Trip Planning

Use the GPS miles and you can mostly forget about the .1/.2 factor. And if you don't stop at every other truck stop and typically drive 63 MPH on the interstate, you can move your average speed up to a more realistic drive-time average such as 57 MPH.

THEN add in the appropriate amount of "lost driving around" time you may encounter or traffic delay time, etc on a per trip basis. Going from a small town to a small town, you probably won't "get lost". Say maybe 40 minutes ... or 30 minutes or whatever safety allowance you're comfortable with. Winter time, you will need to adjust your system based on forecasted Wx between you and your destination. Experience will be your best means of learning but in the mean time, don't be afraid to break it down into more probable times.

You will be better off using individual numbers rather then the way you're wanting to do it. But if you don't do a lot of "appointment work", you might can get away with always arriving an hour or two early, but with appointments and allowing to much "safety factor", you will end up buying too much of your 14, too often.

 

all i can say is that when ever i did a run, i always arrived earlier than the appointment.

do what you need to do, to not be late.

if that means leaving 1 to 3 hours earlier, then do so.

if that means to shorten your truck stop breaks, then do so.

if that means to take an exit to a back road, due to construction or an accident, then do so.

 

I've never been late either.its better to get to the receiver early then try and push it to make ontime delivery.It really depends where you're delivering on what time to leave.Like Dallas my appt was 7:30 am so I always left 3 to 4 hrs early from the trkstop in Calera,ok.

 

always give yourself that extra, like i was saying.

maybe i ought to type slower next time..???

 

If you start at 6am---
Your day ends around 6 (breaks, etc). 10hr break ends at 4am and you need minimum 5 more hours of drive time. ETA when starting that day at 4am would be 9-11am.

I always add 2 hours extra. (so the earliest would be 9am. With 2 extra hours it would be 11am)

 

Don't plan on a high moving average mph. I have a GPS that calculates that on each trip out from home, usually 15 or 16K miles each trip. I have never gotten over 56 mph overall average, and I run mostly nights, without traffic, at 63 mph. Running the way I do, I plan on 50 mph and I'm never late. It's hard to believe how those 45 mph construction zones, hills, and get on/ get off ramps to the truck stops affect your average. If you're running daylight hours, depending on what part of the country, your moving average can drop as low as 40 mph.

I run an app on my tablet for a GPS called Smart Truck Route. When I plan the route, I can zoom to the destination, go to satellite view, find the guard shack or loading dock and route directly to it. This way I can run the speed limit all the way to the consignee and that save a lot of time from missed turns. It also gives me a really accurate ETA. The trick to this business is knowing what cities to run through at night, although that's never a guarantee. Just last month I was running west on I-10 and in El Paso, they closed the Interstate and routed everyone through the surface streets and then around the loop. Lost over an hour on that one, so you really never know what to expect. I always use a 50 mph average and add an hour or two depending on what times I run through the cities. There is no exact science to this, it takes experience and luck...

 

just be able to do it...my qualcomm went out last week and I couldn't get other drivers directions or anything else. Just myself and my Atlas and calling customers.

 

Did it that way for many years...