How Goes the New 34-Hour Restart for You?

[ATeam]

To Cheri's point, the lack of flexibility (with no accompanying safety benefit) is making itself felt in this truck right now. We're on a long run. On the way out, we got word that the delivery bumped from Monday (tomorrow) to Tuesday. We're about two hours from the delivery now.

That gives us time to do a restart.

Old Way: I would have started my 34 hour restart when Diane started driving today around noon, and would have completed the restart 34 hours later. Diane would have started her restart around 10:30 p.m. when she parked the truck and completed it 34 hours later.

New Way: With both of needing two nights to complete a restart, we parked at 10:30 p.m. Sunday and cannot move the truck until Tuesday morning 5:00 a.m. Here we are once again ... stuck in restart prison.

We have the option of not doing a restart and continuing to run on the log book hours we have. But that would leave us with fewer log book hours later in the week, and it increases the possibility that we might not be able to take a sweet, lucarative load for lack of hours that load might require. Better to sit in restart prison, but that does not make it good.

 

[layoutshooter]

"We have the option of not doing a restart and continuing to run on the log book hours we have. But that would leave us with fewer log book hours later in the week, and it increases the possibility that we might not be able to take a sweet, lucarative load for lack of hours that load might require. Better to sit in restart prison, but that does not make it good."

Both of the choices you talk about have the potential to limit your ability to earn a living. Both reduce the available hours that you have to produce revenue. Fewer work hours, lower revenue and no increase in safety. Yep, the government knows what it's doing.

 

[OntarioVanMan]

(In honor of Moot's birthday)

BAN THE VAN!

I will be more then over joyed to take your 4-5 skids while your wasting your time in restart prison....Thank you government for this great business opportunity......hahahaha....poke,poke

 

[ATeam]

I will be more then over joyed to take your 4-5 skids while your wasting your time in restart prison....Thank you government for this great business opportunity......hahahaha....poke,poke

You make a good point. While we are loaded now and you taking our skids is not an issue in this particular case, there are many times for many expeidters when doing a restart will take them out of the revenue stream in ways it did not under the old rules.

That's called a government-mandated decline in productivity with no accompanying safety benefit.

 

[OntarioVanMan]

You make a good point. While we are loaded now and you taking our skids is not an issue in this particular case, there are many times for many expeidters when doing a restart will take them out of the revenue stream in ways it did not under the old rules.

That's called a government-mandated decline in productivity with no accompanying safety benefit.

Not meaning to minimize your situation....just staying light. What ones loss is another's gain in business...one day the worm might turn, but until then we'll maximize the opportunity handed us Sprinters and cubes....

 

[ATeam]

Not meaning to minimize your situation....just staying light. What ones loss is another's gain in business...one day the worm might turn, but until then we'll maximize the opportunity handed us Sprinters and cubes....

There is no Sprinter/Cube opportunity here. The load is too big, too heavy and not one that can be split up.

 

[OntarioVanMan]

There is no Sprinter/Cube opportunity here. The load is too big, too heavy and not one that can be split up.

I meant the big picture situation of the 34 hour restart....I can empathize with your situation regarding regulations.

 

[moose]

a loss in productivity, dose not necessarily result in a lost of revenue, nor profits.

 

[ATeam]

a loss in productivity, dose not necessarily result in a lost of revenue, nor profits.

I guess that would depend on how you are using the word "productivity."

 

[WanderngFool]

Sorry to hear it bite ya ATeam. I hate the new "and improved" 34 restart nonsense too. It makes no sense and will make us all unsafe.

A few weeks back I was traveling west across northern Ohio on a Friday evening. There were a few trucks running hard and passing everything in sight. I happened to notice Illinois plates on most of them. Yup, they were racing to get home by 1am so they could make their restart work and be available for work on Sunday. Running hard, less safe, thanks to stupid regs.

 

[cheri1122]

To Cheri's point, the lack of flexibility (with no accompanying safety benefit) is making itself felt in this truck right now. We're on a long run. On the way out, we got word that the delivery bumped from Monday (tomorrow) to Tuesday. We're about two hours from the delivery now.

That gives us time to do a restart.

Old Way: I would have started my 34 hour restart when Diane started driving today around noon, and would have completed the restart 34 hours later. Diane would have started her restart around 10:30 p.m. when she parked the truck and completed it 34 hours later.

New Way: With both of needing two nights to complete a restart, we parked at 10:30 p.m. Sunday and cannot move the truck until Tuesday morning 5:00 a.m. Here we are once again ... stuck in restart prison.

We have the option of not doing a restart and continuing to run on the log book hours we have. But that would leave us with fewer log book hours later in the week, and it increases the possibility that we might not be able to take a sweet, lucarative load for lack of hours that load might require. Better to sit in restart prison, but that does not make it good.

Ever since the first revision of HOS, nearly 10 years ago, drivers have been pointing out how the loss of the split sleeper provision forces us to drive when we might judge it wiser to stop, but it falls on deaf ears.
The reason the Agency is going to have to reconsider the 34 hr restart is that the ATA & carriers are having problems, and their problems get attended to, but ours, not so much.
For me, the mandatory 30 minute break is just ludicrous: assuming we can just park trucks when & where the clock says so, as opposed to when the driver determines it's time for a break, for starters. Like the shortage of truck parking doesn't exist in FMCSA World, right? The notion of hitting a driver with a penalty greater than a DUI for failure to be parked when the clock strikes zero hour is just mind boggling - and for a whole 30 minute break? The potential penalty recently forced me to drive through Atlanta during rush hour, rather than risk it - how safe & 'restful' is that?!
This is where you want to say "Give me a break" but they'd probably add another one to the 4 deadlines we already have to keep juggling in our minds every day, [8, 11, 14, 70] because the times change, every day.
The less flexibility we have to choose when to drive and when to stop, the less rested and safe we are. The clock knows nothing but the time, and that's a pitiful substitute for the driver's judgement.

 

[WanderngFool]

Cheri - you've got a knack for putting things into words. Do you ever send your opinions to Washington? You should.

I like the "Give me a break" line. Nice touch. Not to diminish the serious parts. Yup [8, 11, 14, 70], we've got more numbers in our heads than the average poker player, or at least that's the way it seems at the end of a long day.

 

[OntarioVanMan]

Hey, it's kewl with me! I said I was wrong and shut up. I did not say a thing for hours. I also sent a PM to the WonderingFool, said my sorrys to him as well. I said it was my fault, can't do any more.

The 34 sure is a crappy rule....

 

[layoutshooter]

The 34 sure is a crappy rule....

You got that right! It's only good for manure. It does nothing for safety and can put unneeded limitations on drivers ability to earn a living.

 

[cubansammich]

The 34 sure is a crappy rule....

I agree that the new restrictions are making it increasingly difficult to keep track of of driving limitations. I'm glad that I drive a van. It does make me wonder if those who put the new rules in place believe that they have actually made the roads safer.

 

[cheri1122]

Cheri - you've got a knack for putting things into words. Do you ever send your opinions to Washington? You should.

I like the "Give me a break" line. Nice touch. Not to diminish the serious parts. Yup [8, 11, 14, 70], we've got more numbers in our heads than the average poker player, or at least that's the way it seems at the end of a long day.

Thanks - and yes, I do. [Send my opinions to DC]
It may be an exercise in futility, but I refuse to accept that 'we, the people' are powerless to change what we see as wrong. Especially if we can credit those who are wrong with having the right intentions [but getting bad intel], hmmm?
On that note, I was happy to see that Anne Ferro has done a 'ride along' with a trucker, for 2 whole days - it'll be interesting to see if it changed her perspective.

 

[zorry]

She rode with a guy I hauled trucks with for ten years.
Good guy.
In a gorgeous newer ARI sleeper.ran Sunday. Leo got a hotel while she roughed it in his sleeper.
He is on the board of OOIDA. Smart. I'm sure he informed her a lot. She didn't get to spend a night in a truckstop, fear for her life at a rest stop, or any real stuff.
Better than no trip at all.

 

[cheri1122]

I really wish she could have spent the 2 days with me, instead. Because I spent them going nowhere [except nuts], trying to replace a missing marker light lens [cover], so I don't get pulled aside for inspection. And to protect the exposed bulb & wiring, of course. It took 2 days to determine: what it's called [cabin marker light, though it isn't the light], who makes it, who sells it, and finally: who has it. I wanted to replace all 5, because the one I took off to measure is cracked too, but could only find 3. And had to drive 125 miles to get them, or sit for 3 days and wait [and pay] for them to be shipped.
Welcome to my world, FMCSA!

 

[zorry]

Cheri- thats a real life trucking story that is hard to project to a wannabe.
They'll project 52 good weeks.
I find that few weeks that have a holiday in them live up to full potential.

As an union driver with paid holidays, and doubletime if we elected to work, we couldn't get enough holidays.

In present situation I wish there were less holidays.

 

[Ragman]

Since the posts in question are far, far off topic, and since this thread is otherwise developing a historical feel to it as people react to the 34 hour restart over time, and since the topic is likely to take additional turns in the future as Congress revisits it, it might be a good idea to remove the off topic posts to keep a clean thread going.

I'm going to have to agree with Phil. The rule doesn't affect me, but I am learning a lot.