Frustrating Small Mistakes HOS

Frustrated with myself. Was at a shipper , had 9 hours left on my 70. Waiting for temp registration on a trailer ( had no license plate) I had my Zonar on Yard moves. Forgot to switch to off duty. Burned my 70 down to 5.5 hours. Had to reset. My DM was irritated, could hear it in his voice.

Studied HOS , both on duty and driving will burn my 70. I need to come up with a strategy to maximize my 70. I dislike having to take a reset.

So far I have.

Keep efficient time at shoppers and receivers, keep breaks and lolligagging to a minimum once I've started my clock, try and keep driving hours to about 9 each day.

Still frustrated with myself though. I know it's not a catastrophic mistake but irritating none the less.

Two things Davy.

1) You're doing great. You are still a rookie. You are going to make rookie mistakes. You just did! It actually took me several years to really get to where I always remembered to deal with my clock every time I did anything. It kind of feels like a ball and chain when you are accustomed to being able to do whatever you want to get a job done without recording your every move. You are so used to the construction business where you may wear eight or nine different hats per day. You changed easily from one duty to the other without ever keeping track of it all. Now you have got to hit that clock every time you change what you are doing. You will get the hang of it. When you make mistakes that mess up your ability to maximize your earnings you learn lessons from them fairly quickly. Hang in there, you will get better at remembering the details.

2) There are times when we really can't control certain factors about this job. We have to roll with the punches. Seldom does it work out so we drive nine hours per day. We have to be flexible while doing our best to manage things in a way that works to our advantage. It is a challenge. It's all part of the fun of this job. I always find it rewarding. I love the variety and the challenges. I have screwed up my clock plenty of times. Your DM knows you are doing a decent job of it. They are always trying to maximize their driver's available hours. They have managers also, and they get scrutinized pretty heavily.

It's not the end of the world. You will get to reset everything and start over. There's nothing like a fresh start! Hang in there - you are an inspiration!

I always enjoy your enthusiasm and your drive to excel at this.

Arghhh! You're still doing fine. Growing/learning pains that we all have.

My suggestion in get a big piece of thin cardboard that you can fold into such a fashion that you can hang it over the Zonar tablet. Simply write on it with a marker--DUTY STATUS! Perhaps that can assist you to remember?

Frustrating? I'm sitting at stop one since this morning. By the time I unloaded here at this Sam's Club in South Jordan, UT, I had 13 minutes left on my 14 hour clock. The problem was stop two was an 18 minute drive from here. So I sit for an unwanted 10....

Hi davy

Here's my take on yard moves. Back in the day when the fmcsa decided to mandate electronic logs without thinking about the consequences of their actions, they encountered one of many setbacks. When a truck is in a dock and the driver ran out of time it was illegal for them to move at all until they took a minimum of an 8 hour break. So truck companies refused to get out of docks. In a panic, the fmcsa revived an old yard move rule to handle this, but since yard moves is on duty, it really made no sense to use.

Later, fmcsa finally relented and let drivers use personal conveyance to drive to the nearest safe haven if you ran out of time at a shipper or a receiver.

So, it's my opinion that yard moves should really not be used because it was some bandaid fix, and now we can use PC time. If you're driving in a shipper lot just use drive time, it's not like you're saving a whole lot by using yard moves.

Once again I’m confused! Why didn’t u just edit your on duty to off duty? 2 hours of off duty would have stopped your clock! I’m sure your fm knew this but wasn’t gonna suggest a edit!

Yard movement is the only drive time that can be edited. Why won’t maximize that time?

Hi davy

, If you're driving in a shipper lot just use drive time, it's not like you're saving a whole lot by using yard moves.

If he has time on his 14 that is unused, he is saving drive time. Won’t hrlp his 70, but on a normal basis it is better than using drive time. If his 14 hr clock is the same as his drive time or Jess, then yes, it makes no difference

And I agree with a Donna. Edit your clock. Our company says yard move can’t be edited, but I found out it can. Though if I made a habit out of it they very well might edit it back in and violate me.

Once again I’m confused! Why didn’t u just edit your on duty to off duty? 2 hours of off duty would have stopped your clock! I’m sure your fm knew this but wasn’t gonna suggest a edit!

This ^

As far how useful yard move is for preserving your drive time, I agree with Sid generally.

But the load yard at Rocky Mountain Steel in Pueblo is 5 miles from the guard shack. That time can sometime make a difference. I parked at the Road Ranger here in Illinois with 2 minutes left on my drive clock.

Packrat, OS, thanks, all of you for that matter. The encouragement helps.

We can't edit yard moves, I even called zonar. I can edit on duty not driving and off time.

My DM wasn't too peeved. My terminal manager called me about something unrelated (she was my DDM) and we talked at length. She had nothing but praise and positive feedback on me. As I'm nearing the end of my 30k squire miles she said all of the DMs would like to have me on their board and they will pair me up with a good fit.

As a couple pointed out, I'll use YM to preserve my 11 hour and because I get tired of hitting the clock every few minutes. At sam's DC it can be a lot of little trips and the drive time adds up.

I'm always pretty hard on myself about mistakes, it's something I'm working on.

I have a post it note next to my zonar that says off duty!!! I did that all the time in training. Seems to happen when I'm in a hurry.