TYTFG* #3: Nine to Five (or the equivalent thereof)

I've had some odd schedules in my varied and glorious career. This is the first time I haven't really HAD one.

A truck driver's hours are more or less set by the loads, and limited by the Federal Government. You pick up a load when it's ready, and drive until you've gotten it where it's supposed to go. The gummint, meanwhile, propounds rules meant to keep you from living on caffeine, speed, and B vitamins while you pile up the money . (You're paid by the mile, y'see. That's why so many truckers hate speed limits, and why drug use can be a problem.)

The present rule is:

• No more than eleven hours behind the wheel.
• No driving after you've been up and around for fourteen hours.
• Once you've gone over either of those limits, you HAVE to take ten hours off before you can drive again.**
• You can't spend more than 60 hours in 7 days, or 70 hours in 8 days, "on duty." This means time spent carrying out your duties as a driver, whether you're actually driving or not.
• You can start your day over at any time by taking ten hours off. That's ten hours STRAIGHT, mind you.**
• You can start your (7- or 8-day) "week" over at any time by taking 34 hours off. Again, that's 34 hours STRAIGHT.**

(qt's legal department wishes him to point out that this is a paraphrase of some truly wonderful legalese. Please do not attempt to schedule your life based on this paraphrase. Neither qt nor quasitrucker-the-blog is responsible for any problems you may have with any government agencies.

(We now return you to your regularly scheduled lecture.)

Given a choice, I've developed a liking for farmer's hours--more or less. The truck stops begin to fill up around 6-7 pm (later in the summer, earlier in the winter), so I try to end my day around then. The fourteen-hour rule implies I should get started around 4-5 am--that way I CAN'T drive past my ideal "quitting time." So I get up around 4, drive all day (if I can), and shut down somewhere between 3 and 6 pm (while there are still lots of parking spaces). Then I get up around 4 again tomorrow.

As you may have guessed, it doesn't always work that way. Every once in a while you get a load that you HAVE to pick up at midnight, or deliver at 3 am. Then you just have to warp your schedule to fit. And the moment that happens, your dispatcher says "Hey, he's got six more hours, and I've got a load he can pick up right now. He'll thank me for this someday..."

When this happens you just have to ride with it, until you can find an excuse to warp it all back. The only exception to that (in my case) is driving all night. I've avoided it so far, and I will keep on doing so for as long as I can. If I START at 2 or 3 am, I'm grumpy but that's all. If I STOP at 2 or 3 am, the same. But starting at, say, 10pm and driving all night? No, thanks. It's a safety thing, y'see.

I've let 3 am pass me in the middle of a run once. After an hour or so dodging those cloudy translucent boulders in the road, I decided it was too much work and stopped until they went away.

Sneaky things. My trainer never saw a one of them.
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*Things You Took For Granted

**"hours off"

--can be spent either goofing off or staring at the ceiling from a bunk in your sleeper cab. You have a place in your log book for each.
Usually they don't care which you do. However, there are a few odd situation where it makes a lot of difference.
In particular, there is a way to spend less than ten STRAIGHT hours off and make up the difference later in the day, but you HAVE to spend a certain amount of that time in the sleeper.
It's complicated. I don't understand it myself, so I'm sure not going to try explaining it to you...