Driver Lifestyles
Diary of an expediting owner-operator
My name is Gene Dunlap and I'm leased to Panther II Transportation, truck #4015.
I have over twenty-one years on the road, most of them as an owner-operator. That includes about sixteen years in a semi, and the last five plus in a straight truck hauling time-sensitive freight.
10/1
12:30 Afternoon nap was interrupted by the alarm clock because of fourteen hour clock.
Thank you FMCSA! I am so angry I can’t see straight. I am angry because I can’t envision how I’m going to continue to do my job. I don’t need someone in Washington telling me to spend eight hours in a 96†by 70†box with a double bed and only enough standing room to change clothes.
I am angry because I don’t need someone in Washington telling me when to eat, sleep, and go to the restroom.
I don’t like being forced to lie. Lying destroys trust. As an angry driver am I a safer driver? Mission accomplished, FMCSA. I just want to quit.
Panther II is the finest company I’ve ever been associated with and I can’t quit until I find something else to do.
10/2
Off duty all day, I can’t deliver until Monday morning.
10/3
07:30 Forty-three miles from a 08:30 delivery. Can’t leave truck stop until the last minute because I can’t stop the fourteen hour clock. I don’t want to start the clock too early. It will destroy my income.
1459 Sent a message to dispatch that I would like to take a nap, but can’t because of the stop watch.
10/4
I sat for two hoursm from 0600 to 0800, waiting before I started the fourteen hour clock. Could have rolled to the consignee, avoided morning rush hour traffic, saved fuel, and possibly gotten unloaded early, but for not being able to stop the fourteen hour clock.
13:00 Yawn! I would like to take a nap, have time in the load to take a nap, but I've got 300 miles to go to Michigan. I must keep rolling, don’t know what lies ahead, fourteen hour clock keeps ticking.
14:13 Yawn!
14:37 Yawn!
16:45 I lost forty-eight minutes in Chicago rraffic. But for the rules, I could have taken a nap instead of hitting Chicago during rush hour and wasting time and fuel.
Had I taken a nap and still gotten tied up in Chicago traffic, documented lost time would have been added to the delivery time.
19:45 Delivered load. I would take a break, but have one and three quarter hours left on the fourteen hrs. Eighty miles to truck stop. Must keep going to burn hrs. today to maximize available hours tomorrow. Called Dad. Yawned repeatedly. I feel the pressure of the stop watch.
21:30; I made it to the truck stop nine miles from pickup.
10/5
07:45 Completed ten hour break. Started to leave truck stop for an early pickup, but realized I would be starting the fourteen hour clock which I couldn’t stop if the load isn’t ready. I pulled back into my parking spot.
10:15 Picked up a load in Stevensville, Mi.
12:45 Delivered in Coldwater, Mi.
13:00 Picked up in Coldwater four miles from delivery going to Cambridge, ON.
21:45 Took an eight hour break in Ayr, ON.
10/6
Have an 09:00 delivery.
05:45 Rolled to consignee to take two hour break. I was fifteen minutes from the xonsignee, but ot took half an hour to get there.
I got unloaded early.
QC said go to Mississauga to wait for next load.
I stopped at service plaza just outside of Cambridge.
10:27 Received a load offer to pickup in Mississauga at 16:00. Must wait until 15:30 to finish my eight hr break or the clock keeps ticking. Half and hour is just enough time to make it to shipper more than twenty miles away in Mississauga. No room for mistakes. We meet a fifteen min window. Can be early, but any more than fifteen minutes late is a service failure and is recorded.
14:00 Here I sit waiting for the eight hour break to end so I can drive as fast as traffic and the law will allow to get to the shipper on time.
15:30 Left service area as soon as log book would allow. I wasn’t where I thought I was and had further to drive to the shipper than I expected. Drove as fast as the law would allow. Had incorrect directions, arrived at the shipper nine minutes late, but within the fifteen minute window.
16:15 to 16:45 Got loaded and faxed the paperwork to the broker.
17:00 to 18:00 Spent an hour in traffic and traveled only about fifteen miles after leaving Mississauga, ON.
22:00 To 22:30 Wasted half an hour at border because FedEx customs brokers hadn’t entered my load in the computer after the information had been faxed five hours earlier.
10/7
00:15 Arrived at the switch point and waited about a half hour for the other truck to show up because dispatch had failed to give the other driver the changed location for the switch. Spent an additional half hour talking with a new driver about Panther II.
02:00 Headed for my next pick up. I was ready for a break but couldn’t take it because it had to be eight hours long which would have made me late for my pickup.
04:00 Arrived at the shipper one hundred-six miles down the road with fifteen minutes to spare on the fourteen hour rule. Loaded my freight, and took a ten hour break at a vacant gas station half a block from the shipper with no food, no water, no shower, and no restroom. I am wasting about four hours of the best part of my day as I am a morning person.
14:30 After driving for only fifteen minutes, I took a two hour break to makeup for the facilities not available at the closed gas station where I took my ten hour break.
16:40 I’m exhausted. I need to sleep, but it’s time to roll. Think I’m getting less sleep since I don’t get my naps. An eight hour break is too long in most cases. Then since I can‘t stop the fourteen hour clock, I don’t get a nap.
20:30 Stopped for the day, No need to push, can’t deliver until Monday.
10/8
05:45 Started my day.
09:30 Stopped for forty-five minutes to buy truck parts. NO, I don’t log time spent working on the truck or time spent doing paperwork and or bookkeeping.
12:00 Stopped for the day. Will take a thirty-four hour break. Was allowed to take my afternoon nap. Seem to sleep longer when I take an eight hour break, but without my naps I’m getting less sleep per day. I've had a good week in spite of the new rules. I don’t total the numbers weekly or even monthlym I keep an annual total.
That way when I do have a not so good week, it’s not so difficult to take because I don’t really know how bad it was. Likewise, I don’t really know how good the good weeks are unless I decide to total the numbers. I can, however, spot a large settlement check.
10/9
22:15 Completed the thirty-four hour break and left the truck stop to get to the consignee and get an eight hour break in before my 07:00 appointment. Drove past the Flying J truck stop five miles short of the consignee because if I stopped I’d have to leave before I completed the eight hour break and most of the time spent at the truck stop would be wasted.
Arrived at the consignee at 22:45 and sat outside the gate waiting for 07:00. No facilities, no lighting, but I’ll get my mandatory eight hour break in!
How healthful and wonderful it is. I really feel good knowing that the FMCSA and others are really concerned about my health.
I don’t smoke, don’t drink, don’t drink coffee and seldom drink soft drinks, avoid fast foods, red meat, fried food, sugar, and white flour. I’m not over weight. I don’t really get enough exercise and have a sweet tooth which I try to avoid feeding. But still I’m probably not really capable of looking out for my own health?
10/10
Started my day at 06:45. Delivered my load and went to pickup some parts for the truck. The clock is ticking. Moved the truck to a better area to get my next load. I ate, took a two hour nap, and logged three hours off duty, but the clock didn’t stop. Then I was offered a “mini†with a twelve mile deadhead, and thirty-nine miles loaded. If we want the customer’s good loads we need to move the not so good loads and someone has to do it. Barely made it to the truck stop before my fourteen hours was up. Only drove five and three quarter hours today. Fourteen hour rule prevented me from going to better area to get a load tomorrow.
Yes, I’ll get plenty of sleep tonight, but I didn’t make much money today and I didn’t get in a better position where I know I will get a load tomorrow. I hope to get loaded here tomorrow. Thank you FCMSA.
10/11
08:00 Ate breakfast.
09:00 Received load offer and started my day.
10:15 to 11:15 Picked up load.
12:00 to 12:30 D. O. T. inspection.
16:45 to 17:00 Fueled truck.
19:30 to 20:00 Switched load to another truck. Have been going non-stop since 09:00 this morning, but can’t stop now. Can’t stop the darn fourteen hour clock. Must keep going to maximize my available time tomorrow.
21:30 Arrived at truck stop for ten hour break before picking up load in morning
Had no time to stop the truck for anything because of fourteen hour clock.
22:00 Will go into truck stop and eat for first time since breakfast.
10/12
Have a 10:30 pickup this morning
08:00 Called shipper. Load isn’t ready yet so I’ll sit here at the truck stop killing time and getting tired, instead waiting at the shipper. Then at the last moment, because I don’t want to start the fourteen hour clock any sooner than I have to, I’ll rush to the shipper as fast as the law will allow.
15:15 I need a nap
17:15 Delivered second load for the day. I’m frustrated and angry. Stopped at a tool store to relax before going to a truck stop to take a break. Twelve to fourteen hour days without taking a break and without food during the day and the resulting anger are taking their toll.
I just want to quit and would except for the people I work with and the money I’m accustomed to earning.
19:25 Stopped at a convenience store that sells diesel, has a fast food joint, and a few parking spaces. Slept for six and three quarter hours.
10/13
03:15 Now I’m wide awake. Am not going to stay in that 96†by 70†box for another hour and fifteen minutes. Isn’t that false imprisonment? They can go to hell. Have an 07:00 pickup. Can’t go into Detroit at this hour when there is little traffic because I don’t want to start the fourteen hour clock. Will have to wait until about 06:30 and fight the traffic.
I have committed to the purchase of a second truck. Can’t ask someone else to do that which I won’t do. Am not sure if as a driver or as an owner I can make money in this business with the new rules. I may just sacrifice the down payment. Working twelve to fourteen hours without a break is too hard on me and the anger is unhealthy. Have been angry for almost two weeks now. Don’t know what I’m going to do.
06:30 Waited until the last minute to leave for my 07:00 pickup.
09:15 Delivered my load.
11:15 Turned down a load because it would have exceeded my fourteen hours.
12:00 Had to take a ten hour break because of fourteen hour rule and not being able to stop the fourteen hour clock.
19:00 Have four hundred seventeen mile load which delivers in the morning. By the time I finish my ten hour break, it’ll be 22:00.
Then I must run all night with no time for a nap. However, I’ll take a service failure before I risk going to sleep at the wheel. Dummies! Perhaps they should listen to the drivers instead of someone with no driving experience!
10/14
06:50 Arrived @ consignee ten minutes before the deadline.
10:30 Offered three hundred ninety-five mile run. Picks up @ 13:00. If I leave right now, drive as fast as the law will allow and make no mistakes I can arrive at the shipper within my fourteen hours.
12:30 Made it!
12:45 The truck is loaded and I went around the corner to a vacant lot to park the truck for a ten hour break. Again, no restroom facilities at this vacant lot. Walked across the street to a small café for my first meal in nearly twenty-four hours. Had consumed a small bag of chips and later a $1 blueberry pie. The sugar in the blueberry pie had seemed to wake me up at 04:00 in the morning. Right now I’m so tired I can sleep even if it is light outside.
16:00 Awakened by the cell phone
16:30 Can’t seem to go back to sleep.
18:30 Went to small diner to eat a meal.
19:30 Went back to sleep.
21:30 Awakened by the cell phone.
22:45 Started the trip in the dark in a small town near I-76 and I-476. Can’t seem to find the interstate in the dark. Did however, manage to find a low underpass and a road dead-ending at the I-76 right of way.
10/15
01:00 Why am I yawing if these new revised hours of service are so great? Sat in vacant lot for ten hours, tried to sleep but both times I was interrupted by the cell phone. I did however get about five hours sleep. I burned time during daylight hours when I’m normally awake so I can drive during night-time when visibility is bad and when I’m normally asleep!
10/16
01:30 Stopped for a one hour nap.
05:00 Stopped for a half hour nap.
08:45 Arrived at the consignee forty-five minutes early
12:30 Declined good load offer; Out of hours; Can’t make the pickup; Dispatch normally wouldn’t make an offer I couldn’t log. I need a ten hour break. Returned parts cores, visited with my dad, visited with my best friend, then did laundry until 21:00. Ate some fast food and over slept until 03:30.
05:00 Would like to take a nap but stopping, but would mess up my eight hour break at the shipper and the fourteen hour clock would keep ticking. I drove past a truck stop just five miles short of the shipper. Can’t stop as that would mess up my eight hour brake at the shipper.
07:45 Arrived at the shipper in time to take an eight hour sleeper break before loading. Have an eleven hundred mile run. Revised new HOS wouldn't so adversely affect me except I normally don’t take an eight consecutive hour break or drive for ten or eleven hours straight.
23:15 Stopped for a break. I can’t win. If I take a two hour break then I will have to drive from 01:15 to 05:15, the hours I would normally want to be sleeping. If I take a ten hour break then I will have to drive for eleven hours straight or if I take a break the time will be wasted as I can’t stop the clock.
The result of sitting at the shipper for eight hours is that I by the time I arrived here, I had gone more than twenty-four hours without eating. At this exit there are two convenience stores selling diesel but no one selling real food. Don’t know what they could do to make life any more miserable or more difficult to legally make a living.
I’ll not challenge them as they may think of something.
10/17
01:30 Alarm went off so I could go about twenty seven more miles to a real truck stop where I can get a good breakfast.
02:15 Arrived at TA, Bloomington,IL.
08:30 The light in my head went on when I woke up! After sleeping six hours, the reason I sleep longer during the eight hour break is because I’m more exhausted before I go to sleep. Thank you again, FMCSA!
What I have learned form recording and re-reading this little exercise is that I more often drive when I would otherwise be taking a nap or break. Also, I leave later and drive faster than I otherwise would.
And, after two weeks I seem to be more tired than normal.