Real Time Trip Planning. Roll with Dino and others.

Wow that's some pretty good trip planning there. Just shows we don't just hold a steering wheel all day.

Went ahead and took 380 to 151 and all 4 lane like I remembered and not too many traffic lights and making better time then I thought. So after my 2 hour break. I'll drive the last 200 miles and should be at receiver at 2315 or so. I think I'll hit a few 2 lanes after this. Also I'm hitting stops I know have paved parking because I washed the truck the other day. Did see that I'll be hitting some rain tomorrow but oh well. Also forgot to mention truck is governed at 65, but I set the cruise at 63 so I don't have to do much lane changing, and to get better fuel mileage. Not sure if its all these hills but my fuel mileage is not pretty (7.1). Was thinking about dropping cruise down to 60, but want to have enough time available to get a decent load out of NJ on Wednesday.

When trip planning you also need to consider what type of trailer you have for reefer's and tankers you sometimes have to get a trailer wash out. So when setting pta you should give allowance to get that done. I also use google maps to find truck washes in the area. Most of the time though they will give you car washes. Sometimes there's no trailer washout no where near where you mt or where you are going. So in the case of reefer. If its not real bloody I'll sweep it out or even try to clean out the little blood in there with paper towels and water. Haven't been refused yet but it is a first time for everything.

Sometimes knowing what type of load you will be hauling when empty is helpful because you might haul meat, and when empty. Pick up a load of Rolled paper that is on the floor. So a trailer washout will have you trying to air dry trailer or trying to mop up water with paper towels or a mop in which I need to get when I hit a walmart.

Big thing I forgot to also mention. With the Motor Carrier Atlas it shows you the different time zones. Your dispatches are according to the time zone the shipper or receiver is in. For instance. My company is in Colorado/mountain time. I live in the Central Time zone. New Jersey is on the Eastern time zone so I'll have to add an hour to my trip plan for that load.

Anyway hope this is useful information, and thanks to all those who are participating.

P.S. For my company the pay period cut off is Wednesday at midnight so if you can get your trip transfloed. That's kinda like faxed. (They have them at some truck stops). You will be paid for all the miles, and extra drops for that week. If your trip isn't transfloed until Thursday. You won't get paid for it until the next week. So for instance if my NJ load was due on Thursday. I would only get paid for the Green Bay trip sense I just came off home time. Would be an ugly check. So its all a race for the clock and hoping your trips can fall during the pay period. This is why we sometimes have roller coaster looking checks. 1 week its big, next week small and so on. Your fleet manager is really on the ball and so are you if you can have consistent pay checks each week. Also the economy plays a factor in that as well. Time to get some grub.

 

Last Tuesday, I was coming back from Aurora CO for a 16-stop load.

List of stops, Rapid City SD, Minot ND, Fargo, ND, (The rest all MN) Detroit Lakes, Baxter, International Falls, Virginia, Maplewood, St Paul, Cottage Grove, Apple Valley, Dundas, Eden Prairie, Golden Valley, Maple Grove.

Due to the oncoming inclimate weather that was forecast, the same weather that shut down US 30 and I80 in Nebraska, I was "in a hurry" to get down the road. Because of time of day I was leave, I was NOT ready to go back into Denver at 4PM local time to deal with rush hour traffic.

GPS was routing me up I270, to US 85 and US30 to US385.Quick look at the atlas, I chose to go I70 to US36 to CO(NE)71 to US 20 to US385. It was 20 miles longer when I pulled it up on Google Maps. I was able to make it to Rapid that first night. And I finished this leg in the storm after it started up. It was not fun.

The next morning I unloaded my first stop and went to the J to have b-fast with a friend. Watching the weatherchannel and looking at the NOAA radar and weather alerts, I decide I am NOT going to go up US 85, but instead head east to US83 at Pierre SD and head north to Minot. It adds 100 miles to the trip though.

It was still dark out, so the decision is made to wait until the first light so I can see what's happening by watching the grass in the ditches instead of flying blind in the dark.

Winds on US85 are to be 35-45 sustained, gusting to 60.
US83, 20-25 gusting to 45.

What I loose in distance, I gain in speed. I make it to Minot that night at about 5:45. I finally was able to make time by just not looking in my mirrors at the trailer.

Next day, I unload and head to West Fargo for my next stop. As I hit US52, a sign from NDDOT is up that US52 is closed at Drake ND due to construction.

Quick call to my navigation department (parents on the computer) and we route down ND41 to ND200 and pick up US52 to be back on the original route. It adds another 80 miles or so to the trip to do this though.Wind is in our favor though as it's now a quartering tailwind instead of a headwind.

The rest of the trip is US10 to MN210 to MN6 to US71, US53 to MN33 to I35 to I35E.I'll skip the rest of the streets, but for the Minneapolis Metro area, I had to move 4 stops around for them to work better for me. Switching St Paul and Maplewood and Golden Valley and Maple Grove.

It saved me almost 40 miles making those changes.Overnights were planned for Rapid City (400 miles) Minot(520 miles and bad weather), International Falls (637 miles) with the final leg into the house being 508 miles.

14 stops in 2 days and 1150 miles is a BIG trip.

 

Would be good maybe to mention your wind issues and the changes you made in the cross wind thread I think this is relevent to that thread.

 

Now that's trucking right there!!

 

I have picked up my load, and scaled. I have years of driving behind me so when I trip plan I can usually get very close with my calculations. Actual cat scale weights. steer 12200, drives 34800, trailer 33780. total 80780 lbs. Slight recalculation is needed as I cannot slide to shift any weight. 1000 lbs/ 7 lbs per gallon. 142.8 so I have to go with 157.2 or 1/2 full fuel tanks. Now I can quickly calculate my fuel stops based on 7.8 mpg X 140 = 1092 miles is my range with my fuel load. Fort Collins CO is my max range so I will set my first fuel stop at Cheyenne WY. second fuel stop will be Shamrock TX. if I were going that far. But I will be meeting Jim at Denver to change over, he will take the load the rest of the way to Laredo, I will take his empty and do my reset, then go for his load in Denver to Fargo.

 

This is Real Time trip planning. Pulled breaks at 23:10 waiting for unload at customer in the morning. Didn't call receiver to see if there was parking just guessed from what I seen on google maps. Wonder if the other 7 trucks seen the same thing. Got the last hole. Its shut eye time. You good folks have a lovely night and may the good lord bless you with another day. We back quiet.

 

Real Time trip planning. Unloaded at 7am and just waiting for log book to hit 8 hours to go get trailer washed out. (A bloody mess ukk) Then pick up next load which is only 3 miles away. I'm pretty sure its ready Apt pick up time is for 9:30am, but hopefully by then I'll be not to far from Milwaukee headed to Jersey. Will know for sure how much time I can drive in about 10 mins but it's showing 4:19min but I think it will be more like 7 plus before I have to take my 2 hour break. Here's a little recap on miles and split logging. Just hit 8hr sleeper Birth and says I have 7:24 to drive b4 I have to take the last part of my break. So time for pretrip and we will see you more later. Have a great day.

 

Well made it to the Loves in Gary Indiana. Still have 2:44 mins to drive. But decided to hit the showers since I wouldn't make it to the Loves in Toledo before my break. Still have 757 miles to go to Jersey. Will take a two hour break hear and see where I'll end up. Its rainy and a little cold and that's my kryptonite. So not really expecting to get to far today. Should be sitting at the receiver tomorrow evening. Who knows they may take it off then.

 

Made it to Youngstown Ohio with just 10 mins left on the clock. Ran out of that rain and was able to keep all 18 rollin until the qualcomm lady started to sing. Only 380 or so miles to go and will go ahead for the first time this week. Take a full 10 hour break to make it all the way to the receiver. Should have about 23 hours left on the 70 which can get me a decent load out of Jersey either headed South or West. Set PTA for 9am because last time they took forever to unload. I have a 5am apt on 24th and should be there between 16 and 1700 est on 23rd. Have a good night and stay safe.

 

Got to Burger Maker at 15:15. They won't take load until morning. They were shipping I guess the burgers out. They didn't have a vending machine so another driver and I walked about a mile or so and got some tasty Chinese food. Still have 26 hours left on the 70 and not Pre planned as of yet. Also Google maps is not good with jersey no left turn laws but you just have to know. That's just how Jersey Rolls. G nite folks Chinese food has made me sleepy. Until next time. its REAL TIME!!!