Help with Roehl and trip planning

I just started. My dispatcher says load planning is done like this:

Figure 50 miles per hour to cover all the extra things you have to do and everything that slows you down, figure in the 10 hour break. On a 600 mile trip, I get 12 hours to do it plus the mandatory 10 hour break. Really...?

So, the truck is governed at 61 miles per hour. For a 600 mile trip, that means it would take 9 hours and 50 minutes if you never had to slow down, never had to stop and had nothing else to do.

All this means I'm being give 2 hours and 10 minutes for:

anything that causes me to drive less than the maximum speed like
-entering and exiting the highway
-traffic lights
-two lane roads
-heavy traffic
-construction
-traffic back ups
-mountains

also,

pre trip, post trip and vehicular inspections
fueling
logging and sending required messages
figuring out the route and directions to wherever I'm going
making a wrong turn because every destination is new
any routine maintenance like changing a light, changing a fuel filter, adding oil, cleaning out the trailer...
bathroom breaks
buying hot dogs at the Pilot I can choke down while I'm driving
Heaven forbid my 10 hour break wasn't at a fuel stop and I should want to steal a shower
Get some exercise at one of these free fitness centers at a TA or Petro that may be in route, oh please!?!?

2 hours and 10 minutes!

I'm not happy. Does that sound right? TIA

 

Well I don't know if this will help but I am just starting phase 3 and while I was out with my trainer during phase 2 we only figured trips at 45 mph and the ten hour break and it was always more then enough time for everything else and he stopped every 2 hours

 

Yes, that sounds about right. If you do your planning right you WILL be at a TS for your 10 hr. break. Of course it will also depend on exactly where your delivery point is from the freeway and vice versa. If you have to drive on the backroads for a period of time you will need more driving time. If you are leaving Gary and driving to Cleveland you will avg. more mph. This type of trip will take less time than Gary to Minneapolis which goes thru Chicago. You will need a lot of info when planning. No two trips will be done with the exact time, too many variables. Hope this helps.

 

By the way your profile says trucker=16 years. How have you been doing it during this time?

 

Do I have any say so on the delivery time? The driver's manual says you agree to the times they give you or you send a non-commital message.

Now, you know, you may or may not be at a fuel stop when you take your break. My first time out I did 9 loads in 12 days and one of those days I sat in a motel because she ran me out of hours and another of those days I sat around on detention waiting to get unloaded. All this and I'm doing both paper and electronic logs because I've never done electronic logs before. Almost daily, unload, deadhead, load, drive, rinse, repeat... You can hardly choose where you'll park on a schedule like that.

I do appreciate your response, this website is looking like a gold mine that way.

I haven't been in forced dispatch dry vans for many years. Last time I did this the mantra was, "match your tolls and your fuel receipts". Need I elaborate? Since then, owner operator, chemical tanker, food grade tanker...just way different.

 

Alright, both of you are driving, right? Somebody's looking at the atlas sitting in the passenger's seat.

Just going by the numbers, 12 working hours to go 600 miles and all the stuff you have to do that I've listed above, that sounds like a piece of cake?

 

That's paper logs when you don't have to match to Qualcomm. Roehl uses electronic. During the 10 hour break, the truck sits there for 10 hours plus the time you will show logging pre trip and post trip inspections. There's no moving things around to meet your needs as if you were, say, human, or something.

 

Well if we were stuck in traffic or bad weather he would call his tm and he would allow him more time or give him a different route around the traffic,And yes we both drove 5 hours a day and he made me do all the trip planning he said I wouldn't learn it if he did it for me but we would spend 15 mins on duty signing in at shipper or consignee then he would go back to the truck and log sleeper for the rest of the time and they never said a thing to him about it he told me if you don't do it that way it eats up your clock.

 

Even so, you can confront the numbers yourself. Allow Me indicated how it used to work with paper logs and he is under no delusions about how long these things really take. Would it be better to take a 9 hour break and have an hour later for lunch? That's no longer in play. 600 miles, 12 working hours and all the things above I've mention that do not include running down the interstate with your cruise set at the governor.

Just a few things I can see already, using a 45 mph standard gives you 13:20 working hours for the same 600 mile trip. I bet, with your trainer, you aren't unloading and loading everyday and you probably have more flexibility to take your break at a fuel stop (free shower)

If guys are getting their eta changed because of a traffic back up, that's new to me. I'm sure Allow Me will tell you, he's in the habit of delivering on time and he absorbs most everything that might be used as an excuse. I did shut down I think twice last year, once for a snow storm in Ohio, once for ice on I65 around Remmington, Indiana. Maybe under this system they keep you on a tight wire and you have to call in all the time to get your eta amended. That would be new, for sure.