Has The Slowdowns And Erratic Freight Changed Your Clocks Management?

I'm finding that on weeks that have had erratic or short freight coupled with weeks that have a ton of loads, I'm really having to juggle my clocks, especially my 70.

I can't just set it on autopilot. As my DM learns and grows, she's beginning to understand that I look at how my hours and days this week will effect what I can run next week and if I need to do a 34 or can make recaps work. I stay in contact with her and keep her appraised of possible paths I can take.

Wondering if others are finding themselves either taking more 34s or really having to plan their recaps and load availability more. I'm personally having to do both.

I typically run on recaps, but completed a 34 reset today while sitting since 9:30pm Tuesday to deliver to a Walmart DC at 4:30pm Thursday. I was parked 7 miles away.

My loads this past 3 weeks have had a lot of extra time on them. So I’m sitting a lot more. I run any load without complaint.

I’m usually out 4-5 weeks at a time. My monthly mileage has been as follows:

Dec/Jan = 11,167 Feb = 12,872 Mar/Apr = 11,150

For Apr/May I’ll be doing good to get 9,000-9,500 miles.

I’ll be reassigned to a new Fleet Manager in the next week or so. That will mean building a new relationship and trust.

My situation is similar to Dennis’. I just started back to work tonight after 7 days off. I requested 2 or 3 days off and they “gave” me 7. It actually worked out great because I got a lot of stuff done that was urgent.

So I left the Madison, WI area headed down to south of Indianapolis and then west to Denver. Things will be normal for me on this trip, but afterwards I will have to see. My FM told me today that freight for Helwig is slow and miles are way down for all drivers.

At least it’s easy to get time off now if needed!

I'm finding that on weeks that have had erratic or short freight coupled with weeks that have a ton of loads, I'm really having to juggle my clocks, especially my 70.

I can't just set it on autopilot. As my DM learns and grows, she's beginning to understand that I look at how my hours and days this week will effect what I can run next week and if I need to do a 34 or can make recaps work. I stay in contact with her and keep her appraised of possible paths I can take.

Wondering if others are finding themselves either taking more 34s or really having to plan their recaps and load availability more. I'm personally having to do both.

I am doing more splits now. I do them to make sure that I have some kind of drive time available after unloading so that I give myself some kind of chance to get a decently timed reload once empty. For example, I have a load that I am delivering on the northeast side of Philly in the morning. I could completely run out my clock and park nearby the receiver to start a 10, but I would have been going through Philly on the tail end of rush hour. That's not efficient use of my time, so I started a split break in Breezewood, PA and this will enable me to make much better time going through Philly and also Harrisburg. By the time I am empty, my split is complete, and I have about 8 hours of drive time available.

I do a lot of splits, too.

I'm finding that on weeks that have had erratic or short freight coupled with weeks that have a ton of loads, I'm really having to juggle my clocks, especially my 70.

I can't just set it on autopilot. As my DM learns and grows, she's beginning to understand that I look at how my hours and days this week will effect what I can run next week and if I need to do a 34 or can make recaps work. I stay in contact with her and keep her appraised of possible paths I can take.

Wondering if others are finding themselves either taking more 34s or really having to plan their recaps and load availability more. I'm personally having to do both.

I am doing more splits now. I do them to make sure that I have some kind of drive time available after unloading so that I give myself some kind of chance to get a decently timed reload once empty. For example, I have a load that I am delivering on the northeast side of Philly in the morning. I could completely run out my clock and park nearby the receiver to start a 10, but I would have been going through Philly on the tail end of rush hour. That's not efficient use of my time, so I started a split break in Breezewood, PA and this will enable me to make much better time going through Philly and also Harrisburg. By the time I am empty, my split is complete, and I have about 8 hours of drive time available.

I'm right over south of Philly. In NJ. Just dropped at UPS.

My situation is similar to Dennis’. I just started back to work tonight after 7 days off. I requested 2 or 3 days off and they “gave” me 7. It actually worked out great because I got a lot of stuff done that was urgent.

So I left the Madison, WI area headed down to south of Indianapolis and then west to Denver. Things will be normal for me on this trip, but afterwards I will have to see. My FM told me today that freight for Helwig is slow and miles are way down for all drivers.

At least it’s easy to get time off now if needed!

Well, I expressed my doubts about staying busy as usual and then I got a surprise. My new pre-assignment will be one of my longest ever. After I deliver in Denver tomorrow I go to Fort Morgan to get a load of dead cow and take it up to Connecticut, almost 2000 miles total. So I will be able to run normally at least until after that trip. This was unexpected but I’ll take it and be grateful.