8/2 Split

So I get up start at seven a.m. on duty then start driving at seven-thirty a.m. go off duty for lunch at twelve p.m. for one hour and go on duty at one p.m. start driving at one- thirty p.m only to get to tired in traffic and find a stop and get in the sleeper birth three p.m.. I then spend eight consecutive hours in the sleeper birth. Would I have six hours of drive time left in a time frame of six hours of what was left of the full fourteen hour period? I know I did not say anything about inspecting after the sleep birth time so I understand I would not be able to squeeze an exact six hours of driving in. To get another 14/11 there would have to be a full 10 hour break?

So I'm gonna break this down as my instructor taught me:

- Starting at 7:00AM, this means your 14-hour window ends at 9:00PM

- Your first driving period, before the split break, is from 7:30AM-12:00PM [4.5 hrs] + 1:30PM-3:00PM [1.5 hrs] = 6 hrs

- Next, the 8 hours spent in the sleeper berth pushes your initial 14-hour window out another 8 hours, to 5:00AM

- Since the amount of time spent driving before the 8-hour break was 6 hrs, you would now have 5 hours of drive time available after the 8-hour break (6+5=11)

- In addition, after the 8 hour break (at 11:00PM), you would have until the end of your 14-hour period (5:00AM) before you had to take a 2-hour minimum break. This gives you 6 hours in which to drive your 5 available hours

- So say at 11:00PM you spend a half an hour on duty and 5 hours driving, with a 30 minute break. This puts you right at 5:00AM. You are then forced to take a 2-hour break until 7:00AM

- Now, you have another 14-hour window starting at 7:00AM, which ends at 9:00PM. But since you drove 5 hours in the last driving period (between the 8-hour and 2-hour breaks), you now have 6 hours of drive time available before you must take another 8-hour break (5+6=11)

- Let's say this time that you spend 2.5 hours loading and unloading, then drive for 4 hours, take an hour and a half break, then drive 2 more hours. This adds up to 8 hours total (with the maximum of 6 driving hours that you have available), putting you at 4:00PM.

- You now take an 8-hour break until 12:00AM, pushing the 14-hour window out from 9:00PM to 5:00AM.

- After 12:00AM, you will have 5 hours available to drive because you drove 6 before the break, but since you also have a 14-hour window ending in 5 hours. You must take a 2-hour break at 5:00AM. Thus, say you can only get in 4.5 hours of drive time. You would have 6.5 hours available to drive after 7:00AM.

- etc.

I hope I got that right. If not, please correct me!

If there's anyone having trouble understanding this please don't sweat it. It's very rare that you would use a split sleeper berth anyways. I use it about once every three weeks but I rarely ever truly need to use it to save me.

This is simply a nice trick to know, but it won't make or break you out here. I strongly discourage continuous split sleeper berths. It's much simpler to take a 10 hour break after your shift.

"If you understood what i just said, then I've must have misspoke." That should be the title to this thread.

I've only used it when I was delayed in getting loaded or because of appointment time. I could get up and start running a bit earlier. Me and another driver talked about using 8/2 split and agreed it only benefits you if you are preplanned and know where you are going after each load. Otherwise, life is much easier taking your 10.

I had brought up the question of taking back to back 8hr (as opposed to 8hr + 2hr) but I can't remember why I brought it up. I was in Idaho when I ran into this issue.