Back to the original topic, Diane and I have been driving in western states this week. As a general practice, we frequent truck stops as little as possible. In our fuel and shower stops this week, everything seemed normal compared to the way it was before the new HOS rules went into effect on July 1. There were no unusual lines at fuel islands and no parking issues Monday - Thursday. We are heading east today. It will be interesting to see how things are at the truck stops this weekend.
In our case, the new 34 hour restart rules will change our parking and driving behavior. Before, we would have worked in a 34 hour restart, gone into the weekend run with fresh log books and had a relaxing drive to Monday's delivery. The new rules prevented that, so now we will pick up the load this afternoon, keep the truck rolling non-stop for about 24 hours (driving and sleeping in shifts as teams do) and then park at a truck stop for two nights to get in a 34 hour reset before the Monday delivery.
It is important to get the restart in. Without it, we would go into next week without restarted log books and potentially without enough hours to accept some of the sweet, lucrative, long runs that sometimes come our way.
We who normally avoid truck stops will occupy a truck stop parking place for the entire restart period because the new rules are a mobility killer compared to the old. When forced to stop in the same spot long enough (two nights) to restart two drivers' log books, you want to be near the services the truck stops offer, since you no longer have the freedom for one team driver to restart on a sequence different than the other team driver.
Gone is the ability for one team driver to drive the truck while the other works on his or her restart, unless your schedule falls into place in a way that gives you three nights to work with. Our schedule is not that way this time so into a truck stop parking place we will go.
In our case, the new 34 hour restart rules will change our parking and driving behavior. Before, we would have worked in a 34 hour restart, gone into the weekend run with fresh log books and had a relaxing drive to Monday's delivery. The new rules prevented that, so now we will pick up the load this afternoon, keep the truck rolling non-stop for about 24 hours (driving and sleeping in shifts as teams do) and then park at a truck stop for two nights to get in a 34 hour reset before the Monday delivery.
It is important to get the restart in. Without it, we would go into next week without restarted log books and potentially without enough hours to accept some of the sweet, lucrative, long runs that sometimes come our way.
We who normally avoid truck stops will occupy a truck stop parking place for the entire restart period because the new rules are a mobility killer compared to the old. When forced to stop in the same spot long enough (two nights) to restart two drivers' log books, you want to be near the services the truck stops offer, since you no longer have the freedom for one team driver to restart on a sequence different than the other team driver.
Gone is the ability for one team driver to drive the truck while the other works on his or her restart, unless your schedule falls into place in a way that gives you three nights to work with. Our schedule is not that way this time so into a truck stop parking place we will go.
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We have had more problems with location since we got the MP-2000 than I would have ever imagined. We have had the screen/keyboard replaced 3 times, once due to a screen break, the wiring coming in from the dome replaced and the dome replaced. No change. Still junk.
