying to discourage any Newbie from offering a reply here, but seriously; Turtle and Old School could write a book about how-to maximize their hours (HOS). Their collective replies to Bill's inquiry are spot-on. Remember...the biggest unknown variables with this are the available pick-up date, the delivery date and the distance between them. A stock answer of recommendation is not always possible.

I don't know about doing a 4000 mile week, but the most I ever did in a month was 14,004 paid miles.

That was in August of 2017, I drove all 31 days on recaps, and the most I drove during a single day was 570 miles (twice), and the greatest number of hours I drove was 9.9.

Here's a record book page from that month. This is how I keep my updated notes for each day, month, and year forever.

Here's a record book page from that month. This is how I keep my updated notes for each day, month, and year forever.

I have a similar format that I plan to use for my training period to keep track of drive time, miles, and load information.

Rob D. Trip Planning and Driving Record Spreadsheet

Notice the beginning date.

I don't know about doing a 4000 mile week, but the most I ever did in a month was 14,004 paid miles.

That was in August of 2017, I drove all 31 days on recaps, and the most I drove during a single day was 570 miles (twice), and the greatest number of hours I drove was 9.9.

Looking back, I wish I kept more notes on my daily trips. When I was OTR , I regularly surpassed 600 in a single drive shift when the miles were available. My best day was 688 miles and it was somewhere in the area of 10hrs 57mins of ull throttle drive time that day.

I know, that doesn't add up in a 62mph truck. Back then I was able to "tweak" my drive clock with a strategic reboot of the QC at the right time, letting me gain some ghost minutes of driving without the QC knowing it. They eventually caught on to that, and came up with an update to stop us from doing that.

Most I ever had in a company truck was 717 miles at CRST in 10:59:50. That was on I-40 and everything went perfect that day.

I knew this was a loaded question. IT sounds very much like a personal choice which I assumed it was. The reasons why Logic, and personal opinions have been enlightening. If the senior folks here, it seems reset is the consensus and the last couple days would have me leaning that way as well.

I started to run up against the pitfalls of recaps in the last couple days. Day 9 was Sunday. I got back 7 hours which was enough for two fairly short runs. Monday I got back another 5 but ended up having to do a wild goose chase from Mairionette, WI to Appleton, back up to Little Chute to find an empty refer trailer. I thought I could get 1/2 way to the consignee but ended up having to park about 6 hours out. That in turn made it so I had to be on the road by 2:00 am to make my appointment on Tuesday. Today (Tuesday) I got back 8 but the 6 hour drive ate that up pretty good. So, two days in a row where I had to park it when I really wanted to keep moving. The next few days I get back 9-11 hours so I should be able to run for a while.

I’m in phase 3 now which is basically solo with a training FM. I’ll run the rest of this stretch with recaps. When I launch again, I think I’ll try the reset and see how that goes. Freight is always a struggle in the weekend anyway.