There Are No Dumb Questions. Right?

I’m curious about the HOS rules. Let’s say I’m driving and I’m about to run out of time before needing to do a 34 hour reset. I’m right in thinking that means the truck is parked for a day and a half, right? Period.

What happens if I’m somewhere in say, Iowa. I want to get to that Iowa 80 truck stop for my reset, but gps says it’s 30 minutes from me, and I’ve only got 20 minutes left on my “clock”. Can I still drive those extra 20, or am I gonna be stuck in a McDonald’s truck parking lot for that full 34 hours? In that same note, let’s say I get to the Iowa 80 truck stop and I still have 20 minutes of drive time available. Am I going to be penalized for not using every available minute of drive time and just stopping wherever I happen to be? Is that why I see so many trucks pulled off on highway on ramps at night?

Or is it just “pick this load up in Cleveland, Ohio on Monday at 8am, and be at the drop off location in Denver, Colorado by 8:00am on Wednesday and you just stop and go as you please, as long as you get there on time?

you just stop and go as you please, as long as you get there on time?

That's it - that's how it's done.

Here's a caveat though. As a newbie your dispatcher may try to help you do things a certain way. They may try to help you manage or conserve your time so that you can be more efficient. If that's the case, they may make suggestions as to how they'd like to see you get it done. That's just rookie stuff. Sometimes your dispatcher may be trying to groom you a little - no harm, no foul.

As to your other question, you will go through a steep learning curve on managing your hours. In your example about getting to the I-80 truck stop you left a lot to fate. Very seldom do I ever have a day where I don't know exactly where I'm going to stop and rest. Accurate trip planning and executing your plan is critical to success out here.

I'm glad you posed the questions, but they're a little premature. You're going to learn all this stuff by the seat of your pants. Your experiences, your successes, and your failures will teach you a great deal out here. Hands on learning is very important to this business. Once you've come up twenty minutes short a few times will help you learn to trip plan more effectively.

You don't want to run over on your legal driving time. You run the risk of a citation should you get a random inspection by a D.O.T. officer. Some drivers are more cavalier about this than others, but in reality you should be able to stay legal, still make great money, park where you want, and not have to worry about having an officer uncover your sins. A rookie is going to struggle with all of this. I certainly did, but not anymore. My days are stress free and very productive now days.

You'll build your experience and your skills as you expose yourself to the many variables that make up a trucker's day. Learning this stuff is actually very rewarding. We have a great section on

Learning The Logbook Rules (HOS)

in the High Road Training program. You should start working on it now. It will really help you grasp the concepts.

You're not physically forced to stop as soon as you run out of hours but LEGALLY you are. Even going over your hours by 1 minute is a violation and not good. Some companies allow you to use Personal Conveyance but I'm not sure what the rules are regarding PC. Simply put trucks are parked on the side of the highway due to a parking shortage in some areas of the country and poor planning. There are companies out there that will terminate you for parking on the shoulder of the interstate or ramps unless you're dealing with a breakdown. Most of our experienced drivers here will say before they start their day they'll have 3 options of where they'll stop for the night dependent on what occurs during the day. As you become experienced you'll become familiar with what areas of the country have parking issues and what time it becomes a problem. I've seen several drivers mention they plan on stopping after 10 hours driving or 13 hours on duty. That leaves them an hour to find a safe place to shutdown.

Or is it just “pick this load up in Cleveland, Ohio on Monday at 8am, and be at the drop off location in Denver, Colorado by 8:00am on Wednesday and you just stop and go as you please, as long as you get there on time?

that's for the most part what occurs. Of course you can try to deliver early to get your next load quicker to make more money but the receiver won't always take it early. Believe it or not you'll know you're doing a great job when your dispatcher DOESN'T call you because they know you're going to get the load there on time or communicate any issues that cause a delay as soon as you're aware.

Hi triplet dad,

You get 70 hours of drive time in a rolling 8 day period. So, if you run out of time on a day, you can take your 10 hour break and always get time back to drive. In your example, of running out of time and still needing to drive 20 miles to get to a more comfortable place to take a 34 reset, you have a couple options.

You can stop where you are and take a 10 hour break, get time back, drive to the Iowa 80, take your 34. You can also use "personal conveyance", which is recorded as off duty. Personal conveyance has a lot of strings attached to it because it can be easily abused. To use personal conveyance, you can not be under a load, and you can not be dispatched for a load. You can not use personal conveyance to advance towards another load, you can not use personal conveyance to go home. Many mega carriers will not let you use personal conveyance at all as a company policy.

hopes this helps.

You can use pc to go home thats called commuting.

Mike b,

Read the fmcsa faqs page under the first question. Going home is a continuation of a trip and does not qualify for personal conveyance.

https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/regulations/hours-service/personal-conveyance-frequently-asked-questions-0

So if drop a load and send in and empty call im no longer assigned to a load. How is that wrong? I can pc without a load anywhere but home? That makes no sense. There is no harm in that. Im not advancing a load if im heading home after dropping a load. I pray they change that one because its ridiculous.

Hi triplet dad,

You get 70 hours of drive time in a rolling 8 day period. So, if you run out of time on a day, you can take your 10 hour break and always get time back to drive. In your example, of running out of time and still needing to drive 20 miles to get to a more comfortable place to take a 34 reset, you have a couple options.

You can stop where you are and take a 10 hour break, get time back, drive to the Iowa 80, take your 34. You can also use "personal conveyance", which is recorded as off duty. Personal conveyance has a lot of strings attached to it because it can be easily abused. To use personal conveyance, you can not be under a load, and you can not be dispatched for a load. You can not use personal conveyance to advance towards another load, you can not use personal conveyance to go home. Many mega carriers will not let you use personal conveyance at all as a company policy.

hopes this helps.

I use personal conveyance when I am loaded. Not to advance my load but if I am shut down on either a 10 or 34 loaded and need to do some shopping or go to a laundromat or just go to a lake or something fun. Sometimes I will take the trailer with me other times I'll drop and lock it and bobtail. Are you saying I'm not supposed to do this? I've had conversations with our logs department where PC has come up and they didn't take issue with it, one time in particular as I had logged 3 different PC uses in one day as I went to 3 different stores. My call wasnt about PC however it was about my Qualcomm not logging drive time the day before. I had to paper log that day but my PC was logged on the day in question as Qualcomm started working again.

Mike b,

Honestly, I don't think the fmcsa really knows. PC was a hot topic when they were parading around the country getting all the drivers mad at them.

one time they said you could not PC home and a driver asked if you could pc to visit your neighbor and they said yes.

I guess it's the intent. Just something to think about if dot ever asks I guess.

Safe Haven rule. I had to use it a few times with Gardner. I just let Elogs know, why ,n when I arrived at location to park. as they told me to do, after I got parked in safer place. Mostly because of loaders ,killin' my clock when I arrived in plenty of time !