Trip planning question

Discussion in 'Questions From New Drivers' started by Mark_2wain, Feb 4, 2017.

  1. TripleSix

    TripleSix God of Roads

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    600 miles/day. Thursday at 0800. Driving a mega fleet truck and having your hand held and told where to fuel.

    Largecar on elogs, Wednesday morning running safely. There's nothing safe about being governed at 60 mph
     
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  3. Moosetek13

    Moosetek13 Road Train Member

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    I think people get madder at me for not cutting other drivers off as I pass them, but giving them a little more room before I come back in. (And really, there is no good reason to be driving slower than a Swift truck... is there?)
    Or for getting out and looking when I am backing in tight quarters, just so I don't tear up the equipment on both sides.

    Sometimes other drivers actually like it when they are passing me at +1mph, and I actually drop my speed by 3 to let them get by more quickly.

    Not all Swift drivers are jerks.
     
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  4. Coover

    Coover Road Train Member

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    Not saying all are jerks, but I've witnessed one trying to take out toll booth on 476 Lansdale PA interchange. Had numerous trailers with fresh damage, non working lights, missing mudflaps, broken landing gear, that was caused by them on a dedicated account in Pottsville PA.
    I thank you for actually being a professional for stating what you do above. Hopefully it rubs off on some of your Co workers ;-)
     
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  5. Moosetek13

    Moosetek13 Road Train Member

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    One could only hope.
     
  6. scottied67

    scottied67 Road Train Member

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    You may not have a GPS but at the very least plug in the cities to google maps to see routes.
     
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  7. Mark_2wain

    Mark_2wain Light Load Member

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    Whoever said this is for trucking school was right. I'll be using maps and GPS and taking into account road conditions, time of day, weather, etc when I'm on my own. This is just something we need to be able to do to pass the test.
     
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  8. CrappieJunkie

    CrappieJunkie Wishin' I was fishin'

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    I always planned at 50 mph for 10 hours, easier to figure the numbers and allows for traffic, weather, etc. Assuming a full 70 and no huge traffic delays, Friday.
     
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  9. STexan

    STexan Road Train Member

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    Simple assuming you have plenty of hours on your 70 and assuming you like to pull out every day at the same time ...
    How many hours will you drive in a day? i.e what is your preferred driving style?
    But if you like to comfortably drive 10 hours a day, then you'll run roughly 600 miles a day barring any weather delays that can't be overcome by driving an additional hour that day.

    So, 2,500/600 = 4.16 days ... so you'll get there very early into your 5th day of travel. However, this changes if you're truly concerned about speed and you break only 10 hours each day, then immediately pulling out, meaning every day, you can "gain time" over the course of the trip. Lot's of guys don't like running this way long term. They prefer to begin every day at the same time. Crossing time zones affects the calculation too but you can figure this out when you get down to the nitty gritty later on.

    This is just one of maybe half dozen ways to estimate (calculate) ETA, the method you choose will depend on just how exact an ETA you need to compute. As a rule of thumb for cross-country trips and assuming upcoming hours are not an issue from day to day, I generally figure 640 miles/day, and can "gain" 2 hours every day if needed by rolling out right at the 10 hour mark and not using more then 12 hours to complete each day's tour.
     
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  10. pattyj

    pattyj Road Train Member

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    You should get to your destination late tri night.You should average at least 500 miles a day but thats if you don't have any snags along the way.
     
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  11. Moosetek13

    Moosetek13 Road Train Member

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    Although if you roll out at the 10 hour mark you leave no time for your pretrip.
    You have to log a pretrip, don't you?
     
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