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The current drive time limits are just kind of stupid. Back in the day I’d drive a few hours, stop and take a nap and/or mess around for a while then go back

The current drive time limits are just kind of stupid. Back in the day I’d drive a few hours, stop and take a nap and/or mess around for a while then go back to driving until I was ready to shut it down. Never, ever, had to drive in rush hour because I’d just wait it out. Nowadays you basically have to drive 8-10 hours straight because once your clock starts you have 14 hours. It is possible to split it up but not like the old days and, like all things gov’t, it’s super complicated. They also claimed when they changed the law they’d make sure we had plenty of parking so everyone could run legal but, of course, that never happened so drivers have to make their own parking spots which is why you see them parking wherever the hell they want — which encompasses two of my many pet peeves.

mrguyorama 4y ago
If you allow truck drivers to split shifts like that they will push it and do things like take multiple 2 hour naps instead of getting actual sleep. You HAVE to have very very clear limits like this. Truckers are an adversary in the process. They would try driving 24/7 if they physically could keep their eyes open. They ALWAYS think they are one of the safe ones while pushing their mental health.
- UncleEntity 4y ago
  That’s not how it worked. This is all iirc as it was quite a while ago when they changed the rules but accurate enough. You needed an 8 (or 10, we’ll assume 10) hour break for every 10 hours driving so you could drive 5 hours, take a 4 hour break, drive 5 hours, take a 6 hour break, drive 5 hours, &etc… until you reached your destination or ran out of your 70 hours. You can still do splits but they are 3 hours maximum or 7 hours minimum…need a degree in mathematics to fully understand the hours of service rules and don’t ask the logs department because they will just put you on the “watch list” instead of telling you why the computer thinks you’re in violation. No, not bitter. In practice nobody could do splits like that for very long because you’d get stuck at a shipper or receiver (or both) and end up getting in a full break. Now you basically have to drive your whole day at once which is very tiring. Driving 8 - 9 hours straight sucks. I almost always drive at night but sometimes have to drive during the day when I’m usually sleeping which also sucks, is more dangerous and, ironically, is the reason they changed the rules so tired drivers weren’t, umm… driving. If you know the signs of being tired and can stop and take a break there’s no real problem but the current system forces you to drive tired because once that 14 hour clock starts you pretty much have to deal with it. It can be paused once, during the first half of a split, but usually isn’t very practical to do that. Today’s a perfect example, I got into town this morning but don’t load until tonight so am taking a (probably, would have to look) 8 hour break before driving to the shipper to get (at least, these people don’t get in any sort of hurry) another 2 hour break before driving all night. I’d have rather driven down here just in time to get loaded but then I’d wouldn’t make the delivery on time because of the way the hours would work out so now I get to drive all night on 5 hours of real sleep. Perfectly safe.

mrguyorama 4y ago

If you allow truck drivers to split shifts like that they will push it and do things like take multiple 2 hour naps instead of getting actual sleep. You HAVE to have very very clear limits like this. Truckers are an adversary in the process. They would try driving 24/7 if they physically could keep their eyes open. They ALWAYS think they are one of the safe ones while pushing their mental health.

UncleEntity 4y ago
That’s not how it worked. This is all iirc as it was quite a while ago when they changed the rules but accurate enough. You needed an 8 (or 10, we’ll assume 10) hour break for every 10 hours driving so you could drive 5 hours, take a 4 hour break, drive 5 hours, take a 6 hour break, drive 5 hours, &etc… until you reached your destination or ran out of your 70 hours. You can still do splits but they are 3 hours maximum or 7 hours minimum…need a degree in mathematics to fully understand the hours of service rules and don’t ask the logs department because they will just put you on the “watch list” instead of telling you why the computer thinks you’re in violation. No, not bitter. In practice nobody could do splits like that for very long because you’d get stuck at a shipper or receiver (or both) and end up getting in a full break. Now you basically have to drive your whole day at once which is very tiring. Driving 8 - 9 hours straight sucks. I almost always drive at night but sometimes have to drive during the day when I’m usually sleeping which also sucks, is more dangerous and, ironically, is the reason they changed the rules so tired drivers weren’t, umm… driving. If you know the signs of being tired and can stop and take a break there’s no real problem but the current system forces you to drive tired because once that 14 hour clock starts you pretty much have to deal with it. It can be paused once, during the first half of a split, but usually isn’t very practical to do that. Today’s a perfect example, I got into town this morning but don’t load until tonight so am taking a (probably, would have to look) 8 hour break before driving to the shipper to get (at least, these people don’t get in any sort of hurry) another 2 hour break before driving all night. I’d have rather driven down here just in time to get loaded but then I’d wouldn’t make the delivery on time because of the way the hours would work out so now I get to drive all night on 5 hours of real sleep. Perfectly safe.