Click here to see the Journal of Commerce’s interactive restart clock.An interactive infographic posted this week on the Journal of Commerce shows how complying with the hours-of-service rule changes that went into effect July 1 can impact a trucker’s work week and how many actual hours a “34-hour” restart can take out of a driver’s schedule.
Among other changes — like a mandatory 30-minute break after eight on-duty hours — drivers must now include two 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. periods in their 34-hour restart before they can begin a new 70-hour week. Prior to July 1, drivers could take the 34-hour restart whenever they wanted and multiple times a week. Now drivers are limited to one 34-hour restart a week.
As noted in the JOC article, for drivers to attain a restart that satisfies the minimum 34 hours and only that, a driver would have to end his workweek within a 6-hour window between 7 p.m. and 1 a.m. Aiding in the math is a chart that allows drivers to select what time they would go off duty at the end of their week. The chart then shows when a driver would be allowed to resume work and begin his or her next 70-hour week.
For instance, if a driver ended his or her workweek at 3 p.m., he or she would not be able to resume work until 5 a.m. two days later, resulting in a 38-hour restart.
If a driver ended his work week at 2 a.m., however, he also wouldn’t be able to resume work until 5 a.m., resulting in a 51-hour restart period.
Click here to put your schedule into the graph or play with other scenarios.
Displayed below is a PDF from the Journal of Commerce showing how ending a workweek too early or too late could cost a driver an additional 17 hours during a restart. It also shows the other scenarios for a restart, and how much time it will cost drivers to end their workweek at a certain time.
Click the photo or click here to see the full-sized chart.
