Should O/O Welcome Reduced HOS?

[ATeam]

The OTHER trick is to adapt to these new regs safely, something that I may very well have a problem with. The "break" that we are now forced to take is likely to make me very sleepy if I am driving and will wake me up if my wife is driving and I am sleeping.

Agreed. It seems to be a forever-lost hope that the FMCSA will allow drivers to limit their driving to a legal level but also retain the flexibility to decide how best to structure one's working day and breaks. We still miss the 5/5 rule that we enjoyed as a team earlier in our expediting career. Forcing us into 10-11 hour driving shifts was not something that advanced the cause of safety.

 

[layoutshooter]

Agreed. It seems to be a forever-lost hope that the FMCSA will allow drivers to limit their driving to a legal level but also retain the flexibility to decide how best to structure one's working day and breaks. We still miss the 5/5 rule that we enjoyed as a team earlier in our expediting career. Forcing us into 10-11 hour driving shifts was not something that advanced the cause of safety.

Our government agencies have little, if any, interest in safety. We too worked far safer with the 5/5 rule. Nothing we have seen since we have been in this business has done anything to improve safety.

 

[ATeam]

Our government agencies have little, if any, interest in safety. We too worked far safer with the 5/5 rule. Nothing we have seen since we have been in this business has done anything to improve safety.

While I agree with your basic statement, there is one change that we like. The 34 hour reset did not always exist. It serves as an incentive to take such a break.

There are many people in the compliance community who go to work every day believing that the work they do is all about safety, and in the case of a scale cop for example, who puts a truck out of service because it had faulty brakes, the officer's work did indeed make the roads that much safer.

So too with the army of civilian motor carrier safety people who lean on contractors and drivers to abide by the rules and keep their trucks and themselves in shape. They mean well and believe they are doing well when they use carrots and sticks to motivate drivers to do the right thing.

It's the political stuff that mucks it up. Safety becomes a cloak for underlying agendas advanced by people who have more regard for their special interests than for safety itself. The one-size-fits-all approach serves the special intersts more than it serves us or the cause of safety.

 

[jjoerger]

You can always do 8-3-3-8.
8 hours on/driving, 3 hours off/sleeper. 3 hours on/driving, 8 hours off/sleeper.
Co driver does the opposite.
No 30 minute break needed.

 

[layoutshooter]

You can always do 8-3-3-8.
8 hours on/driving, 3 hours off/sleeper. 3 hours on/driving, 8 hours off/sleeper.
Co driver does the opposite.
No 30 minute break needed.

That is FAR too complicated for my pea brain. I would lose track of that in a heartbeat.

 

[zorry]

You can always do 8-3-3-8.
8 hours on/driving, 3 hours off/sleeper. 3 hours on/driving, 8 hours off/sleeper.
Co driver does the opposite.
No 30 minute break needed.

How do you do this if you need to get somewhere in a hurry ?

I asked my wife about a third driver. Everyone gets the same 8 hrs out of 24.
8 on, 16 off. Can run indefinitely, don't have to wake a tired driver for secure load fueling. You'd need a volume of freight to work it .

 

[layoutshooter]

How do you do this if you need to get somewhere in a hurry ?

I asked my wife about a third driver. Everyone gets the same 8 hrs out of 24.
8 on, 16 off. Can run indefinitely, don't have to wake a tired driver for secure load fueling. You'd need a volume of freight to work it .

And a MUCH bigger sleeper!

 

[zorry]

No Joe, # 3 is about 4'10". 100 lbs of spitfire.

In JJ's it could be 8-3-8. Both partners doing the 3 together if non- secure load.

 

[zorry]

Question : can a co driver reset there hours while the other driver is driving under a load? I have heard multiple answers lately and just wanted to get the " honest" answer!

Sent from my VS910 4G using EO Forums mobile app

A few weeks ago I ran a solo load Monday while she reset the book.
She did a solo load Tue while I reset.

On Wed we were off and running again.

 

[ATeam]

You can always do 8-3-3-8.
8 hours on/driving, 3 hours off/sleeper. 3 hours on/driving, 8 hours off/sleeper.
Co driver does the opposite.
No 30 minute break needed.

On paper, you can always do lots of things. But how practical really is 8-3-3-8 for a team that runs irregular hours, and loads some of which are short and some of which are long, and some of which may be back-to-back and others of which may come after days of waiting?

 

[ATeam]

How do you do this if you need to get somewhere in a hurry ?

I asked my wife about a third driver. Everyone gets the same 8 hrs out of 24.
8 on, 16 off. Can run indefinitely, don't have to wake a tired driver for secure load fueling. You'd need a volume of freight to work it .

For a Mormon practicing polygamy, whose two wives are agreeable to the arrangement, and whose sleeper is large enough to support it, it could work. Theoretically, you could keep the truck moving forever. Good luck, however, squeezing that reality into team logging and a bureaucratic system that does not contemplate teams of three.

(Sometimes those long, overnight drives give one too much time to think.)

 

[zorry]

(Sometimes those long, overnight drives gives one too much time to think.)[/QUOTE]

I wish I had a dollar for every time I've heard that.

 

[spongebox1]

For a Mormon practicing polygamy, whose two wives are agreeable to the arrangement, and whose sleeper is large enough to support it, it could work. Theoretically, you could keep the truck moving forever. Good luck, however, squeezing that reality into team logging and a bureaucratic system that does not contemplate teams of three.

(Sometimes those long, overnight drives give one too much time to think.)

Did I miss the Mormon post?

Sent from my VS910 4G using EO Forums mobile app

 

[zorry]

Three driver teams where run in maybe the 60's , maybe by Ringsby. Or Time-DC. In cabovers.

Mt old COE, was actually a two room, two sleeper truck. Would have worked well.

On the three driver team, when one driver rotates out for a week off, the truck continues running as a regular team.
Good for the bottom line.

I don't see it being done.