Trip Planning

Go to a truck stop. Get a Rand McNally Motor Carrier Road Atlas. Learn how to read it... it's not as easy as it sounds if you've never had to "read" a map before, it's not all pictures. Learn which roads on that map that a truck can drive, because that will help determine the speed and distance you'll have to actually travel legally.

Pick a destination, major city, interesting tourist spot, whatever. Check out the miles between those points. Using the guide at the top of that Atlas, figure out the mileage from starting point to the nearest point to your destination. Go to the next map page that holds the next state you have to pass through, do the same. Add them all up, figure out your approximate total mileage (or you could use the table of distances in the Atlas that has mileages from major cities to major cities in states, or Google maps, or GPS to get the miles number.)

Now, divide that number by the legal approx speed that you can drive a vehicle. This means you have to know how fast your "truck" can go, legally. Then pad it, if the max speed you can go is 62 mph (most likely for you) then figure for traffic, construction, etc.. and use either 50 or 55 mph as the speed you'll use to calculate with. Divide Total approximate miles by total approximate speed, and get the answer. Realize the higher the speed that you use, the less time you're allowing yourself to get there, and will have to meet that speed to meet your calculations goal.

Next take that number and divide by either the maximum hours you intend to drive per day, or the maximum hours period up to the maximum of 11 hours. That answer will then give you the number of days at that number of hours you will be driving to get there.

Now in that time frame figure out how many 10 hour resets you will be making, where you will be stopping for those 10 hour resets within the legal amount of hours per day you can drive within the legal 11/14 hour window. Also figure out approximately where you will want to fuel up, preferably at the start or end of that 10 hour reset period.

That's trip planning. Now, you have to stick to that planning because that's what you're committing yourself to when you accept a load or not because you're basing on those calculations and assumptions. A lot of time, this is where drivers and dispatcher have a conflict. You need to stick to your guns when you find numbers you can live with that safely and timely allows you to deliver freight.

 

most company trucks are governed around 62mph so to be safe they will have u trip plan between 53-58 mph. Schnieder has a form they use for trip planning class during orienation, when u get to school they will go over it..but do like caxpt said on u can just about figure it out. Make sure its the Motor carrier edition with laminated pages it will last longer plus their cheap around this time of year

 

I made corrections to my post up there while you were reading it. You're correct the 50-55 can be skewed. That's why you need to pick what's best for you. I use a combination of speeds, I figure for 45 mph to account for city traffic and construction. The slower the speed, the more time you allow yourself. When you accept a load, you're giving your word you can make it in that time frame. This means off duty time, has to meet those parameters that you set for yourself, etc.... so what you need to do is practice with different number sets, and no, they are all self-directed "tests". After several, you'll start figuring it out in your head the more familiar you become with the roadways, truckstops, truck speed...etc.

The 45 figure helps if you have any "unforseen" maintenance needs as you go. Tire blowouts, and other road hazard incidents. It helps because it gives you excess time and almost guarantees you'll be early for the load delivery... so the plan you make should be a kind of worst-case scenario... so that if anything happens you have buffer time built-in and if you are late, hopefully it minimizes the amount of time you'll be late. It's a guideline and what you're telling someone you can make it in, so the better planning you have, the less likely you'll be unpleasantly surprised/stressed when things happen.

 

The bot stopped my link paste for you to the nearest major truck stop to Huntsville that would have an Atlas for you. Here's my notepad fixed one.

Try there or here.

 

You need to check to see if you will be going over mountains. If you are very heavy that can really slow you down.

When you are planning where to spend the night, have a backup plan or two. It's not fun when you are almost out of time and the truckstop is full. It's almost impossible to find parking in some big cities at any time of the day, especially after 5.

You need to know where you will go after the delivery if you don't already have another load or if you are really short on time.

 

When doing a trip plan, if heading towards say Atlanta at 4:00 PM and you only have two hours left of drive time, would you take a two or three hour break to let traffic down and then finish your drive time or would you just keep driving until out of drive time and then take your ten hour break?

 

If you have hours left on your 14, maybe. If you have to deliver, you're screwed, because by the time you get to your deliver point, they unload you, unless you plan to park there, you won't make it to a Truckstop in time. Atlanta is BAD for planning tight schedules.

 

I use 50 miles an hour as a rule of thumb. I am in a 62mph truck. I plan on 500 miles a day. I break it into segments, 3 hrs, 4hrs, and another 3 hrs. That leaves me an extra hour of drive time for the unexpected.

Usually I am ahead of the game so I end up ahead of where I plan, I always either have a back up stopling point about 40-50 miles ahead or I just stop and save time on my clocks.

However you do it PLAN! As others have said, nothing sucks harder than trying to find somewhere to park after a long day when you are tired and out of time... my personal record with the elog, I parked with 3 minutes of drive time left. That is way too close for comfort. If there had not been a spot in that rest area, I would have been screwed.