Search results

I was talking with a big-rig driver today and this topic came up. He said it is common at his company for its contractors to ask for an additional $500 for any trip into and out of Long Island. They ask and the amount is readily agreed to, he said.

Part of what you learn in this business is learned by flying by the seat of your pants. You learn as you go and when things change you learn anew. Tolls have skyrocketed to obscene levels in recent years. Diane and I don't have a flat-rate 20 percent congestion charge just yet but are working...

I did not think to reset our fuel info to determine actual mpg or gallons per hour while creeping through that traffic for six hours. It would have been a good experiment. Has anyone done so before? It would be interesting to know what the congestion fuel cost truly is.

!Re: C-Time? Increased fuel costs are not the customers' fault but we charge for those in the form of a fuel surcharge. Tolls are not the customers' fault but we charge for those by building them into the per-mile rate quoted for the run. Detention may or may not be the customers' fault but we...

We just spent six hours driving 120 miles in heavy, stop-and-go traffic on the East Coast. Thus began the 600 mile run we are now on. No one says the traffic congestion problem will get better. Many industry people predict that it will get worse. Where does that leave us, the drivers who spend...

I'm a little confused by the article. If a straight truck definition includes GVWR over 10,000 lbs., would not the driver of that truck need to have a CDL already?

That's one of the things I like about running with Landstar. They fight bogus citations like that.

For a Mormon practicing polygamy, whose two wives are agreeable to the arrangement, and whose sleeper is large enough to support it, it could work. Theoretically, you could keep the truck moving forever. Good luck, however, squeezing that reality into team logging and a bureaucratic system that...

On paper, you can always do lots of things. But how practical really is 8-3-3-8 for a team that runs irregular hours, and loads some of which are short and some of which are long, and some of which may be back-to-back and others of which may come after days of waiting?

The great thing about chess is that the rules never change. The board has a limited number of squares. White opposes black. A pawn is a pawn. A king can only move one square at a time. Each player moves in turn. In trucking, the rules are in a continual state of flux, which itself becomes part...

While I agree with your basic statement, there is one change that we like. The 34 hour reset did not always exist. It serves as an incentive to take such a break. There are many people in the compliance community who go to work every day believing that the work they do is all about safety, and...

Agreed. It seems to be a forever-lost hope that the FMCSA will allow drivers to limit their driving to a legal level but also retain the flexibility to decide how best to structure one's working day and breaks. We still miss the 5/5 rule that we enjoyed as a team earlier in our expediting...

Drivers sometimes get wound up about these blitzes when they come. They are ho-hum events for those who keep their trucks in shape and in compliance. We got pulled in more than usual running during the blitz but were waved through every time.

Adapting to the new rules is no big deal. You just shift your driving habits to comply. But preserving the same level of income or even increasing your income under the new rules ... that's the sixty-four dollar question.

That's a key difference that illustrates how different expediters run in different ways and, consequently, the rule changes will affect them differently. Credentials vary. Equipment varies. Lifestyle preferences vary.

This is true. It is also true that situations will develop that you cannot learn your way out of and runs will be lost to the new rules. When you are required to include two nights in a 34 hour reset when you were not before, when you can only do one reset a week when you could do more before...

Forgive my ragged analysis of the new rules. I'm just trying to figure them out like everyone else. An additional thought came to mind. Under the new rules, Diane would NOT have reset in the circumstances described above. I forgot about the mandatory 30 minute break. In the run we did, we...

We arrived near the delivery Saturday evening, call it 11:59 p.m. Saturday (midnight). Under the old rules, my 34 hour reset period began when I went off duty at 16:00 Saturday. Diane drove the rest of the way in. Her reset 34 hours began at midnight when she parked the truck and finished her...

There is the new 30 minute break rule and also the new two-night reset rule. Diane and I did a reset the other day, bringing both of us back to 70 hours available for driving, and that's how we started this week. We were under load over the weekend and delivered Monday morning. The reset took...

That is the question of the hour, but answering it is not so easy. With Moose pointing out different ways that different kinds of trucks and drivers will react/adjust to the mandated 30-minute break, I've been thinking about this and come up blank. The only thing we know for sure is that the...