How to Plan a Road Trip?

With 2 years experience,

have you just been faking it ????

 

won't be to comical when that biotch on the gps gets his arse lost

 

Directions from a Comical GPS:

"Turn..... LEFT at the next corner, DUMBA&&."

"No, wait... turn RIGHT at the next corner."

"Now make a U-turn and go the right way."

"Smile and....WAVE at the next corner, you have an audience."

The Entrepreneur in me says there's money in this idea SOMEWHERE...

 

I am newbie and think this question is outstanding. Many newbies learn how to drive, go through the experience of learning the rules and do all the learning of the "critical" items. However, I think that the newbies aren't given enough trianing on how to be successful / remain successful throughout the venture of their training period. For the most part, I think a lot of the trainers out there are basically testing the newbie on whether they can drive, or not. To more extreme degrees, I think that a few trainers are out there just to make the additional money, hours of service, and etc. I think this is a great question and I too would like to know a little more about trip planning, effecient use of drive time, effecient use of stops, etc.

 

I see,

overseas experience is really different. So you have less than 1 year HERE .

Well, Good Luck to you Driver !!!

 

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZXM_g3mqew[/ame]

That all depends upon the trainer. A 90-day wonder still ain't figured trip planning out for himself, which he's had to do because he was trained by a 90-day wonder who was still struggling with his own shifting, who was never taught how to properly shift because his 90-day wonder trainer didn't shift any better. Not to mention, most of the larger outfits send you the route they want you to take over the qualcomm, along with where to fuel and how much fuel to buy at each fuel stop....so you really don't have to know what you are doing out here, as long as you do as you're told.

A trainer who had any real time in this industry would have made a point to cover trip planning, etc.

 

When I used to go o.t.r. a lot more. I would look online at the fuel stops along my route. I made it a habit to stop at the hook. they alway's had the lowest fuel price, usually by far. they had large parking area's & nice bathrooms/showers. I would check their fuel prices & know where I wanted to stop to get their best price. I would also do everything at one stop when I could. eat, fuel, shower, nap. e.t.c. I would go on truckstop.com & look at their route & compare it always with my atlas.

even in the best weather, if I knew my timing would put me in an area where all the truck stop would be full at a particular time, I would leave 3-4 hours earlier just to make it before dark & to have a better chance of finding a parking space.I only did this when I left out on sun for a 500 mile or so run. my plans would differ from place to place. when you get to know traffic conditions on some places ,you plan differently.

when I used to be on my way back home from white cloud, MI, or east Chicago area traveling back to north AL, I would drive to Whiteland IN. that would be my midpoint. I would stop for a few or several hours because leaving there at the wrong time for me would mean a few scales, & lot's of traffic in Louisvilly .ky, & Nashville tn. so I would stay at Whiteland til about dark 8- 9 p.m. & head out. no traffic, nice weather. cooler at night. seymore scales & others usually closed. just hit the cruise & have a nice nonstop drive, peace & quiet & get some good m.p.g. too. I would much rather sit at a truck stop waiting for all the traffic to die down, & the 4 wheelers to disperse then to arrive sooner at my destination but have to work the clutch,brakes, & gears every few seconds in heavy traffic.

I know some times you cannot really plan when to go. you just have to leave & get going, but when I can plan I do. I also would rather drive 50 miles more & out of the way to stay on the interstate, than do what some of my trucker friends do & drive on a 2-4 ln hiwy for 80 miles thru towns & traffic lights to save 20 miles off the trip. one example is when we loaded out of south bend IN. the shorter route back home was down hywy 31. I took that route a few times. never liked it. thru kokomo & other towns were red light city to me. I would take the longer but nonstop, cruise route of i-90-94 to 65 South.