Yesterday (Monday) was the first day of the new rules requiring a 30 minute break after eight or less hours of driving. Our task: Deadhead 500 miles from our Florida vacation house to position ourselves for Tuesday's pick up. Pick up time is anytime after 8 a.m. Delivery time is fixed at 8 a.m. Wednedsay. It does not matter to shipper what time we pick up. It only matters that we deliver by 8:00 a.m. Wednesday. We bagan the Monday work day with reset logs.
Old Way: Given the schedule and other work I wanted to do in the sleeper, Diane would have driven the full 500 miles, leaving me free to work (with breaks for EO and other distractions). One fuel stop was planned. Diane would have taken stretch breaks as desired along the way. We plan a 50 mph pace. 500 miles works out to about 10 hours on the road, including fuel and stretch-break stops.
New Way: Wishing to avoid an unecessary and unwanted thirty minute stop, I drove part of the way at the beginning of the trip. That would enable Diane to finish the trip without triggering the requirement to stop for 30 minutes. We planned ahead and rolled with the punches, just as people here suggest.
The day began as planned. I drove for a while, then Diane took the wheel.
Development: Heavy (torrential) rain slowed traffic to a crawl as we passed through Jacksonville. Two wrecks, one northbound, one southbound, slowed traffic to a stop. We were delayed.
For a time, we did not know if we would make it to the evening stop before Diane would have been required to take a 30 minute break. As it turned out, we did but not by much.
Had the delay been just a little longer, it would have worked out that we would have had to stop for 30 minutes to take a break just 15 to 30 minutes short of the place where we planned to settle in for the night and sleep.
If that happened, what do you do with those 30 minutes? TeamCaffee reported the stress-free, relaxing and refreshing 30 minute break she had under the new rules. Would she have reported the same if she had to take a legally mandadted 30 minute break thirty minutes before bed time?
Had our delay gone just a bit longer, the 30-minute break before bedtime cold have been avoided by driving faster. That is probably what we would have done because it seems to us just stupid to extend the trip by 30 minutes and get into our full night's sleep that much later.
These new rules inject a new eight hour clock into the mix. On some days the clock is no big deal, but that will not be the case every day.
If Diane and were only expediters with no outside interests, the mandated 30 minute break would be less of a burden. But we do have outside interests and the new rules detract from those, and thus from the quality of life we would otherwise enjoy on the road.
Ten hours of uninterrupted time in the sleeper while Diane drove yesterday would have been fantastic. I would have put that time to enjoyable and productive use. Planning ahead to avoid the "Stupid Stop" required me to give up some of that time and drive instead.
"Oh, silly Phil," some might say. "If you just embrace the new rules, make lemonade out of lemons and have Diane plan on taking a relaxing and refreshing 30 minute break, everything would have been OK."
On that day, in those circumstances, when we began with reset logs and all we were doing was deadheading the day before a pick up, that is true (if you overlook the fact that the 30 minute break would have cut that same amount of time our of our night's sleep).
But it will not work out that way every time. Things may turn out quite different when we are under load, and especially when we are under certain types of loads when the nature of the freight limits your parking options.
