bad experience due to poor trip planning advice?

well the place was closed. not everywhere we deliver stays open 24 hours.

MY company is CRST. We are expanding our fleet by 25 trucks a month so i don't see us going under anytime soon. i plan to stay with them for along time actually. They are a great company. They take care of the equipment top notch.

I am a steering wheel holder in reality. But since i have a company that wants to help its drivers im not a real driver? i drive the same roads as everyone else. I am new to the industry so yes i am a greenhorn. less then 2 months experience. ill learn more.

I know how to figure mileage. i know how to plan trips. I can do all that i just don't need to now. Honestly all that is easy stuff. The confusing part is the gas tax. I mean you have to pay so much tax every quarter or you have to pay in at the end of the year. every state is different.

 

Nice to have someone doing your trip planing and swaping out drivers. But what you going to do when there's construction and 3am in the morning and your co driver has driven their hrs out and are sleeping and you have to find your way or sit for the next 3 hrs in constuction and your going to be late.

All of you all, please dont relie on a gps or someone else to do what you should be doing yourself. What are you going to do if you loose that job and the next company doesnt do all that babysitting you and you dont have a co driver???
Get a map book and learn how to use it, PLEASE!!!

 

good lord what did I ever do with out GPS. oh yea I knew how to read a map and had one or three.
Simething else I did was at the start of the trip I called the consignee and asked the best way in and out before I ever left the shipper. See back in them days the load planner was the driver. When I could I left a day earlier than i thought I needed to. Trucking happens if it did I had time to deal with it. Don't get me wrong I was late ALOT but alot of times it wasn't on me it was getting away from the dock late that set me back most of the time.


As for you telling your story that was great but you don't know who reads this forum. so you might not want to tell the story in such vivid detail if you know what i mean

 

Trip planning is not the easiest thing to learnbut with practice it gets easier. Use whatever technology you like but don't disregard the "old stuff". Hi-tech breaks alla time.

But bud, like the guys told you, make time to get your rest. Your family deserves you in good health.

 

Exactly Kitty foot thank you

You too Drifter and all the hands that know!!

 

i really dont think i could make the adjustment to being a usb or plug in driver
to have somebody tell me where to fuel--where to sleep--which road to take--that wouold drive me crazyand then drive an automatic truck with lane departure and all the other gizmos---i am sure i would have a nervous breakdown
thats one reason i love driviing is for the freedom--nobody looking over my shoulder--(well not to much looking)

 

I learned a great trick about trip planning where you take a page from an old log book and use the lines 1-4 as days.

So if you have a 4 day trip you can plot your time ahead on the time line guesstimating your breaks and stops of course, but you'll be pretty close on your 10 hour breaks and stuff. A good way to figure if you have enough hours even to make it to the final destination and approximately what time of day you will be there.

Some more back of the envelope math is to take the miles for the trip and double it for you time. Like 1000 miles doubled is 20000 or you could say 20 hours. Or 500 miles is 1000 or 10 hours etc. I had 45 hours available and a 2000 mile offer, so quickly figured I had enough hours as 40 is the minimum number to suffice.

 

it's FUEL TAX.... unless your driving your four wheeler...

And toss that GPS... since those things have become popular there are dozens of trucks everyday traveling on residential streets here in my hometown clipping signs, taking down tree limbs and generally causing traffic problems.

Destroying three tires on your first trip should be a clue as to how reliable they are compared to a phone call in advance of delivery.

 

In response to this, while it's true that I don't know who reads this, I assume everybody does. I haven't mentioned anybody's name here, not even that of my company. Therefore, if they are reading this, and they have a problem with one of their truckers seeking out advice to perform his duties better and more efficiently, then there's something very wrong with the company.

 

There is nothing wrong with using a GPS for time calculation, miles and route. I started making more money when I used one. I got better fuel mileage, and more fuel bonuses. I know how to read a map. I also pretty much know what lanes I want to run anyway. Telling someone not to use technology is like telling a caveman keep rubbing two sticks together. Don't be using a lighter.