Trick Drivers Running Nights

I love the great commentary I read here. The advice that comes from experienced drivers is priceless. Thank you all. I know that driving over the road is difficult, I did it for 12 years. The sleep cycle can get nerve racking. Sleep all night just to find out that your next load doesn't pick up until late that afternoon, it can really get to you. I have a little better time with it now because I run at night all the time for 9 years now working Line-Haul for an LTL company. The sleep schedule is steady. But what I have found is the body sleeps in cycles of 1 1/2 hours. Don't just sleep for 4 hours, try and sleep for 4 1/2. If you can wake up within the first 30 minutes of the 1 1/2 hours sleep cycle, you will not wake up as groggy. As far as getting to sleep when you need to, I do not recommend sleep medication, ie. Unisom. I tried that and after about 3 months of taking it regularly, it had the exact opposite affect. What I recommend is a natural supplement called Melatonin. (Though I am not a doctor) Just try a small dose first to see how it effects you and then you can play with the dose. Also, if you have to sleep during the day, try and block out as much blue light as possible. Any blue light and the body will think it is time to get up. Hope this helps.

Old School,

Thank you so much for that reply. I drew out the log book entries for what you described so I could visualize it better. That was exactly the puzzle piece that was missing to allow me to see how a week could transition back and forth like that without running over the 14 hour clock. From what it looks like you are running 11.5 hour days. So you can run that hard for six days and then you would have to re-start. But because you spent almost all of your on-duty time driving you were able to go far past what you would have been able to drive at 8.5 hours per day running only daytime and having to wait around overnight for shippers and receivers to be open. Though this all seems to depend on how amenable your receivers are to early deliveries and prompt unloading which seems to be more common with flatbeds (which are what I am leaning heavily towards). But I can see how it benefits any freight type if you are able to get in early.

Once you hit this stride and the load planners see that you "get it" are they giving you loads that are scheduled to deliver at noon Wednesday or are they still leaving the full cushion to Thursday for delivery but setting up a pre-plan for Thursday morning when your hours are back? How tight will a load planner make a schedule once they know your running style?

I really appreciate you taking the time to write that out. I have to say one of the things I am really looking forward to is trip planning. I really like problem solving and when I first seriously began to consider trucking it wasn't until I realized I would be able to use my brain that I was sure it was what I wanted to do. Excited to be out there soon and putting this invaluable knowledge to good use. Thank you again.

This business is performance based pay. The folks who compete at the highest levels turn the most miles. I'm not trying to brag, if you knew me very well you would know I'm a very unassuming fella. I am turning in 3,579 miles this week @ .45/mile (that pay rate includes .05 cents/mile bonus pay which is also performance based, but I am regularly making the cut for that bonus pay) I will also get around 150 dollars extra on top of that for stop pay and tarping. That is a big week! I consistently turn in big weeks because of the way I manage my time. Is it exhausting at times? Yes, but that is what home time is for.

Hope that helps a little!

If my calculations are correct, that's a 1700 dollar week there old school. Not bad at all. Impressive really.

Once you hit this stride and the load planners see that you "get it" are they giving you loads that are scheduled to deliver at noon Wednesday or are they still leaving the full cushion to Thursday for delivery but setting up a pre-plan for Thursday morning when your hours are back? How tight will a load planner make a schedule once they know your running style?

Brian, I don't think they necessarily plan it tight based on your personal style so much as they just begin to recognize your truck number and realize that you have the wits about you to make stuff happen out here in the jungle. They have lots of options to choose from at times and if you are one of those folks who regularly make things happen then you will start getting the critical loads, and the nice lengthy loads. One of the nice things about flat-bed work is that our delivery times usually have a window of opportunity to them, that alone provides you with a little bit of flexibility.

I really like problem solving and when I first seriously began to consider trucking it wasn't until I realized I would be able to use my brain that I was sure it was what I wanted to do.

Flat-bed work will provide you plenty of opportunity to use your head. My future son-in-law who is a math professor enjoys hearing about the calculations I use on a daily basis when calculating the working load limits for my securement of my various types of loads. I'm not sure if you've seen this before, but here is a link to an interesting discussion on load securement we had a while back.

If my calculations are correct, that's a 1700 dollar week there old school. Not bad at all. Impressive really.

Max, I seldom give out details about my pay, but in this thread it was supportive of what I was trying to present. I'm a top earner, but it takes a toll on you at times. You can't have continual weeks like that when running over the road , but you can make some really good money. It takes some luck, some skill, and a lot of "gumption". But it is a job that I enjoy doing, and like Joe referenced earlier, it really doesn't seem like work to me - there is too much enjoyment in what I do for it to become overly laborious.

If my calculations are correct, that's a 1700 dollar week there old school. Not bad at all. Impressive really.

Max, I seldom give out details about my pay, but in this thread it was supportive of what I was trying to present. I'm a top earner, but it takes a toll on you at times. You can't have continual weeks like that when running over the road , but you can make some really good money. It takes some luck, some skill, and a lot of "gumption". But it is a job that I enjoy doing, and like Joe referenced earlier, it really doesn't seem like work to me - there is too much enjoyment in what I do for it to become overly laborious.

This is exactly why I am getting out of the oilfields. I wasn't enjoying it anymore. The paychecks were nice but I didn't like what was happening. The best times I had where the 2 times they sent me down to Texas to pick up a trailer and when I transferred from Pennsylvania to North Dakota. During those times I got to experience the "Open roads" and more of the OTR lifestyle. I absolutely loved it. I probably could have easily found a job with a different company to pay me close to what I was making before up there but when I got laid off I knew that was a sign to get out of the oil fields. I just wasn't enjoying it anymore. I still love trucking but the oil fields got to me, North Dakota got to me. It just wasn't fun anymore. I still love trucking.. I just need to find my notch within the industry.

Let's just say that I finish out a load in Connecticut at eleven in the morning and they send me a message to pick-up my next load in Pennsylvania at nine o'clock that night. (that is not an uncommon occurrence) I started driving at four in the morning, and I arrived at my delivery location at ten, I'm empty, and my tarps are folded and put away by eleven. Now I've got close to a 5 hour drive over to the pick-up location, which puts me there around four in the afternoon, and my eleven hour clock has run out now. So, I force myself to bed while parked in the shippers parking lot to get some rest until my loading appointment. I get loaded and secure my load (I'm driving a flat-bed) then I go back to sleep. From the time I arrived at this shipper I have had my electronic logs on the sleeper berth. You do not want to waste your all important drive time by logging unnecessary "on duty" time which will eat away at your ability to turn the miles during your work week. Not everyone agrees with the way I work my clock, but the guys who are making some real money at this do it this way.

Hope that helps a little!

Each driver has to find their own way to do their job. Old School this works for you. But I have to ask. Isn't some of the things you mention that you are doing illegal?

While I don't agree with some of the HOS rules, they are there. We as commercial drivers are suppose to follow them. The "on duty" rule states that anytime you are actually preforming work for the company you are to be on duty.

Anytime I am actually working, I am on duty. Counting the pallets as they are loaded. Getting scaled at a truck stop. Etc.

Yeah, you can call it wasting time or loosing money but if you are ever caught, you will pay the price.

I didn't used to do that. I used to do almost everyting while I was "off duty" until a few months ago. You ask, what changed?

A few months back I had the pleasure of being stopped at a weigh station in CO. The one north of Denver on I 25. I guess DOT had some tickets to catch up on, they were checking just about everyone.

I was pulled in and stopped along with about 7 other drivers. When I went inside, the counter was full and I was second in line.

For some reason I looked up at the first driver at the counter. He looked like he was about ready to die. Then I heard the DOT agent say, Is your load tarpped or strapped? The driver said Tarpped. Then the DOT agent said, "Your log shows you were off duty during this time. Who covered your load for you? Did the shippper do it while you were sleeping?"

That is when I stopped listening. When I was done and went outside, I ran into the driver I was in line with. He was shaking his head. He said that driver is in trouble. I did the same thing about a year ago when I ran flatbed. I got caught too. Cost me 2000 dollars and a 7 day safety violation. A very expensive lesson. He said, now days, ANYTHING I do work wise is on duty.

Laws are there for a reason. We may not like them and wish we didn't have to follow them, but we are no different than anyone else. As every commercial driver knows. We are held at a higher standard. Because we are suppose to be professionals.

Am I perfect and always follow the rules/laws. Heck no. If I am in a 55 mph zone and out in the middle of no where with no one else around, Do I stay at 55? Not on your life.

Then again, usually, USUALLY, police over look slight speeding on rural roads. But when it comes to off duty time and sleeper bearth time, that is something they don't over look.

A driver, still has to deside what is best for them. But no matter how they would LIKE to run, there are laws that are suppose to be followed.

Keep it safe out here. The life you save might be your own.

The Blue Angel

A driver, still has to deside what is best for them. But no matter how they would LIKE to run, there are laws that are suppose to be followed

Joe, I was reluctant to show Brian the way I work my magic, but it was illustrative of how you succeed at this stuff. I mentioned above that:

Not everyone agrees with the way I work my clock, but the guys who are making some real money at this do it this way.

For me it is a calculated risk, it is part of the cost of doing business with the D.O.T. I've had three thorough inspections during the past two years where my logs were scrutinized, and my truck was looked over from top to bottom. I haven't had to pay a dime as of yet. I'm sure the day will come.

But Joe if you think about it you are costing yourself money every week by being so careful to follow the law to the letter. I will have a day of reckoning I'm sure, and I will take my licks and move on, but I'm not going to leave four or five hundred dollars on the table every week.

Joe, you've been out here for a year now, and you are still contemplating what you can do to get more miles. I laid out a clear path, and I don't expect everyone to take it, but this whole scenario kind of reminds me of a scene in an old Western movie that Charlton Heston starred in. He was a wandering cowpoke who got in a fist fight with another hired hand and Charlton grabbed a frying pan and laid the guy out with it. The poor fellow got to his knees and looked up at Charlton and said "you're not fighting fair!" Charlton's response was curt but truthful when he said "you're the one that's down."

I have never lacked for miles, my employers have repeatedly told me how much they appreciate the way I manage my time and get things accomplished.

Joe, me and OS run the same way. The only difference is that I'm younger, faster, quicker, smarter, more agile, cunning, intelligent, funnier, more handsome and I actually have integrity.

But you're really shooting yourself in the foot with how you log yourself. You had one bad experience and now you're losing hundreds of dollars every week. To make the big bucks, you have to learn how to bend the rules. You say you average 2,000 miles per week, but do you expect any higher when you show On-Duty time at every single thing you do. That's why you don't have the miles, because you're not letting yourself have the HoS to actually drive.

I recommend you do 15 minute pre & post inspections and then show 10 minutes of On-Duty at the arrival and departure of each customer. That will more than satisfy a DoT inspection. I've had 4 inspections and passed all of them.

I also was disappointed to hear that you told your DM about the night driving. As a driver, especially when you're new to the company, you want to come off as being hard working and completely dependable. From the start, you immediately told her your limits and afterwards, you limited yourself on your driving hours but logging yourself incorrectly.

This is your second company and by now your an experienced driver. All is the same with you still - low pay because of low miles. But one has to ask, when does a driver finally look at himself in the mirror and realize that perhaps he's the reason why he isn't making good money and isn't getting miles? I wish you good fortune sir, but I think you need to take a second look at your methods.

Daniel, I am not sure what you are referring when you say I am shooting myself in the foot.

In none of my posts have I mentioned how I log things. All I have said is that I always log on duty when I am working for the company. Do I long it all? No. Everyone seems to be jumping to conclusions and assuming things.

When I arrive at a shipper or reciever I log 15 minutes on duty then hit the sleeper or off duty.

When I am doing a D/H I long 30 minutes. Because that is what Crete requires.

I do a 15-20 minute pretrip. Post trips are no longer required unless you have a problem. Again because that is what Crete requires.

When I get fuel, I am on duty because Crete and DOT require it. When I scale my load, I am on duty because Crete requires it.

I have done many things "off the clock" to save time. But, at one point in time, I was on duty because I was doing work for the company.

For example. I had a trailer a few months ago that had all 4 tires very low on air. I have an air hose with me. I aired up all of the tires myself. It took almost an hour. But I only logged 15 minutes on duty.

When I do a repair on my truck or a trailer, it is logged on the Qualcoom. Because that is the way Crete would like to have it done. That way all repairs has a "paper trail". And when you show work on the Qualcomm , you better show some time doing it.

You assume I don't have the hours to drive because I don't cheat the HOS regulations.

I just finished a 2000 mile load that I did in just over 3 days. Tomorrow I will finish an 1100 mile load. In just over 2 days. How is that loosing time and money? 3000 miles in under 6 days.

And I got those miles without having to cheat the HOS.

A couple of days I got up very early, as Brett has talked about. And one I drove very late. But so far, I have not had to drive thru the night.

FMCSA has just or is getting ready to at least double the cost of fines given out. False log fines have gone from 500 dollars to 10,000 dollars each offense.

If I have to lie and cheat the system so bad that it could cost me my license and my livelyhood, then I don't want anything to do with it.

If I have to lie, cheat and break the law to make a living in the trucking industry, then I need to get out now.

One other point I would like to make. Everyone is so freeked out about me telling my dispatcher how I liked to run.

I don't know how it is with where you are working, but we were told to do that during orientation. At our first chance contact our dispatcher. Introduce ourselves. And let them know what we are comfortable doing or not doing.

Somethings may not be possible, but you get info to your dispatcher. That way she/he gets to know you in a way.

So that is what I did.

Maybe some questions need asked sometimes before jumping to conclusions.

Keep it safe out here. The life you save might be your own.

The Blue Angel