Time is of the essence

I didn’t even understand what had gone wrong.

I was rapidly running out of available driving hours. There was no way that I would be able to make it to the consignee with the amount of “run-able" (legal) hours that I had left. I pulled over alongside the Interstate and sent a frantic Qualcomm message to my Driver Manager telling her that I would not be able to deliver on time. She called me up on my cell phone and was pretty angry, short and snippy. I was told that another driver would be taking my load to Portland. After she hung up on me, I felt very humiliated. 

I had just completed a very productive and busy week. My last delivery for the week was to a Lowe’s store in Boise, ID. When they were finally finished unloading my trailer, I only had about an hour or so left on my clock. I took my stinky self and my truck to the nearest truck stop; only about ten minutes away and shut down. I was within an hour of officially running out of time.

The D.O.T. clock rules everything that I do. The moment that I begin the work day, I change the Qualcomm from “Sleeper” mode to the “On Duty” setting. That begins my 14 hour clock. Once started, that 14 hour clock cannot be stopped until it runs out. Contained within that 14 hour time period are my 11 hours of driving time. I can start and stop the 11 hour driving clock as much as I like, in order to, say, eat a chimichanga or to go visit the potty. It just all has to be done within a defined 14 hour time period. (When those 14 hours are up, you have to shut down for 10 hours; whether or not you've been driving.) Fun fact: the electronic 11 hour driving clock cannot be cheated; once the truck starts rolling, it senses that you're moving and automatically switches to “Driving”.

There are only so many 14-hour clocks available. You are only allowed to work 70 hours before the D.O.T. clock has used up all of its available hours for the week. To continue, you are required to take a “reset”. A “reset” is a 34 hour period of time when the truck and the driver cannot work. There is well-founded concern that truck drivers are working excessive hours and, because of that are sleep-deprived and a real menace to themselves and others. It is my belief that, without enforcement of the “hours of service” regulations, that the Trucking Industry would run its drivers to death, literally.

I had parked my truck at the T/A Truckstop in Boise just after 9:00 am and was prepared to sit for 34 hours. It was not to be that simple, however. There are some brand new rules, rules that just came into effect on July 1^st. Now, the 34 hour reset must include two consecutive periods of time between 1:00 and 5:00 am. My reset would instead be completed at 5:00 am, two days later. I would be stuck sitting in a crummy truck stop for almost two whole days.

But I got through that, and on the correct evening just before bed, I had set my iPhone’s alarm to wake me up at 4:30 am. When it woke me up, I took my sweet time to visit the restroom, get a cup of coffee and read my email. At about 5:30, I changed my status to “On Duty”, did my pre-trip and headed out on the road. Everything was right with the world, except for my DOT clock.

This is where I screwed up.

The D.O.T. clock on the Qualcomm unit was set to Pacific time, but my iPhone had switched over to Mountain time. It was not 5:00 am yet. Whoops! I had started my DOT clock about a half hour too early and had destroyed my 34 hour reset and I had run out of time by simply being stupid and forgetting about the time zone change. And no, you don’t get your full 70 hours back until you do another 34 hour reset. You do get “refunded” a few hours each day (due to a complicated exception that is far too dull to explain), so I parked for another day, kicked myself repeatedly and promised to never, ever ever make such a stupid newbie mistake again.

A few days later, I was driving west with a truckload of beer. I pulled over to grab a chimichanga in Boardman, OR. While I was eating my lunch, I received a Qualcomm message from my Driver Manager. “Stay put!” the message said, “You are going to swap loads with another driver”. A very sheepish-looking driver eventually caught up with me and we swapped trailers. He was out of time, having made the exact same mistake as I had. I had plenty of available driving time, he did not.

If we learn from our mistakes, I am getting a fantastic education.