Where do you find the time?!

Wow.

I thought I would be flamed for being so lazy.

As to dock time...
Plus-1 only seems to give 30 minutes for a drop or hook, but we all know that it can take at least an hour sometimes.

Scaling is another thing you have to keep in mind.
15 minutes, if you are lucky.
But if you have a line at the scale or if you have to slide and re-scale, it can take upwards of 45 minutes.

Heck, just checking the route, writing down the load info, reading the qcom messages...
It all takes time that Plus-1 does not figure in.

 

Hey Leaper - part of what you are experiencing is the normal learning process that all of us have been through. The important thing to remember is NOT to commit to a load that you cannot safely or legally pick up or deliver on time. You want to avoid getting service failures....
An important note for you - whenever you don't like the PTA that has been generated (or if you aren't sure what your PTA is) then send in Macro 34 to fix it. If you are under dispatch, make sure that you provide an accurate ETA as well. If you are not under dispatch, set your ETA and PTA to whatever times you wish and they will get revised in the system.
While I am at it, I'll throw another idea out to you. There are 2 ways to run your clock every week.... Some people try to maximize their drive time every day, and drive 10-11 hrs per day. At the end of the week, they run out of hrs on their 70 hr clock and take a 34 hr reset. Other drivers run 8-9 hrs per day, and never take a 34 hr reset until they get home. You can experiment with both, and see which works better for you and your teammate.

 

Like some others here have said, you have to be the one to control your time, and not let Plus-1 run it. If you let that system control you, you will not have the time. There is much fr8 that is drop and Plus-1 will treat it like a appt. Before you accept pplan, figure out time that you can stop if need, shower, laundry. You will find many times that when you say no to a pplan and put in your times for pu and del, it will be sent back with the times that you asked for. I have seen JIT loads with 3 days to deliver, when it can be done in 1.5 and it is a drop.

As to what Tapeworm said, I am one of those that run my 8 hours a day. Every now and then I might push, but not ofter. Even when starting to bump my 70, as long as hours to run, I will run, especially if I know that I am picking up hours at midnight. Very seldom will I take a 34 on the road. When I do, it is a place that is going to be of my choosing. this is from a Lease Operator, and I am doing just fine with it.

 

Well, since it's not really explained to you when you go solo, and it seems the mentors are slacking as well...

I met a new driver in Laredo a couple months back. He had the same problem of feeling like he was always on the edge of not enough of anything.
Not enough time to plan trips, not enough time to eat or sleep, not enough time to get there in time.
He was very happy to have his truck in the shop for a few days, just so he could get some much needed rest.

You have to make the time to do the things you need, and let the planners work around it.
Not the other way around.
Because there is no good reason that they can not plan things with just a little more time. Very few loads are last minute decisions, yet we seem to get the load assignments at the very last second.

 

Yep , you gotta make the time and plan ahead for showers / wal mart etc. -
When you fuel up check to see if there are showers available , if yes then
park and get one , heck your already there ...( works best during the day when
stops aren't so crowded ) and if you've had a shower earlier then spending the
night at a rest area or a parking lot is a lot easier ( mentally ) .

Get a list of terminal locations , you could be driving right by or parked
near one and not even know it , well that was the case for me anyway lol .

A laptop or similar device will help with finding a walmart in a strange town
Probably want to avoid peak hours to make it easier to get in and out.

 

Agree 100 % . I've had a couple that been available for 2 days and they
want me to deliver at breakneck speed with no time to stop for anything .
I declined them with 12 / 25 as the ETA and put " planners sat on it for to long "
as the reason.
Haven't heard a peep .

 

I'll have to try that one.

 

Are you getting preplanned a lot while still under your current load? When you go to accept using Macro 9 just pump the pick up time out by a couple hours or so or just decline the load if you feel like a day or half day off once in a while.

If you empty out somewhere with no preplan just set your PTA about 12-20-34 (or whatever you need) hours out instead of 10.