How Many Miles Do Auto Transport Carriers Drive in One Day?

1. Know How Many Miles Do Auto Transport Carriers Drive in One Day
2. Laws and Regulations Must Be Followed
3. How Does This Affect You?
4. These Limitations Are Necessary

Know How Many Miles Do Auto Transport Carriers Drive in One Day

Auto transport carriers try their hardest to make sure that your vehicle is delivered in a timely manner and as soon as possible. However, one of the limitations of ground transportation is that the amount of time that it takes for your vehicle to be delivered largely depends on how far an auto transport driver can drive during a 24 hour period before having to get some sleep.

As you will see, it's not always up to the drivers themselves. Here's some more information:

Laws and Regulations Must Be Followed

Even if a driver thinks that he or she can keep driving all day and night in order to make deliveries and pickups, it's actually not allowed. That's because there are various federal regulations that must be followed.

More specifically, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, also known as the FMCSA, has explicitly stated in Section 395 of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations that there's a 14-hour driving window that has to be adhered to. In Section 395.3(a)(2), it's stated that "You are allowed a period of 14 consecutive hours in which to drive up to 11 hours after being off duty for 10 or more consecutive hours (//www.fmcsa.dot.gov/regulations/title49/part/395)." After the 14-consecutive-hour period has been reached, the driver must be off for 10 consecutive hours before being allowed to drive again.

In addition, the FMCSA has created hours-of-service regulations that state that a driver cannot be on the road for more than 8 consecutive hours without taking a rest period of at least 30 minutes. This means that, within the 14-hour window, a driver can drive 11 hours in total, but cannot drive for longer than 8 consecutive hours without an off-duty or sleeper-berth period of at least 30 minutes.

How Does This Affect You?

Because of these limitations, drivers usually average around 400 miles per day. It can be less due to bad weather or an abundance of pickups and deliveries that have to be made. If your vehicle needs to be transported from one end of the country to another, it can take upwards of 10 days as a result.

These Limitations Are Necessary

While having faster ground transportation times would be ideal, the truth of the matter is that these regulations are necessary to protect the safety of not only the drivers but also the general public. If a driver happens to fall asleep on the road because of driving an ungodly amount of consecutive hours, that puts other people at risk, not to mention your own vehicle. And, while it can be hard to enforce these regulations, any driver that is caught violating them can have his or her commercial driver's license revoked or suspended, not to mention also being given a large fine.

Always try to plan ahead if you're in need of auto transport services. Contact A-1 Auto Transport today for your free no obligation quote! We'll do our best to meet your auto transport needs.