HOS Restart Chart

cheri1122

Veteran Expediter
Driver
Reminds me of the 'weekends off' when I drove t/t. Officially began when picking up a load on Sat [for Mon am delivery] 200 miles from home, and ended Sun evening, when leaving to make the morning delivery. Most of Sunday was spent sleeping, while the time after arrival home Sat afternoon was spent shlepping stuff home, doing laundry, shopping for supplies, repacking what needs to go back to the truck. Oh - and sleeping.
Not a whole lot of time left to enjoy the family, or relax, either.
The restart is one of those times when being organized really pays off - if you don't have a tight routine to maximize the downtime, it's a good reason to work on one.
Driving solo, [and driving less & making more, lol] I only ever use the restart to simplify the math, as I never run out of hours.
;)
Great link, though, if you do need the restart.
 

ATeam

Senior Member
Retired Expediter
Someone from a big-rig motor carrier once told me they reduced their driver turnover by a huge amount by doing nothing more than seeing to it that their drivers got home for two full days each week. She also told me that they don't need to pay top dollar to get and keep reliable drivers.

One of the things I like about expediting is the extended periods of free time the business sometimes serves up. I need that kind of time to refresh myself mentally and to physically and pursue outside interests. Perpetual shifts of 70-on/34-off would make Phil a dull boy.
 
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AMonger

Veteran Expediter
The home weekends job ads sound good, until you find out exactly what that means.

jimmy
Ran for a carrier once that had a dispatcher that was always ****ing drivers off. They would come out of his office slamming the door. They'd get back into the driver's lounge and complain loudly that he had told them that "Your home time is measured in hours," apparently in response to them complaining to him that they weren't getting enough hometime.
I always thought they were being melodramatic, because, though hometime was measured in hours, it was usually more. I mean, the first load the next week usually had a window for the pickup and could be picked up any time, so if you had a short weekend, it could be extended a bit. That became necessary because there were times you'd be on your way home for your weekend measured in hours and the shop would stop you for a PM, and you were only going to get a day, day and a half off already.
But then I found myself transferred to this dispatcher and life took a turn for the worse. I found out that there were no pickup windows to the first load of the week. He would make a concerted effort to get you out of the house right at the time when your off-hours were up, and I understood what those drivers were slamming the door about. Those hours left absolutely no time to do anything but sleep and maybe do some laundry.
 

blackpup

Veteran Expediter

ATeam

Senior Member
Retired Expediter
They'd get back into the driver's lounge and complain loudly that he had told them that "Your home time is measured in hours," apparently in response to them complaining to him that they weren't getting enough hometime.

There really are companies, dispatchers and brokers out there that view drivers not as human beings but as slave labor or cattle; something to be treated like farm animals to be herded and fed in in ways that maximize their productivity and profits to the company; and when used up, sent away and replaced with the next group in the orientation room.

The astounding thing is that so many owner-operators are willing to put up with it and some even support and rationalize it. While supposedly self-employed and operating a business, these submissive owner-operators find it more comfortable to be the cow instead of the farmer.
 

RoadTime

Veteran Expediter
Owner/Operator
"Your home time is measured in hours," apparently in response to them complaining to him that they weren't getting enough hometime.....
there were times you'd be on your way home for your weekend measured in hours and the shop would stop you for a PM, and you were only going to get a day, day and a half off already.....
...Those hours left absolutely no time to do anything but sleep and maybe do some laundry.

That sounds like my T/T experience at one carrier back in the day. Hated it with a passion and had the added bonus if you did want a tiny bit of extra home time you had to slip seat out of your truck :(
 

gunnerwife

Rookie Expediter
Interactive: How Many Hours in a '34-Hour' Restart? | JOC

This might be helpful. Frankly I never realized just how much potential time loss there is with the new 34 hour restart.

jimmy

Thanks for the link. Since we came back out after the 4th we have had a hard time making sure our restarts coincide. A little more prior planning is in order, but what a pain in the arse!

Sent from my SCH-I535 using EO Forums mobile app
 

ATeam

Senior Member
Retired Expediter
Thanks for the link. Since we came back out after the 4th we have had a hard time making sure our restarts coincide. A little more prior planning is in order, but what a pain in the arse!

Having done a few restarts under the new rules, I'm not sure Diane and I have it figured out yet. We know what the rules are but orienting an on-again, off-again expediting schedule to them is less simple than it used to be.

We find ourselves now thinking about 5 a.m. in ways we did not before, and asking, at what point must we or can we begin a 34-hour restart to have it completed on or after 5 a.m.? That time is important because you now need two periods in the restart (two nights) that include the 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. time frame.

The effect is to turn a 34 hour restart into something longer. For example, you finish a load on Friday noon and head to a truck stop to park and do your restart. The "34 hour" restart will not be complete until Sunday at 5 a.m. because of the 1-5 requirement.

The other thing we do different now is to leave a note to ourselves somewhere where it will be easy to find that tells us when our most-recent restart BEGAN. That information becomes important because you can only begin your next restart seven days (168) hours after your most-recent restart began.

We are laid over this weekend and could have done a restart, but chose not to because if we do one now, we cannot do another one for seven days. We are "banking" our old restart so that if this week (schedule unknown) turns out to be such that a restart may be desirable on Wednesday, Thursday or any other day, we can do one, because it will have been over seven days since our last one.

We have enough hours to keep running without a restart this time. Taking restarts automatically whenever you can is no longer possible. So in addition to thinking about 5 a.m., we are noting the exact time and date when our most-recent restart began.

The old restarts were nice while they lasted. Whenever you wanted, you could hole up for 34 hours and restart work with 70 hours available. Those days are gone now, unless they change the rules again.
 
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