ALWAYS send in an accurate Mac 10. ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS. If you find yourself sitting alot, and dont ever send in a mac 10....its your own #### fault. ok....with that out of the way......
I can tell ya, if you 'cheat' your PTA a little, and say you're going to be 'available' at 7a, when you KNOW you still have a little drivin' to do, on your current load, and you're in the middle of taking an 8 or a 10, but you wont actually be available till 10a.....and you say 7a thinkin' it will get you 'ahead' of other drivers who post '8a' as a PTA.......think again. When you send in a mac 10, swift has a program that will actually take the time and color code your truck on a list of trucks for a given area. If you've sent in an accurate PTA, you'll get listed as white (i believe). If you've set it for 7a, and the computer knows you're 3 hrs away from a drop, and dont expect you to be ready till 10a, you'll get listed as yellow....and will end up being bypassed for loads anyway.....as the computer wont automaticly send a load to ya, and any planner will see you're PTA isnt accurate, and will also not send a load to your truck.
THAT BEING SAID.....if you're in an area, or going to an area that you know has alot to offer in the way of shopping/eating, and after you drop-n-hook, you plan to run to Target or Texas Roadhouse for some "alone time", set your PTA accordingly. Don't set it for when you plan to be MT. Cause sometime you'll end up going off away from your truck, get a preplan, and wont be able to get back to your truck for another hour or two. now, not only have you done a dis-service to the planners, you've forced the planner into doing a dis-service to the customer, because the planner planned you on a tight load based upon your incorrectly set PTA that you're not actually available for.
so....in short.....always send in your mac 10.....and always send it in with as much accurate info as you can. it'll make planners and your DMs job a bit easier. And who do you think will get loads faster....drivers who make planners/DMs jobs harder or easier??
