Stuck Out Of Hours

Well all I 'm alive and kicking. I just ran out of my 70 hr clock for the next 2 days. They have kept me hoping . I guess the heart to heart I had with my dispatcher paid off. This is the 2nd week of 3 I have run out. 3rd i ran down but not quite out. Last time I was in the middle of nowhere and a left turn to civilazation. Lol. This is much more pleasureable, but gonna be costly lol. I delivered just down the road from Davenport IA. And my trailer washout was across the street from the Iowa 80 TA at exit 284. Lots of cool toys here. For those not aware of this place. Its the worlds largest truck stop

Well all I 'm alive and kicking. I just ran out of my 70 hr clock for the next 2 days. They have kept me hoping . I guess the heart to heart I had with my dispatcher paid off. This is the 2nd week of 3 I have run out. 3rd i ran down but not quite out. Last time I was in the middle of nowhere and a left turn to civilazation. Lol. This is much more pleasureable, but gonna be costly lol. I delivered just down the road from Davenport IA. And my trailer washout was across the street from the Iowa 80 TA at exit 284. Lots of cool toys here. For those not aware of this place. Its the worlds largest truck stop

so you are having to take a reset?

Its one thing i keep running though my mind, to work of recap or just run 10 hours a day and do resets to get "days off" without it counting as home time.

Alot of the time your not going to have the option of farting around and only driving 7 or 8 hours a day. You got a schedule to keep. Sometimes you will drive that clock to one minute left on it. You can do all the trip planning in the world. But what happens when you got a deadline to meet and you gotta get a certain amount of miles that day to deliver on time the next day and say there is a major accident that shuts down the highway. More often than not your Dm is going to run that clock to 0 because it looks good on their board because your delivering freight and plus looks good on you and that paycheck it shows you are dependable and willing to work as long as you don't hit anything and drive safely. Personally I'd rather run my 70 down and take a reset then run off recaps. If I'm gonna bust my butt I want my 34 reset for a break. To relax and take it easy and veg out.

Ohhhhh...the I80 Truck Stop.......leave your credit cards locked in your truck !!!! That place always cost me a few hundred, everytime we stopped there. Evil place for an Owner Operator .

Yeah, that truck stop is famous to those of drivers around here.

Old School writes of how he runs his hours... I haven't quite figured out how he does it yet. For me, in training, by the time I got to 68 hours in 8 days once, I was starting to see things on the road at night that weren't really there (like a wider road than really existed) and I had to pull over and sleep.

Everyone's different but I think I'm with Logan. If I were to run hard, I think I'd push to run my hours all the way up to 70 and take a full re-set. OS, on the other hand, says he stretches them out so he can go hard for 6 weeks at-a-time, straight. That, I could not do.

Getting "stuck" though, must be a little boring/frustrating...

-mountain girl

That's awesome you're getting the miles now! Geeeeez. They can't be messing around with you like that. Now just stay on em and make sure they keep you rolling. That company has plenty of freight. As long as you're safe and reliable you should always be at the top of the list of drivers they take great care of. If you're not running hard, nobody should be.

Star you are so right. Thank god my fiancee works the budget. Lots of great toys in there. It's kinda like a Harley . You start with one small thing and the next thing you know your broke. The food is great here too. Brett I greatly appreciate all your insight. I stay in constant contact with my dispatcher and he is coming around to my way of thinking. I have the luxury of this not being my sole source of income and I admit I have used it to my advantage a bit. My thoughts are pretty simple, at least in my mind. I work hard being safe and reliable. I expect the company to support that by keeping me busy during the time I choose to be on the road. In return I take care of my equipment, pickup and deliver on time, and keep the customer happy. Guys if I am missing anything please let me know. When I decide to take time off it will be at home with my fiancee. I realize they deal with alot of personalities, and for the most part I am just another number. I feel open frequent communication is a foundation of setting myself apart from the majority of others. I knew coming over here would be a learning curve for me and them so patience has been afforded to them. So far all in all it's been a good experience and I am making good money. I was in the office last week and I point blank asked my dispatcher if he had any concerns with the way I have been doing things. He looked shocked and said "are you kidding I wish I had more drivers like you". I told him thanks, I also operate a little different on my loads. I have overheard alot of drivers asking up front what the load pays. I don't. I know I can be flirting with disaster here but I am trying this approach. I told my dispatcher I will go wherever, and whenever and as long as the paycheck is decent I am not going to get hung up on an occassional lower paying load. I will trust him to track that each week until he proves he is not worthy of my trust. So far its working for me. Enough of my soapbox. Thanks everyone and be safe

I hate running totally out and usually work off recaps. It was easier on my old dedicated account than this one, but I'm getting better at it. This refer stuff is more unpredictable with live loads/unloads. Lately I have had mostly drop and hooks and they just kept coming. I actually talked my way into delivering this one a day early so I could do the reset. The situation just presented itself so I took advantage of the oppurtunity. I'm getting my pm done this morning so I dont waste time when I do have hours available.

Man, you are ROCKin it! That's awesome!

-mountain girl

Good morning everyone. I'm outta Iowa 80 with only minor dents in my bank account. Headed back to Texas. Will get in tonight and deliver tomorrow. I picked up some LED light bulbs I thought I would share. They replace the standard bulb in SOME lights, not all as I found out. Being of a more mature generation my eye sight isn't quite what it used to be up close. I replaced the center dome light with 2 led's. The 2 back ones still have the regular bulbs. It made a world of difference. First its much brighter, but the color is much clearer reducing shadows. I also replaced the bottom bunk lights with led's. Same result. I like to read and among other things the bunk light cast shadows over my book while kaying down reading . Now those shadows are gone. The bulbs cost about 3 times more, but to me its well worth it for the pleasant change. I tried them in the lights that have the push switch in the light itself and they didn't work for some reason. But the lights on real switches they work great. Have a great day and stay safe