Josh's limelight

Today's blog is brought to you today by the letter F and the number 5. (Seasame Street reference) Anyway seriously I am going to dictate everything that Josh has to say about the hours in the truck and if it doesn't come out clear it isn't my fault...hee hee.

There are five types of statuses for the driver:

On Duty, not driving. Anytime you are on duty but not physically driving the truck. Examples are loading and unload or getting fuel.

On Duty, driving. This entails driving.

Off Duty, anytime you are free to persue your own interests. Examples are having lunch, home time, anytime you are not in the driver seat or not doing any work related activities.

Off Duty Driving, only certain companies allow this, you are only allowed 1 hour off duty, during that hour you may drive up to 30 mintues away and can be off duty for longs as you are allowed and then you have 30 minutes of driving back.

Sleeper Berth, anytime you are actually in the sleeper area.

Now that we have these statuses broken down we can explain the clocks that we have to keep an eye on.

There are four clocks.

70 hour clock, is the amount of hours that you are allowed to work in a 8 day week. This includes all on duty and driving time.

14 hour clock, starts at the beginning of your day and doesn't stop until 14 hours later. To reset this clock you must have a ten hour break. This includes all on duty and on duty driving time.

11 hour clock, is how much drive time you have total in one day, this is on duty driving only.

8 hour clock, determines when you need to stop for a 30 minute break, this break must be taken within the 8 hour clock, after the break the 8 hour clock resets, it may be necessary due to unforseen circumstances to take a second break before your 14 hour clock runs out.

Luckily with the electronic log book it tells us how much time we have on each clock and it is easier to keep track of this way. I hope this make sense, if not please call Josh on his mobile phone...hee hee.

Back to me now. Today we got to see a crop duster in Ohio but it wasn't what I am used to seeing it was a helicopter. I kept seeing it come over the hill briefly and wondering what was going on but then we saw him and dang he could get awful close to the crops that way.

We made it to New Jersey today and about 45 minutes away from our drop off that we will do in the morning. Josh took a different route this time and was hoping to see some new states today but he didn't get off on the right exit and we ended up just going by Philadelphia and let me tell ya there is nothing to see there. It is crowded and lots of crappy places and wholey moley tons and tons of tolls. I didn't even get to see any impressive buildings, they must be on the south side of town. It didn't help the mood any that is was totally pouring rain the whole time.

On the brighter side of things we stopped in a rest area and I wanted to pick some flowers (or weeds by some peoples standards) while we were there. We found this little cove area that would be perfect for murdering someone...(sorry but it is true) but it was full of all kinds of plants and anything that had flowered I pick at least one of them. While there we saw a bunny on the edge of all this bramble as if to welcome us. It was very nice there and was so happy that my dear hubby helped me in all of this and even pointed out different ones that I might have missed. He carried my little bundle to the truck and I got all emotional, I told him "ya know it is the little things that mean the most" and he agreed. He is just trying to make up some brownie points with me after burning a few while at home..lol.

We got our new load assignment for tomorrow and we will be heading back to Illinois. Josh is now trying to see if we can get close to the Statue of Liberty as he knows how much I want to see it. Where we are delivering to is right next to Staten Island and hoping there is something interesting to take a picture of there. Tomorrow could potentially be quite exciting!

My collection of flowers.  I pressed them in a book for keeping.

This was my favorite, it was like a little orange cup.