Trip Planning for Newbies

If you log from a desk 1000 miles away from the real world it is.... Lot's of things can go haywire from this advice. They can bang on your door 5 hours from your break ending. They are ready to unload you. Now your unloaded and are told to leave. No where to park, so you crusie the big road.... Oh my logs just got someone runnin off the books... Or there is no restroom and in the middle of the night you get the green apple quick steps.... The only way to know for sure if they have parking and it will be available is too know the layout and after you have deliverd there you will know. You could try calling, but many times the number is bad or joe the janitor's girlfriend says sure come on down....

There is a big differnce in knowing the rules and knowing the ropes. Anyone can know the rules, but until you have slid down that rope you are spatting ideal situations. Trucking is anything ,but ideal...

 

I count on the customer banging on the sleeper wanting the load early. Personally I never log more then 15 minutes for unloading. I show pretrip and unloading as 30 minutes to start the day. Alot of the stuff you see here is not reality, and nobody wants to admit the the real world. I thinks its a plus to have a reciever or shipper want to get my truck moving. You can use your split for this. Log 2 hours sleeper, 30 or whatever to load or unload, then 8 sleeper. Good to go 10 hours meet customer & dot happy, time to get down the road.Just becareful of the 14 when using the 2 hour side of the split, it does not extend the 14.

 

When your starting out set your goals achieable you will quickly find out what you can drive safely. Normally if Im not loading or unloading just driving I would say 575 to 600 would be fairly normal mileage for running legal. When it comes to loading and unload freight, and driving your going to find you hours avalable to drive have been severly impacted by a fork-lift jockey that by all description really just does not care. Never let them see you sweat, or loose your cool this will just add to there control ego trip. When all is said and done most shippers will respond to you in simular to how you first approach them. This will have a effect on miles. The time stamp on your bill of laden is ultimately how everyone will decide what should be entered into your log book. Ask your employer when you can go off duty as far as loading. Theres more to it than just your logbook. Make sure if you fingerprint your load to leave time to grab a shower or meal before your ready to roll. When you tell a dispatcher your loaded that means to them ready to roll. So have your stuff together when you call. Example: Hello, This is Truck 543 Ralph, I'm loaded and scaled out, but hey I have to grab a shower and some munchies before I hit it, "Dispatch" OK, can you deliiver by Thursday at 13:00 in Ft.Wayne, Driver no but I can be there by Friday at 09:30, shipper used up my hours today messing with the load. "Dispatch" Roll em.
Do your homework before you call in and your life will get much easier, make sure you can do what ou comimt too

 

I know what youre saying, Mr Tarps, and I am in 100% agreement. Mr Logs however is just stating the regs. The successful criminal knows the law better than the cops and the most successful trucker knows the regs and can work wonders with the coloring book. Its like a crew chief on NASCAR...give him the rules and watch him earn his keep.

 

I use three items and seem to get along without incident. I have a PC Miler GPS, IPhone GPS and the standard RM Truckers Atlas. By useing all three to plan and execute my trips I have become very proficent in a short amount of time. The biggest help by far is the experience factor. As you learn who, what when and where you get much faster, better at trip execution.

 

it may not always work out this way , but plan you're route or at least try to plan it to where you're gonna get there ahead of time , try to take your last 10 hrs as close as you can to where you're gonna drop that tlr or kick that load off so you can mabe take that extended 10 hr brk depending on the priority of that load if it is a (at,on,or by-macro on your quallcom) either way , get it there early or be there on time , you're still coming off of a 10 hour brk so once you're done ,that gives you more driving time for the next load, it wont happen like that all the time but when it does ,its nice .

 

This is how it happens: I got to the shipper early, checked in at the gate and was told to wait until the beeper they gave me went off. Then I had to go in, get my dock number, find the dock and put my trailer in. Now I waited for them to load the trailer. 6 hours later, I get the beep that they're done, pull out of the dock, return the beepere, get my papers and now I'm told to get out of here. I'm now 2 hours over my 11, and 14, so I ask them where I can stay for my 10 hr break. They told me there was a Walmart Super Center 5 miles down that road, the trucks stay there all the time, no problem. So I hump down the road 5 miles and stay with 4 other trucks in that parking lot. Walmart is good, I can buy food, and they always have a clean bathroom. But I did have to drive illegal for those 5 miles. I think I logged it on line 4, otherwise I'd have a log violation from my carrier. I did take a 10 hr break at the walmart, just to be sure.

 

A small trick I use to simplify the driving time. Divide your total miles by 45 mph instead of 50. The 45 mph division will allow time for restroom breaks and fueling without trying to figure out how many you need each day. This has never failed me yet.

 

Not sure how much this helps but I found this video on youtube. [ame]http://youtu.be/7G5e2JHlLUo[/ame]

 

Attached are trip planning sheets we used at Schneider. There is a color coded example and a blank one. You might have to adjust the lower portion, depending on what your MAC18/Driver Status report macro looks like. This used to be the Schneider MAC18 we used in 2009. I don't know what other companies use to get the drivers stats every day.

You don't need to color it, just use pencil lines, thick, or thatched instead of colors. This is really helpful to visualize your plan. In my example blue is DOT break time, red is driving, and yellow is on duty not driving, for pre/post trip, loading/unloading, etc., green is off duty. I also used a black triangle (not in this example) to mark the end of the 14 hr day. Since I did fill everyting in pencil, it was easy to adjust every evening for what really happened along the trip (e.g. delays, traffic, etc.), and then readjust the MAC18 for the next morning. This is one of the good things we learned from Schneider helped me to stay legal.

I created this sheet using MS Visio, and Excel, then I printed it to a PDF. If you'd like the Visio, and Excel files, ask - give me your e-mail, and I'll send it to you.