Can a dispatcher plan my home time on OTR runs?

Yes. Give us your pattern, like out 2 weeks and home 4 days, and we plan the trips backward from it. The last loads before home time are chosen for where they deliver, so you're close to home on the day you need to be.

How do you plan around hours of service on long trips?

Every day's legs fit inside the 11-hour driving limit and the 14-hour window, with the 30-minute break placed at a fuel or food stop and the 10-hour break planned at a known parking spot. We leave slack in each day so a slow dock doesn't push you past your limits.

What happens if a load runs late in the middle of a trip?

We call the broker and the next shipper, document detention, and re-plan the rest of the trip: where tonight's break lands, whether tomorrow's pickup moves, and whether the cycle still covers the week. You hear about the new plan, and you never get asked to run past your hours to save the old one.

An OTR dispatch service that plans the whole trip, not just the next load

Over the road, one load is never the whole story. A good outbound that leaves you in a dead market with 6 hours on your 70 is a bad week waiting to happen. Our OTR dispatchers plan the trip end to end: the daily legs inside your 11 and 14, where each 10-hour break lands, how your 70-hour cycle runs down across the week, and which load brings you home. Every load still reaches you as a rate confirmation for your yes or no, so the plan is always yours to accept or change.

Plan my next OTR run

EXAMPLE · Atlanta to Phoenix and the reload toward home, four days

BOARD 02MULTI-DAY TRIP STRIP

A multi-day run, drawn day by day on one strip

Here's an EXAMPLE four-day run from Atlanta to Phoenix and back toward home. Each row is a day: driving in green, other on-duty time in amber, where the 10-hour break lands, and how much of the 70-hour cycle is left after it. Move the slider to change how many cycle hours you'd already used before the trip, and watch what happens when the cycle can't cover the last day.

MULTI-DAY TRIP STRIP · 70 HR / 8 DAYSEXAMPLE

Cycle hours already used before this trip20 hr

DAY 1
10:30 DRIVE · 560 MI · Loaded in Atlanta 06:00, rolling west.
10-HR BREAK: TRUCK STOP, RESERVED SPOT
70-HR LEFT AFTER
37:00
DAY 2
10:30 DRIVE · 575 MI · Through Texas; 30-minute break at a fuel stop.
10-HR BREAK: REST AREA WITH TRUCK PARKING
70-HR LEFT AFTER
24:30
DAY 3
10:00 DRIVE · 540 MI · Delivered Phoenix 15:00. Reload booked today, while still loaded.
10-HR BREAK: RECEIVER'S LOT, OVERNIGHT ALLOWED
70-HR LEFT AFTER
11:30
DAY 4
7:00 DRIVE · 380 MI · Reload picks up near the receiver and runs toward home.
10-HR BREAK: HOME BASE
70-HR LEFT AFTER
2:30

EXAMPLE run; parking types are generic, not real businesses. Assumes the hours used before the trip fall within the same 8 days. 60/70-hour limit and 34-hour restart per 49 CFR 395.3(b)-(c).

That's the difference between booking a load and planning a trip. When the cycle is going to run short, the restart gets planned on day one, in a place you'd actually choose to spend 34 hours, and the reload gets timed around it. Discovering it on day three, in a town with no freight, costs you two days.

BOARD 03THE 70-HOUR CYCLE

How we plan around your 70-hour limit

The 60/70-hour limit is a rolling total: you can't drive after 70 hours on duty in any 8 consecutive days (or 60 in 7, if your carrier doesn't run every day), under 49 CFR 395.3(b). On a long run it's the limit that quietly ends weeks. Every day you drive, the oldest day in your window drops off and today's hours go on, so the number you have tomorrow depends on what you worked eight days ago.

We ask for your recap every morning, the hours you'll get back at midnight, and plan the next two or three days against it. Some weeks the recap keeps you rolling and a restart isn't worth the 34 hours. Other weeks a restart at the right place resets the cycle and sets up a strong next week. We show you the math both ways and you choose. The 70-hour / 8-day rule, explained

The one thing we never do with the cycle is spend it to the last minute. A plan that ends a week with 20 minutes left on the 70 is a plan that breaks the first time a receiver makes you wait. We keep a cushion, so a slow dock costs you some time, not a violation or a load you can't legally finish.

D19h
D211h
D30h
D412h
D513h
D612.5h
D70h
D89h

EXAMPLE 8 DAYS · 66.5 OF 70 USED · DAY 1 DROPS OFF AT MIDNIGHT AND ITS 9 HR COME BACK

BOARD 04PARKING & RESETS

Parking and resets: where the trip plan meets the road

Truck parking is the part of OTR planning most dispatchers skip, and it's where drivers get pushed into bad choices. When the 14-hour window is closing and the only legal spot is 40 miles back, a plan that ignored parking turns into a stressful evening, or worse.

So we plan each 10-hour break before the day starts: a truck stop with reserved parking when the route goes through busy corridors, a rest area with truck spaces on quieter stretches, a shipper or receiver lot when they allow overnight parking. We leave slack in the day so you reach the spot with time to spare, and if traffic or a slow dock eats the slack, we re-plan the break location while you drive.

Resets get the same care. A 34-hour restart (49 CFR 395.3(c)) is best spent at home, and second best somewhere with food, showers and freight nearby for the next load. We plan your last loads of the week toward home when home time is due, and toward a strong freight market when a restart on the road can't be avoided.

Truck stop, reservedBusy corridors, late arrivals

Rest area truck spacesQuieter stretches, early stops

Shipper or receiver lotOnly where overnight is allowed

HomeWhere restarts belong

BOARD 05THE RELOAD

Why the reload gets booked before you deliver

On a long run, the worst hours of the week are the ones spent empty in a market you don't know, scrolling a board after a delivery with half your window gone. Booking the reload while you're still loaded fixes most of that. The broker conversation happens while the truck is earning, the reload pickup can be timed to start right after your 10-hour break, and you never take a cheap load just because you're sitting.

It also lets us choose direction on purpose. Freight flows unevenly across the country: some markets ship far more than they receive, and some receive far more than they ship. A reload out of a strong outbound market pays better and keeps the next load easy. A delivery into a weak one needs a plan before you get there.

BOARD 06A WEEK OF DECISIONS

A week of OTR decisions, made early

EXAMPLE, one owner-operator with a 53 ft reefer, based near Atlanta, out about 10 days at a time. Day 1: the outbound to Phoenix is booked with the restart question already answered, because the recap shows the cycle will cover the trip. Day 2: a slow fuel line eats an hour, so tonight's break moves from a busy truck stop to a rest area 30 miles earlier with open spaces. Day 3: delivered in Phoenix, and the reload toward Dallas was confirmed that morning. Day 6: the cycle is getting thin, so the next load is chosen to end near a city with good freight, and the 34-hour restart happens there instead of somewhere empty. Day 9: the final two loads point home. Every one was a rate con the driver confirmed first.

OTR dispatch fits owner-operators and small fleets who run multi-day trips and want the whole trip planned around their hours, parking and home time, not just a stream of loads.

BOARD 07HOME TIME & THE DESK

Home time on OTR runs, planned backward from the day you choose

OTR doesn't have to mean disappearing for three weeks. Tell us your home time pattern, out 2 weeks and home 4 days, out 10 days and home 3, whatever works, and we plan the trips backward from it. The final loads before home time are chosen for where they deliver, not just what they pay, so you're not 600 miles out on the day you promised to be home.

If home time has to move, because a reload fell through or the weather closed a pass, you hear it from us early, with the new plan and the reason, not on the morning you expected to be in your driveway. You can always say no to a load that would push home time back.

What an OTR dispatcher handles

Trip plans, not load lists

Daily legs, breaks and parking planned for the whole run before you start.

Cycle tracking

Your recap checked every morning, with restarts planned early when the 70 is running short.

Reloads before delivery

The next load booked while you're still loaded, so you don't sit in a strange market.

Home-time routing

The last loads of each run aimed at home on the day you need to be there.

All the calls

Broker calls, check calls, detention claims and paperwork, every day of the trip.

What OTR dispatch costs

Long runs don't change the fee. One truck with authority older than 6 months pays 5% of gross, a new MC pays 7% for its first 6 months, and fleets of 2 or more trucks pay the 4% fleet rate while it lasts. There's no setup fee, no minimum, no contract, and no fee on a week you don't haul. A trip that takes ten days to plan well costs exactly what a one-day load does. Full pricing

BOARD 08FAQ

We ask for your recap each morning and plan the next few days against the hours you'll actually have. When the 70-hour cycle is going to run short, we plan a 34-hour restart in advance, at home if possible or in a good freight market, and time the reload around it.

Long runs, planned from the first mile to home

Apply in about 2 minutes. 5% standard, 7% new MC, 4% fleets.

Plan my OTR week