In school, Time Management

Once you get a handle on managing your 14, the 70 will be the same in regards to how you manage your time, other than needing to look multiple days into the future to determine how far you can get in x days

 

Knowing were the truck stops are from years of driving is a big help.

I would plan on driving 500-550 miles day. So you just look 500-550 miles down the road and see wear you will be and look for a truck stop. Then you have your goal for the day. Before ELDs you could plan on 600 miles a day but now you have to use real world numbers and those can change depending on traffic, and how fast your truck can go. It even changes if you heavy load or light load.

If your driving longer trips 1,200+ miles you can up the daily miles to 550 or 600. Because you average truck only goes 65 so you could plan on averaging 60 MPH or 600 miles a day

 

Good luck with backing maneuvers! Not as easy as it looks. I only have 1 other student attending night class with me so we get a lot of time working on our offset and ally doc. Only 3 weeks in to class and we already out on the road. How many students in your class? I hope you get enough time practicing.

 

First yes you can be fined for violations of the FMCSA HOS requlations as well as being placed out of service if your caught out of hours. Next point, as a company driver you are going to be confronted with pickup and delivery times all over the clock. You are going to also have times when your facing being detained. Because of these things there is no one size fits all solution to this. Finding that solution for YOU will take time. Just be flexible and ask around about best places to park. Truck stops in a general sense are not a parking option much after about 7PM each evening. Around midnight in most of them it is hard to even use the cat scale because of how drivers are parked. Your first year will be interesting. As you can see I am not giving you a specific answer. I can't. These situations change daily.

 

Trip planning is something they never really show good I'm my opinion. Because people think it not needed but what you learn from trip planning is the miles in lots of states and that makes trip planning easy. If I want to from Youngstown Ohio to Chicago. I know from trip planning before it's 220 miles in Ohio and 156 miles in Indiana for 376 miles plus another 50 miles or something to Chicago.

We used to get out the paper road atlas and write down the miles for every state your trip would take you on. So you have the miles to state line and you could figure out if I drive 550 miles that would put me someplace in the middle of a state. You have find a truck stop in the middle of the state or before. Today you can use GPS and it will tell you how far the truck stop is but you have to know where the truck stops are

 

Keep us updated how your backing is working out. Maybe you can give me some pointers if you are finding it easier than I am finding it.

 

I plan at 35 mph in the NE, and 45 out west.

You do not get into your 70 hours limit until about 25 hours left, at that point you already are telling dispatcher you are running short on hours as if he does not already know this.

I have delivered loads in the past where it happens right at the 70th hour. And then PC off paper logs to truckstop. That kind of precision does not happen too often.

I have run out of daily hours two hours before delivery later that day and called it in, quitting for the day and get a new legal appointment time for next morning.

If you come out of Nashville (Crashville) on 65, you are pretty much knowing there will be a wreck, just hoping it wont be a fatal. if it is, then they close the entire interstate and put you off onto state routes. The last time it happened to me it lasted 6 hours sitting still moving about 5 miles total. We scrubbed the rest of the day and pulled into the old 76 there. Appt time was reschedled and tomorrow (Midnight) is a new day)

If you are caught over your 70, it's OOS against you, fines against you etc. Same with the daily hour limits. When it's done you are done.

The problem with ELD's is that you generally cannot move a big truck anywhere without that stupid computer crying about violations. So instead of driving 10 hours and 30 min then looking for a place to park, you start looking for a place at 8 hours. The moment you find a spot, pull in and get yourself a dinner you are done.

Why? Everyone seems to be pulling in early evening filling the truckstops up rather than getting out of daily hours in a parking lot somewhere being hassled. It slows everything down nationally excepting teams. (They get slowed down too but that's a side track)

Once you run around the USA long enough you will get a idea that I can for example leave little rock and make Knoxville in 10 hours. Finding a parking spot is problemmatic so there is a alternative at Cumberland Plateau. Then get to roughly Martinsburg with a alternative at Whites on the I-81 205. And so on. 4 days to CA or 3 days to Boston. Or as a team do a round trip between LA to Avenel and back in 6 and some hours days. That is pretty much maxing the 70 for both drivers.

The trick was never stopping where possible. It's a conflict with today's ELD making you stop.

The rest of it I wont want to get into because in my day, paper logs were easily cartoons as long you don't have toll tickets, fuel reciepts or BOL with stamped date and times that makes a liar of that paper log.

 

The thing about trip planning is understanding that in this business the best well planned trip can and frequently does go south. You can plan on getting to the Atlanta Petro at 4PM and this is OK. However what are you going to do if that shipper in Memphis eats into your 14 or there is a fatal accident on US 78 or I 20 and you are forced to sit in stopped traffic for 2 hours. Only a foolish person does not trip plan especially going into an area you have no experience with. However what is more foolish is doing that trip plan putting it away like it is gospel. Crap happens. YOU have to understand sometimes you are going to be forced into bad situations. Getting through these bad situations without busting hours or a preventable accident is what separates the professional driver from a steering wheel holder. You MUST be flexible in these situations. Also the MPH you use to figure trip time must take into consideration not only place but also time of day and year.

 

Always over estimate the time it takes to get there.
Dont drive through major cities at peak times .I myself drive nighta.I dont worry about any issues except for seeing ufos.