Good Night From II

Fuel routes and routing in general is predicated on saving miles, even if it is only one mile. This is why your route will often taking you on the scenic route through small towns, stop lights, and narrow mountain passes on 2 lane highways when any sane trucker would stay on the interstate to use less fuel and get there faster.

My second load running solo ran from Longmont, CO to Logan, UT. From Little America the sane trucker would run I-80 west to I-84 to bypass Salt Lake City and then north on I-15 to catch the 89 into Logan. However, the route given for shortest miles got off the I-80 on the 30 just west of Little American, then caught the 89 at Big Bear Lake to go through 8% grades, 15 mph suggested turns, through a slot canyon with hundreds of camp grounds. I ran the route as suggested and barely made my appointment. While it was pretty it was a technical challenge and burned more of my hours than was necessary.

Last December I had a load from LA to Pueblo, CO. Fuel route had me going north on I-15 to take I-70 to Grand Junction, then get on the 50 all the way to Pueblo. Pretty route, but why would any sane trucker want to run that in the middle of winter let alone summer? I called dispatch in Barstow and told them I was going to run east on I-40 then north on I-25. They said to go ahead and just reopt the fuel plan when I got to Albuquerque. Interesting that all the way on the I-40 the Qualcomm navigation system kept wanting to route me off I-40 north on two lane roads until I was within 100 miles of Albuquerque.

Your hours are your asset. Use them wisely. If that means to use your noggin to figure out the fastest way to get there, then fuel route be ######.

 

if you want the qc nav to stop that rerouting nonsense, just put in a truckstop on the route you want to go on. i've had a few loads that wanted to go on the 50, i just put in the flying j in albuquerque nm and stop for fuel and coffee. then continue on

 

jurupa valley terminal. my fuel guage was driving me nuts this morning. had 1/4 tank when i left vegas and was fueling at flying j in barstow. got 27 miles into trip, when i noticed guage had dropped halfway between 1/4 and yellow mark. about 110 to go, yellow light and buzzard came on. by time i hit barstow, it was almost on the empty line. i ended up putting 170 gallons in, so i still had 30 gallons in it.drove me freaking nuts. thought about stopping for fuel a few times but kept fingers crossed and kept going. in all my driving career, i've ran out of fuel once, and that was driving for coca cola and had ran out in the left hand turn lane right in front of the valencia sheriff station. few that drove by, always stopped to see what was wrong lol

 

Sweetwater, TX. I was hoping that this 2232 del was weird so asked and was told that it is a firm. I am going to call customer in morning and see if take early. If not, then sit here and twiddle my thumbs all day.

 

Tuscumbia, AL. planner called from Decatur asking me to come get loaded here on a late dispatch. Once I got here there wasn't anyone in shipping to talk to. Probably sitting until tomorrow to get loaded.

 

Sounds like a lot of sitting these days.

My 2200 pick up for tonight cancelled at 1930, and I've been sitting here since 0030 this morning.
No pplan yet.
At least I hadn't gone on duty yet.

 

What ticks me off, they took me off a 1800 mile load to give me a 630, and no reason, not even that they did it.

 

Well, I'm not planning on waiting up all night for a load.
I set my PTA for tomorrow morning, which will give me a 34 hour reset.

 

Mullinville KS, first real load for Swift, got truck Friday, did a couple shag loads and a Wally World run from ABQ to El Paso, headed for Centralia MO

 

True that. I just wanted to be entertained by the constant Rerouting and see what kind of nonsense it was coming up with!

By the way, I think the suggested route saved about 50 miles, but even Google Maps running 4-wheel times shows it is 2-3 hours longer (depending on traffic) and the cost of fuel and time in a big rig would be even greater than that.

The moral of the story is to always look at the Preview of the overall route on Qualcomm and compare it to what makes the most sense for fuel and time efficiency. Sure, if I'm not in a rush and the weather is fine I might enjoy taking these "Qualcomm Vacations", but not when I'm out here trying to make a delivery on time or make money.