One Stop Website for trip planning?

Trip planning is part science, part art. It can consist of "mash loud pedal until out of hours", or be made so intricate it will make you dizzy.

Either way, flexibility is key. The slightest things can turn the best trip plan into garbage, so it's often a ~trip-long activity of change.

I used MS Streets & Trips (and Driver's Daily Log driversdailylog.com ) and the intertubes to find the best fuel prices along my routes. No sense filling up in SLC if you'll be going right through Evanston WY, which in my day often had the lowest fuel price in the country.

 

Truckmiles.com

 

A trip plan is just an outline of what you would like to have happen for the day.
So don't waste allot of time trying to work out every little detail .
You will learn that every time you plan it out something is going to happen to change it .
Even if it just a small amount some one will help make it different than what you planned it out to be .

 

One other thing. If you DO get into trouble, (and most of us have, or will at one time or another,) do not panic. Do not get frustrated. Sometimes it takes a cool had to work yourself out of a problem. You may think the whole world is going to end, (or at least your job is going to end,) because of a foolish mistake you have made. And maybe your job will end.

BUT, once you are in the situation, you are there, NOW, and all other "reality" is sort of a "moot point." So take time, don't be pressured by the a-hole sitting behind you laying on his horn, or all the drivers yelling at you to get out of the way. Think you way through whatever situation you are in. It may require you getting on the phone to 911 and calling for help. (Accident, or having placed yourself in a situation where you are totally blocking traffic, and the only way out is to back out, but there is traffic behind you that prevents you from blah blah blah. You get the idea.)

You are going to have some problems. We all do. You grab the wrong freeway exit, or you go the opposite direction from what you need to do. These are minor things, and can be worked out.

The longer you do this, the easier it gets.

 

http://arbys.com/?gclid=Cj0KEQiA-PG...wdGtm8mLcrAh1g-37q7s81Jvc9rFfnvYn8aApel8P8HAQ



Mikeeee

 

What you want is a trucker GPS. Get yourself a Rand McNally. Size doesn't matter, so if you're looking for cheap, the 520 or 530. Don't know anything about the 530, but I do know the 520 works great for me and is significantly cheaper right now.

It's not going to be the popular opinion on here around these old guys, but blindly following the GPS will get you from your shipper to your receiver without a problem about 80% of the time. The problem is that other 20ish %... As for trip planning, that Rand Mcnally GPS is an AMAZING tool for finding truckstops along your path, and then giving you a very accurate ETA to that location. When I know how much farther/longer I want to drive near the end of my day, I just have ol' Randy tell me all the Larger Truckstops along my route. I pick one that's listed at a good distance away, then I go there. The free/alternate option is an App called TruckerPath, which will show you Truckstops in the area or along a route. The major downside is that it is not plugged into your truck friendly GPS that you should buy immediately after you get your first job.

What you're worried about now is going to be difficult your first few weeks/months, then it will become second nature. A few tips to help you survive while you're still learning.
1. Plan the start and end of your day around parking. I still do this, because I don't like parking like a A-Hole or some tight spot made tighter by guys that did park like A-Holes during the night. When you're new, backing is hard. When you're new, backing in the middle of the night is... you'll want to avoid it. If you start your day by 4 or 5 am, you'll almost always finish your day in time to easily get a parking space, often a pull through or a very easy back. If you're in the Northeast, you literally want to end your days ASAP. Places are full by 4 to 5 pm up there, but almost anywhere they're getting filled by that point and you'll want to be parked by 6. Some areas are half empty all night, but that's a rarity.
2. Kind of goes along with tip 1, but don't drive 10 hours and 50 minutes, then pull into a truck stop after dark. In some areas, you will not find a spot, AT ALL. I'm talking about any possible location in that entire lot that wouldn't block another driver in, excluding scales and Fuel Islands. BTW, don't try sleeping at the pumps or scales, it never works. If you are stuck driving til a time when you know Truck Stops will be busy, leave at least an hour to go to another stop or 2, and/or make sure that the TS you're aiming for isn't the last one for 50 miles or so. Some guys are willing to run their clock and stop ANYWHERE, but it makes you a real dick and I don't think it's worth it.
3. Learn how to find Wal Marts. I sound like a salesman here, but Ol'Randy will find these for ya easy. There are phone apps to do it too I believe, but seriously, get a GPS. My point here is, that Wal Marts are necessary for when you don't want fast food, and I've also never ran into one that didn't have room for a truck, if it was allowed. That's a big IF there though, because many Wal Marts don't like us anymore. It's very easy to find the number of a specific location, then you can just call the front desk and nicely ask them about the possibility of parking their for the night. Even one of your sources, through a GPS or an app says parking is allowed there, call ahead. I've been told that they've changed their mind and no longer allow trucks. You can ask where they'd like you to park in the lot. You can ask if there's an alternate entrance, as some are designed to have their main entrance be truck UNfriendly. I like planning a walmart trip when I know I'm going to be forced to end my shift at a time or in an area where I know parking at a TS will suck.
4. Run recaps, at least while you're learning. Averaging 8.75 hours of On Duty/Driving every day should keep you running every day. If you start your day at 6 am and your shift lasts 12 hours (8.75 hours on duty is almost never going to be a 9 hour day, lol), then you know you'll be parking by 6PM. If you start at 4 am, then even if you max your clock, you will definitely be parking before 6, and in most areas, if you run 12 or less, you'll be getting a nice pull through spot in the front row at most truck stops.
5. I've mentioned this in the other "tips", but to clarify: In general, every hour you park before 6pm improves your chances of having no backing or an easy back, every hour after 6 increases your chance of parking in areas that leave you more open to getting struck while parked, having a difficult/tight back or even not getting a space period.

Hope this helps a bit, but you can boil it down to
Buy a Truck GPS (Rand McNally is the best IMO)
The earlier you start your day, the better. Suck it up and watch the sunrise after you're stopping for your first/second cup of coffee.

 

Size does matter for older folks that can't see those small fonts.

A GPS is used while driving. A larger screen is much easier to see and manipulate.

Mikeeee

 

You sound like my ex...

 

Sorry to hear that. For you.

I have never had complaints... Hehehee

Mikeeee

 

What you want is Truck GPS SOFTWARE that works on a laptop. Much easier to trip plan with a big screen and a mouse. I recommend MS Streets and Trips but I think Copilot has one too. There are probably others.

Back in "the day" LOL, they didn't have trucker software so I bought the 4 wheeler version of S&T and then I proceeded to spend the next 40 hrs inputing all of the low clearances and no truck routes and scale houses from the paper atlas into it. Then I entered in all of the TS from the truck stop book. Still using it.

Also use the same netbook to run a $30 webcam that functions as my dash cam. And my fax machine.