Advice On An HOS Situation, Please

I finished a load at midday yesterday (Friday), and I few hours later I was assigned another load. I turned my break into a split sleeper berth in order to have time on my 14 to pick it up. When my dispatcher was assigning it to me, I asked if I had enough time to run it, as my 70 is running low. He said that yes, I do with my recaps.

Last night, I realized it would be tight. I drove the 8 hours I had available today (that was all I had available). With tomorrow's recaps, I'll have 5 hours available, and I'm 286 miles away from the receiver. My truck is governed at 62mph, so I'm doing well if I average 55mph, accounting for traffic, construction, mountains etc. I'll need to average 57mph to make my appointment in the time remaining on my clock.

I messaged weekend dispatch about my concerns, and they said they thought I had enough time, if I left only at the time to arrive at my appointment an hour early. I said that it would be right on the margin whether I would make it, and what should I do if I run out of hours? They said, "Let us know."

So, what would you do in this situation? If I violate my clock, that's on me... not the company, right? My plan is to stop when I have 10 minutes on my clock (if I'm not there yet), and call/message them. I've tried to be proactive by letting them know today that there is not a reasonable margin on this.

Figures... for once I have a load with a little time on it, but then I don't have a margin of time on my 70...

Thanks for any advice or input. I feel uncertain about how this will play out and the consequences.

Matt, what company are you with, I forgot. Do you have the personal conveyance provision to use if your clock runs out and you need to find parking?

That is a real tight schedule. All the stars have to align for you to make it so have your plan B in place.

Your limited speed, 62, is very low. I thought 65 was slow at Schneider but now I get 68 at Helwig. Much better for me.

Doesn’t sound like you will have time for any bathroom breaks… do you have any Depends to use?

Matt, what company are you with, I forgot. Do you have the personal conveyance provision to use if your clock runs out and you need to find parking?

If you are running until you are out of time and then going pc to find parking it's not if you will get a violation it's just a matter of when.

Matt

I can only share what my trainer would do in this situation.

He would message dispatch with a Mac 12 in our QC an updated ETA (with a little padding on it). It is then up to dispatch to contact Sales to contact the customer with the new ETA. Typically he gets back a revised appointment window of time encompassing the new ETA.

In other words, cover yourself by proactive communication in writing and put the monkey on their shoulders.

BK - Matt is with Wilson Logistics. His truck is governed to 62 same as Prime Inc’s trucks (my company).

Matt, what company are you with, I forgot. Do you have the personal conveyance provision to use if your clock runs out and you need to find parking?

If you are running until you are out of time and then going pc to find parking it's not if you will get a violation it's just a matter of when.

Jeff,

I have been advised by my company to use PC after unloading at a customer to then go and find parking. Is that not permitted?

BK and Dennis,

Yes, I'm with Wilson. I didn't think I would mind the 62 mph limit, but it does mean I either have to drive longer, or I have fewer options to make a tight schedule work.

The issue isn't that I'll be late to the customer...it's that maybe I won't have the hours on my clock. I would have to wait until the next day when I get more hours back.

Yes, it's a very tight schedule, demanding everything goes perfectly, which it never does. That's why I was informing my company it was too tight. I guess I have time to use the bathroom if I pause my clock by going off duty, but I may not be able to afford slowing down for the exit and entrance ramps! Lol

Run out the hours you have or very close and then call them again. You’ll be amazed to find out that they can “locate” a bit of extra time in your logs and edit it to give you enough time to reach the receiver.

I don’t have much time to respond right now, but if you were running low on your 71 thing you can do is see if you can edit out a little bit of that on duty time you have over the last several days to beef it up just a tad. I don’t mean cut out pretrip supposed chips or anything like that, but if you log 30 minutes for loading and unloading you could cut that down to like 15. Little things like that, just trimming of the fat, might help you make it with a little bit more cushion

I don’t have much time to respond right now, but if you were running low on your 71 thing you can do is see if you can edit out a little bit of that on duty time you have over the last several days to beef it up just a tad. I don’t mean cut out pretrip supposed chips or anything like that, but if you log 30 minutes for loading and unloading you could cut that down to like 15. Little things like that, just trimming of the fat, might help you make it with a little bit more cushion

Exactly. I’m not sure if he has that ability but that’s exactly what his log auditor will do.

Matt

The other situation that we had like this resulted in our FM “re-powering” our load to another driver to meet the delivery schedule that we could no longer achieve.

This again requires proactive communication like you are doing with your FM. Like Robert B said, Dispatch will find a way to get it done, but give them enough lead time to do it