When it comes to the roads, you can’t beat a truck driver. They know them like the back of their hands. It’s no surprise: they cross stretches of distances every day, carrying supplies and freight from east to west, and west to east.
Now, you might be wondering how many miles can a truck driver drive in a day. It’s a guarantee that there’s a lot more to it than you think. Luckily for you, we’ll explore all of your questions truck-driving, along with some new details. Let’s get to it.
How Many Miles Are Truck Drivers Allowed to Drive in a Day?
Here’s what you might not know: Truck drivers can’t just drive all day. That may be their job, but they have a specific limit. In fact, they’re restricted to a particular set of hours by the law.
According to the Hours of Service regulations of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), truck drivers cannot drive more than 11 hours per day.
However, each state abides by different laws. The maximum mileage available to a truck driver per day could slightly differ, depending on where they’re driving.
What About Miles?
On average, a truck driver will go for 55 – 60 miles per hour—that is, of course, if they adhere to federal, state, or interstate laws. Assuming that they drive for 11 hours, they average 605 – 650 miles per day.
Of course, that number is open to fluctuation. There’s a lot of variables: Weather, traffic, routes, and accidents all may alter the mileage. However, you can trust the change to be relatively insignificant.
Truck Drivers’ Working Hours
Truck drivers are bound to a maximum of 14 hours of work per day. The remaining 10 hours are strictly required to be spent off-duty.
Of course, a truck driver doesn’t have to spend 14 hours driving. They could pass the hours either through napping, eating, or even receiving. However, this is just one of a few essential rules that truck drivers have to oblige.
To work lawfully, there are four rules every trucker driver should abide by:
- Truck drivers can’t drive more than 11 hours in a 24-hour frame. Instead, they should rest for 10 hours, then return to work once the ten hours have passed.
- Truck drivers can work for a maximum of 14 hours per day. Once the 14 hours pass, they’re bound to 10 hours of rest.
- After working on-duty for 8 hours, truck drivers are obligated to a rest period of 30 minutes.
- Drivers are obligated by the law to avoid working for 14-hours continuously. Instead, they’re allowed to work for a maximum of 70-hours in 8 days.
How Does a Truck Driver’s Work Day Look Like
These rules exist to keep truck drivers away from overtaxing themselves. They can only drive for 11 hours during the 14-consecutive-hour duty cycle, so where does the remaining three hours go?
You can spend them doing anything you want, but it has to be within the frame of your job.
When you’re working for 60 or 70 hours in an 8-day frame, you’re required to take 34 consecutive hours off-duty before driving a commercial vehicle. Commonly called off-duty time, this 34-hour reset gives you the chance to tweak your working hours and push them back to zero.
During the restart period, you could, of course, spend your time on other tasks that don’t include driving, such as loading freight and paperwork.
Remember: the 34-hour reset isn’t required by law. However, it’s implemented by most businesses to help reduce driver fatigue and overwork.
Regulated Driving Breaks
During the 14-hour work cycle, truck drivers are obliged to take 30-minute breaks. These 30-minute breaks arrive after 8 hours of consecutive driving. So during 11 hours of driving, you’re allowed to take 30 minutes of non-driving; sleeper berth time.
Although pre-trip breaks are required by the Department of Transportation (DOT), they’re not a must in all states. These breaks take place during start-off, and they usually last for 15 – 30 minutes.
These pre-trip breaks are incredibly important, as they’re specially intended for truck inspection. Before going on the road, the driver should make sure that their truck is in a safe condition. This is why a lot of people argue that a complete satisfactory inspection should take about 30 – 40 minutes, and anything less isn’t thorough enough.
Of course, these pre-trip breaks increase the time spent away from the steering wheel, especially when considered along with mid-shift breaks. All in all, this makes for a total of 45 – 60 minutes of non-driving time.
What About Team Driving?
There are many reasons why team driving is prevalent among truck drivers. It’s an appropriate choice for those who feel lonely on the road, as it decreases the feeling of isolation. It’s also a great go-to solution for partners and married couples, to whom team driving offers better pay and more home time.
Team drivers can cover up to 1000 miles or more per day. They also regularly drive 5000 to 6000 miles a week. Still, these figures aren’t consistent; there are a lot of variables to interfere with your mileage and hours. There’s the distance a driver can cover, and then there’s loading and unloading of freight, the traffic, the weather conditions, and the pit stops.
Meanwhile, a lot of drivers object to team driving. It’s easy to see why having a driving partner could prove to be an obstacle more than an advantage in other cases. It can significantly slow you down, as one driver could achieve more mileage than the other.
However, when done right, team driving lets you finish your runs faster, complete more miles, and even get higher pay.
Conclusion
It’s easy to overwork yourself when you’re a truck driver, which is why there are so many rules to avoid that. Nevertheless, an experienced truck driver could cover 605 – 650 miles on a good day. Of course, those numbers could change depending on the road and what it brings.