everything except for the 12 to 15 hours of driving :lol:

 

The more you make yourself available the better miles you get.

What you need to understand is!
1) You can drive (line 3) more than 11 hours in a 24 hour period if done correctly.
2) Your line 4 time does not come out of the available hours of driving time however it does come out of the 14 hour rule as lines 1,2,3 & 4 does.

To understand split breaking and you will see your miles grow at times or at least keep afloat of the "other" drivers.

I am going to try and post a picture of a log that is legal as long as you started with a 10 hour consecutive break prior to Midnight on the previous day.

Ok I can't post the log image! But draw this picture:

Line 4: 12:00 am to 12:30
Line 3: 12:30 am to 11:30
Line 2: 12:00 pm to 10:00
Line 4: 10:00 pm to 10:30
Line 3: 10:30 pm to 12:00 am

Line 3 totals to be 12.5 hours of driving in that 24 hour period. Many drivers "believe" they can't do that when in fact they can. DOT just says you can not drive over 11 hours within a 14 hour period. Your 14 hour period restarted at the end of the 10 hour break. Which means your 14 hour period will end @ 12:00 pm the following day and you can not drive over 11 hours from 10:30 pm to 12:00 pm the following day.

Line 4 started at 10:00 pm which means your 14 hour ends @ 12:00 pm.


I hope this helps you just a little

 

In reality, if you are going to drive OTR, your average daily driving time is going to be around 9 to 10 hours, sure you will have days you will max yourself out to 13.5 hours in a 24 hour period (maximum legal possible drive time in a 24 hour period), and then there will be days you might spend 2 hours driving, the rest of the day you ask? Twiddling your thumbs at shipper/receiver/truck stop

 

Buy a PSP !!!

 

Or bum hamburgers from people...

 

Much thanks for the responses.

 

I can honestly tell you that I have never drove 11 hours in a day. I drove something like 10.75 once, but most times 8-9 hours is the most I put into line 3. Unless you're pulling a reefer coast to coast there won't be much opportunity for 11 hour driving days (legally) and in the regional driver scenario's that we have today there is hardly ever a need to drive 11. I won't say that you won't see plenty of 14 hour days, I usually do, but driving more than 9 or 10 is a rarity. I will tell you that a straight 900 mile run wipes me out and fortunately I seldom have to do it.

There are a lot of drivers that push driving for 12 and working 16-18 hours per day, but there is absolutely no need to. If someone can't make a living and do it legal or very close to legal, they really need to find another line of work.

Some people talk about how much easier on you and better local gigs are than OTR, but I know just as many "local" guys that break the 14 hour rule on a daily basis as I know OTR guys that do it. Getting home every day can be nice, but when you work 14-15 hours, drive an hour to get home and turn around and do it all over again 7-8 hours later, you look forward to your weekend just as much as an OTR driver. IMO, there are definite pros and cons to both.

 

Hrm, my loads are on average 1000+ miles each, and I do 2 to 3 of those a week, sometimes if I want to be ontime I dont have any choice but to do 11 hours driving on my 14, although I usually have enough time to do some 'site seeing', but running OTR believe me its not hard to do a lot of 11 hour driving days, its hard to make money if your only spending 8 hours driving a day when you got 1200 miles to do (1200 miles can be done in 2 days, if you only drive 8 hours a day, its going to take you 3.5 days to do it, an extra day and a half you could of done another 900 miles to be getting paid for)

 

IF you are averaging 1000+ miles per run, I would agree with you, but most people aren't. My guess is that most, especially those running a a regional run are not getting averages anywhere near that. 400-500 mile runs are the norm and there's no reason to have to run 11 hours or more to make it. Plus throw in loading and unloading each day, subtract the 4-5 hours that it takes and you don't legally have 11 hours left to run. Occasionally I might get a 1000 mile two day run myself, but it is not overly common with most carriers unless you're running coast to coast. Start calling carriers recruiting offices and ask them what their average length of haul is and you'll get a lot of 400-600 mile answers. Occasionally you might get a lie like 800-1000 mile runs, but most now that a driver will be smart enough to see through this.

Like I said, I have had one 10.75 hour driving day and probably several that were 9-10 hours, but have never hit 11. Could I have chosen to cheat on my 14 and run 11 or more several times? You bet I could.

 

Not to mention the comment "doing 11 hours legally" you can drive more than 11 hours in a 24 hour period, however remember the driving time that follows the 10 hour break is couting against your next 11 & 14 hour period so it's totally legal to have 13.5 hours of driving in a one day log sheet if you understand it correctly. :lol: