Making your day efficient

@TripleSix is spot on. The less stops you make, the more time you'll save. I don't stop the truck unless, It's my mandatory 30 minutes (most of the time, I time that so that I can take it at my delivery or pick to save more time, we do mostly drop & hook) I'm delivering, picking up or taking my 10. I bug my dispatcher for the next load before I deliver the one I'm under so I can plan ahead more effectively. The rest of the time my wheels are turning. Set yourself up with your GPS, trip plan, snacks, drinks, smokes, etc. before you head out. Keep your tanks full. Fill them either before you start your day or when you end it, you don't want to have to stop in the middle of your run to get fuel. I will add this to what Six had to say: Make sure you do a proper pre & post trip daily, not checking out your equipment can cost you a lot of time. If you find an issue, you can get it addressed while your stopped rather than on the side of the road in the middle of your trip, then missing your appointment and then having to wait until the next day to deliver it.

 

I try to park at the reciever as much as possible and stay off duty until you are unloaded and I do a pretrip and unload usually 10 minutes on duty then go to my pickup and have my full 14 .... try to get your dmf half hour break in while loading and unloading .... if I need fuel I combine my fuel and pretrip ... eating at the end of your day before you go to bed is a sure way to get fat ... high blood pressure and diabetes etc. a lot of days you will have the time to stop and get a decent meal some days you won't try to avoid the fast food and pack some healthier alternatives I eat breakfast as much as possible before I start my clock. ... you have 2 and half hours of off duty time allowed in a 11 hour driving day unfortunately some ahole receiver or shipper will take it from you especially if you have a reefer or flatbed paying for a reserved spot is for morons. ...... did it once and got really mad at myself because there was free spots available. .... soon the megas will be reserving spots for there drivers and plan your whole life for you like they do for fuel until then learn where you can park .... I keep a little book of places where I see to park in certain areas have a couple of options for parking preplanned out before you start the day

 

when you are driving in the evening or at night keep your eyes on the truck stops you pass to see how full they are and make a note in your truck stop book. ....... I plan my trips around good food ( do I take that load to Mechanicsburg ? it's not so much do I feel like going there it's more like do I feel like a good Italian dinner )

 

For those of you keeping a book on parking spots, have you tried the Truckerpath, or Truck map apps?

 

Get ya one of them reacher, grabber, claw things. That sum bi**ch will save your life when ya need to reach somethin.

 

lol

 

nope I mean "good stores " or industrial places where you can blend in .... pulled in a factory and parked in the lot plenty of room a guard came out and asked what I was doing and told him I had a delivery in the morning which I did but not to them headed about 200 miles away ..... anyways he said he gets off at 7am but he usually gets breakfast at mcdonalds around 6 am and I could ride up there with him if I wanted so I did ended up telling him that I wasn't delivering to them he was cool about it and told me to come back anytime. .... sometimes you park at a place where there is nobody there at night so I am gone before anyone is there anyways .... I usually Google Earth places I am going to and you can useually tell if you can park there or what is the best way to come in to the dock ect. .... I don't know much about aps and stuff ..... GPS is good for when you get close but gets the best route only about half the time garmin is the best McNally plug goes bad within a year ...... I don't have the time to have truck in body shop so don't park at pilots or loves except emergency. ..... I can't find the reason why loves is so popular must be there's more drivers that are ninjas needing a helmet than I realize

 

I do the same on fuel. Never miss a chance. When I pull in for the night I top off. That 20 you save may keep you out of rush hour traffic. I go off duty any chance I get. I can stop at the guard shack, get my paperwork , drop and hook, do my load bars and hit the shack again and it's 31 or so minutes. Break achieved and time saved.

 

In other words waste as little time as possible cause your now on the clock.

 

In my case, it’s the metro curfews. Many cities won’t allow oversized loads to move during rush hour traffic. During the winter, with shorter days, if you get caught in an evening curfew, you automatically catch the next day’s morning curfew. That can hurt really bad.

You hear people say, “Time is Money.” That’s not totally correct. Time saved equals MORE money earned.