In school, Time Management

Which Roadmaster are you attending?

 

It is all math. Nowadays wth ELDs you absolutely cannot exceed the 11 hours, zero excuses allowed.
There are some long haul drivers that only run 70 / 8 = 8.75 hours per day, they never do a reset, just recap their hours and never run out. That gives them lots of options finding parking, usually stopping before the rest of the crowd.
Generally you would need to be planning on stopping at about the 10 hour mark, to give you a bit of a margin for error.
Depending on where you run, you will get to know what regions have more available parking and which regions it is scarce.

 

Start early, stop early.

 

Always have plan A & B, or some half idea in case you do not end up where you think you are going. Truckstops fill up quickly in the evening and you'll end up with no idea of where to park if this happens.

Traffic around large cities is time consuming, places like Atlanta or even Washington, DC, are easier to navigate at night-time if you can do so. Sometimes this isn't possible, even figuring on driving 8 hrs isn't always an option. You still have to have your 10hr break, and the possibility of splitting the hours to drive over 3 days wouldn't be possible. Sometimes an 8/2 split, if your company allows it, maybe what you will have to work with in order to get the load in, or even picked up.

Some loads may just be an impossible feat and need to be turned down no matter how much sales or dispatch cries about it.

Driving over the 11 hrs is unacceptable. Even getting stuck in a snow storm does not allow safe haven rules if it has been well announced on news that there is going to be bad weather. You can use it, but there is always the possibility you will be dinged for it. It is up to you to get to a truckstop or rest area before you are caught up out in it. Safe haven only is allowed if you are caught in a sudden, unexpected bad weather condition.

The worst thing is going to shippers and receivers and them eating up all your time

 

Husband uses recap hours mostly, but sometimes you might end up with a 6hr day because of the way the delivery/pu is. The next time around unless you have leftover hours to add to it, you just have the 6 to use. It is a balancing act at best. Get your fingers/toes and an abacus out.

 

I use www.findfuelstop.com. It helps with finding oddball places to park at. You can register, then put in the city, state, add a via point, what stations you prefer or just let it pull them all up. A lot of stations though, like the oddball ones may not be a true truckstop, some of them may have fuel, but no parking. Click on a station and you can view it, it will also list other possible places like rest areas or Walmart in the area. All Walmart's don't allow parking though. You need to google map the store and zoom in to make sure they have an actual way to get in, some are too pretty with trees and islands to maneuver very well. It also doesn't hurt to call them first about parking overnight.

And don't forget TA, and Petro's have reserved parking for around $14-$15, sometimes it is worth the price to get a spot later in the evening.

 

When I first started and wanted to run hard, I would take my truck stop guide out and figure out where I wanted to be, then I would write on my windshield with a dry erase marker every truck top 50 miles before it and 50 miles after it. As I got to each exit, I would assess my clock and how for it was to the next truck stop, maximizing my hours everyday. Now..... well, now I'm lazy and only work about 8 hours 4 or 5 days a week so it's never an issue

 

These have come in handy

 

In the beginning and especially if you start at a larger training carrier, they will not assign loads that will come anywhere near pushing close to your 70. The daily 14 hour clock will be your biggest enemy.

You will have to learn to

• Not start your 14 TOO early
• Not waste time. Move while you can move but try and avoid rush hour traffic
• Not arrive at a shipper or receiver with too little time left to find reasonable parking
• To call places or use Google satellite to determine if possibly you can break nearby after loading or unloading, without interrupting a break you may have started.

I could go on but personal experience is the best teacher