New HOS rules went into effect on July 1, among them new rules that affect the 34-hour restart. It is now mid-August. How goes it for you under the changes?
Before the new rules, it was easy for Diane and me to do a restart (take 34 hours off-duty or in the sleeper to start a new seven-day period with 70 hours available). After the new rules, it can still be done but not as easy and not as often.
We are doing restarts less often than before because of the new seven-day wait part of the rule (no restart within seven days of the previous restart). We also do fewer restarts because of the 1-5 a.m. part of the rule (restart must include two 1-5 a.m. time periods, effectively forcing you to include two full nights in the restart, which often requires more than 34 hours because you have already stopped earlier than the precise time your legal 34 hours began).
And when we do restarts, we have less mobility than before. In this team-driven truck, the 1-5 a.m. rule applies to both of us. Under the old rules, one of us could drive while the other one completed his or her restart. Now, we must both complete our restarts at 5 a.m. We cannot stagger our 34-hour periods like before unless we want to add a third day to restarting us both. The result is, when we want a restart, we put ourselves into what we call "restart prison," park the truck and sit there for two nights.
Finally, the new rules give us a restarted log book (and the real rest that went into earning the restart) less often. That is a psychological thing that requires a thinking adjustment. Sure, it is nice to start your next run with 70 hours available, but doing so with 40 or 20 hours available still lets you start and finish the run.
None of these changes are desirable. None of them do anything at all to make us more rested than 34 hours of down time did under the old rules. But it is what it is and we're stuck with it, at least for now.
It has been an undesirable and nonsensical inconvenience but no money has been lost to the new 34-hour restart rules, at least not yet. However, there are situations that have risen with us in the past that, under the new rules, may cost us money (as in thousands of dollars) by preventing us from taking a lucrative long run that we could have and would have otherwise taken. It has not happened yet but it could.
How goes the new 34-hour restart for you?
Before the new rules, it was easy for Diane and me to do a restart (take 34 hours off-duty or in the sleeper to start a new seven-day period with 70 hours available). After the new rules, it can still be done but not as easy and not as often.
We are doing restarts less often than before because of the new seven-day wait part of the rule (no restart within seven days of the previous restart). We also do fewer restarts because of the 1-5 a.m. part of the rule (restart must include two 1-5 a.m. time periods, effectively forcing you to include two full nights in the restart, which often requires more than 34 hours because you have already stopped earlier than the precise time your legal 34 hours began).
And when we do restarts, we have less mobility than before. In this team-driven truck, the 1-5 a.m. rule applies to both of us. Under the old rules, one of us could drive while the other one completed his or her restart. Now, we must both complete our restarts at 5 a.m. We cannot stagger our 34-hour periods like before unless we want to add a third day to restarting us both. The result is, when we want a restart, we put ourselves into what we call "restart prison," park the truck and sit there for two nights.
Finally, the new rules give us a restarted log book (and the real rest that went into earning the restart) less often. That is a psychological thing that requires a thinking adjustment. Sure, it is nice to start your next run with 70 hours available, but doing so with 40 or 20 hours available still lets you start and finish the run.
None of these changes are desirable. None of them do anything at all to make us more rested than 34 hours of down time did under the old rules. But it is what it is and we're stuck with it, at least for now.
It has been an undesirable and nonsensical inconvenience but no money has been lost to the new 34-hour restart rules, at least not yet. However, there are situations that have risen with us in the past that, under the new rules, may cost us money (as in thousands of dollars) by preventing us from taking a lucrative long run that we could have and would have otherwise taken. It has not happened yet but it could.
How goes the new 34-hour restart for you?
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