Just sharing

raceman · May 20, 2005

I pulled in to our terminal this morning at 1:30. There was a PantherII truck and another one on a tow truck. As I backed in and did my thing they dropped the one off the hook. The PII driver then started the truck and backed it up to dock to unload. Hmmmmm?

After getting out of my truck and heading for my car, I asked the tow driver what is wrong with the truck if they can back up to dock? He replied they ran out of hours.

Man! This is some very honest drivers and I give em credit for that.

However I must ask. Is it worth it to accept a load that you pull to an exchange on a tow truck? Wow!

Raceman
OTR O/O

chetjester · May 20, 2005

Where is my duct tape???? I'm not sure I would use "honest" as a good description. There isn't a driver on the road who hasn't had to "stretch" a break on his log book to have enough hours to deliver his load.

merkurfan · May 20, 2005

You can't strech the hours with Panther. The QC knows and the saftey supervisor will win the fight with you. Always..

Panther will also tow your butt to the revciver if they can't switch out the load (IE a full D unit) They of course will present you with a bill for the tow and the amount will be deducted from your next settlement check. Panther however should have known the driver did not have enough hours to get there before they offered him a load (The qc asks how many hours you have left, and the computer can calculate hours avaliable on it's own)

I don't know if the driver would have streched it or not. Some are honest and won't go over. Being contracted with Panther I'd like to think he was a honest guy and stopped before saftey did.

I had to do it yesterday, I had just finished roughly 1300 miles in a 36 hour period with 2 hours of sleep. I am in a van so no logs. Anyways I was offered a 700 mile load but it picked up 3 hours later and it was a 2 hour deadhead (paid of course) to get it. I called dispatch, told them how long I had been driving and that I would love to do what i could for them but didn't feel it was safe for me to drive much longer. Saftey of course agreed and the load was offered to another driver.

I was a bit bummed until a hour later my phone rang again. This time it was a load that picked up the next morning and was going 931 miles!! I don't know, but I wonder if my honesty about the 700 miler had something to do with it.

Tennesseahawk · May 20, 2005

I don't know if they'll charge you for the tow truck, unless it's definitely your fault. All I know is, when I'm running single, keep as straight a logbook as possible cause safety is right there on top of me. I've had to swap out one and turn down two cause I didn't have enough hours. They don't criticize or penalize you for telling them the truth on your logs, and because they have a safety who actually does its job, they don't push you beyond your hours.

T-hawk

RichM · May 20, 2005

Could be that when they took the load they had the hours to do it, but then something happened to delay them enroute such as traffic or weather.If the truck had a team that ran out of hours they made some decent $..

mvbn1 · May 20, 2005

Your right. Unless it's your fault, P2 pays the tow. I went from Erie, PA to Augusta, GA. I got real sleepy once I got into South Carolina. I told them I was going to stop and rest for an hour, and they wanted to tow me to the consignee, but after I talked with Safety, we figured our that I was 3 hours ahead and I had the time to rest. Still made the deliver on-time.

When they mentioned "towing", I wasn't real happy. I asked who was going to pay, and they said, that since I told them I was tired ahead of time, and since I wasn't running behind, they would pay the bill. The only reason they wanted to tow me, was that there wasn't anyone in the area to switch with.

merkurfan · May 20, 2005

Teams can't run out of hours unless they hit their restart. It's nice to know panther will pickup the tow bill. I am pretty should if your truck broke down you'd be paying it though.

He was probably detained at the shipper, panther is sticklers about that, you must log it as on duty time (some people will log as sleeper berth)

er wait.. if your in the sleeper while waiting for the load.. that is sleeper berth. Maybe he did not get held long enough for it to count..

I knew there was a reason I drove a van. Logging confuses me, split logging might as well be complex mathmatical equasions with letters in them.

LDB · May 20, 2005

Actually they require you to show 15 minutes for load/unload as opposed to just arrive and leave. If he arrived and showed his 15 and then was held up an hour and 45 minutes he would be stuck though because it takes a minimum of 2 hours sleeper to gain any advantage. More likely it was a combination of maybe an hour total at the shipper combined with construction, wreck etc. that got him(her).

Leo
truck 4958

Support the entire Constitution, not just the parts you like.

rode2rouen · May 20, 2005

It would be interesting to find out the "real" details about the situation.

There can be "Adverse Conditions" (Sec. 395.1b) that allow a driver to run an additional 2 hours over the allowed 11 hour maximum.

I familiarized myself with that section as I sat on the detour around a nasty accident on I-65 in KY early yesterday a.m. thinking I might have to stretch to get back to Cleveland. As it happened, I only ran about 45 minutes longer than usual, so it wasn't a concern.

Rex

Tennesseahawk · May 20, 2005

Actually, that two hours extra are only for local drivers, and only usable once a week.

roadweazel · Jul 24, 2005

And from what i was told its to make it to a safe place not a Drop

elton10 · Jul 26, 2005

Merk

I thought you had to log on a van.. but just as 14 hrs on duty?
I just came off my first week on the road . Im on a Class B learners permit(have a c with hazmat) and my lead driver on the D unit had me log everything except meals and showers as sleeper berth.Driving time was logged as driving.
Our first run was from Roanoke VA to Barstow CA with a drop at Kansas City. Picked up the load at 8:20 pm on Friday and had to make the final drop at 11:59 pm Sunday in Barstow.
Fortunately we were running for one ot the the third tier expedite companies so no QC to keep tabs
>
>I knew there was a reason I drove a van. Logging confuses
>me, split logging might as well be complex mathmatical
>equasions with letters in them.

RichM · Jul 26, 2005

Merk Over the years I have run out of hours 3 times teaming with my better half. When a team runs out of hours (both at 70) usually means some pretty good bucks were made.

truckerbse2 · Jul 31, 2005

Sounds to me like someone attempting to make a point. They probably had no idea that it would end up going to the extent it did. If not, then I would have to say it was a very bad business decision to take the load and not have the hours to run it.