Starting at Schneider

That's not all bad.....

 

In your "free" time...that is otherwise unfilled:

• shop around for that backup satellite-driven GPS unit; later on...you'll be glad you did
• Download the "Trucker Path" app to your phone, & futz around with it -- familiarize yourself with its features, & how they work
• Ditto....for the Cat Scale/Weigh My Truck app

-- L

 

Don't merely get the free Dezl GPS -- be sure to also get the correct owner/operator's manual for that model, also.

If the donor doesn't have it -- find it on the internet, download it -- & then print it out.

Put the resulting pages in a binder notebook -- for future reference. Later -- that will be pure gold.

-- L

 

Meant to post this on Sunday, but went and had fun instead.

The difference between guys who are successful OTR and those who quickly leave the industry is trip planning. Those who plan their work, and then work the plan make more money and have less stress because they use their time wisely and aren't constantly fighting to catch up. Those who effectively communicate their plans to Ops make more still - not because Ops plays favorites but because when a driver's eta and nat are accurate, it's easier to find freight that matches the driver's hours (which avoids sitting and waiting) and you generally get assigned earlier, which allows you to change your trip plan to either get more aggressive and knock down more miles or run easier to conserve time on your clocks.

I won't belabor the theory of trip planning - ask 10 drivers how to trip plan and you'll get 14 different methods that all get to roughly the same answer. The method is less important than the answer. Searching for threads with "trip planning" in the title will get you some good reading. If you have specific questions, ask and you'll get some good answers seasoned with a good deal of snark (this is TTR, snark is obligatory). Some less common thoughts/advice:

• Do all your planning in Central Time, then make the adjustment for what ever timezone you're picking up/delivering. This way it matches up with your log book and it will avoid some confusion, especially for setting your alarm clock
  
• Set all of your clocks to Central Time - particularly your cell phone. As you travel through central KY and TN, or western Indiana you may physically be in one time zone but your phone will be connected to a cell tower in the other. If it's just set to central, you never have to guess.
  
• Write down your trip plans. ETA to pickup, where you plan to scale, where you plan to take breaks, where you plan to overnight, when you'll start your day, when you'll deliver. Then as the load progresses, recompute your etas/etc and write them down. When the load is done, write down what actually happened. Writing things down avoids having to do the same math over and over. It also allows you to compare what actually happened to the original plan. That allows you to identify how long it actually takes you at customers, to fuel, to get shut down, etc. You'll start understanding where/when you need to add an extra buffer in and when you can plan on hammering down.
  
• For your intermediate breaks, have 3 different options written down BEFORE you start driving. Trying to find a truck stop while driving isn't a good idea. One of the dumb things I did in my first few weeks of driving was not plan out rest stops, which resulted in me peeing on the shoulder of exit 197, I-65, IN. That location means nothing to you, but every experienced driver reading understands there is a plethora of truck stops at exit 201. But I didn't know that, so I made a dumb choice. The reason you want three options is sometimes you'll be feeling good and not ready to stop, so pushing on a little further is a better choice. You'll also want to identify 'dead zones' like I-294 around Chicago - once you pass Gary there is no place to stop until you hit Wisconsin. There are the service plazas, but they were designed when trucks were a maximum of 55 feet long and before the 14 hour rule/elds. You will almost never be able to find a spot. Or I-55 between W Memphis and the MO border - yeah there are options but they're sketchy as heck.
• Most of the time you'll be told to fuel at Pilot/Flying J, so that's where you'll have shower credits and where you're going to want to try and overnight.
• You'll be told to plan 30 minutes for a drop/hook. You won't be able to do that, plan on an hour. Starting out, the physical act of dropping/hooking is going to take 30 minutes, if not longer. That's not counting interacting with the customer. When I did my 30 day safety review, the OSR advised me that I should have gone off duty while getting loaded to save on my 70. When I informed him it was a drop and hook, he didn't believe that it took me just under two hours. In hindsight, it's an easy customer. For a new driver it was a PITA. Back in by the guard, check in and get the trailer inspected. Drive over to shipping, back in, get paperwork. Drive to drop lot, back in, slide tandems, drop. Drive to loaded lot, hook, slide tandems. Drive to guard, check out. No big deal, right? Those easy backs were anything but easy for me because I was trying to force the tail of the trailer in by steering instead of watching the angle tractor to trailer and the tandems. Then I as I was sliding my tandems on my loaded trailer, I realized I didn't slide my tandems back on the empty, so I have to drop and go back to the empty lot, then return to the loaded lot, rehook, re-pre-trip, which I rushed because I was running behind and messed up. Then I messed up the computer work. It was an ordeal that I can remember it clearly 14 years later. If you plan an hour, and it takes 30 minutes - great you're running ahead and can bring up your etas or have a longer DOT break. If you plan 30 minutes and it takes an hour, now you're behind the eight ball and running hard. RUN SMART, NOT HARD.
• Plan in a nap. Nothing says your 30 minute break has to be exactly 30 minutes. Plan on enough time to back in, use the restroom, take a nap, use the restroom/eat. Also nothing says you have to run on your 10. Most of my DOT breaks were 12 hours long. As long as you're meeting the customer's expectations, build in enough time to keep yourself fit.
• Always look at the customer on the satelite view of google maps before you go. Identify the truck entrance and see how things are laid out.
• Guards/clerks give the same instructions to drivers 100 times a day, 5 days a week. Practice 'active listening' with them - repeat back the instructions. This does two things. First it slows them down so you have a chance to catch up, second it allows them a chance to clarfiy/correct. They'd rather have you ask dumb questions than do dumb things.
• Always check the paperwork. You never know who screwed up - you, Schneider, the broker, the shipper, the loader. Seal numbers are the most common mistake, but every state has a Springfield. Springfield MO and Springfield MA are one click apart on the computer screen, but 1,500 miles apart in the real world.
  
• Most trailers you'll haul will start with "TA", which indicates a 53 foot dry van. EA means 53 foot reefer, SNLU is an intermodal container, HM are 48 foot heavy duty trailers, LA are lowes dedicated, LWA are lowes dedicated with roll doors, etc. Match both letters and all 6 numbers on the trailer. I cannot begin to explain how frustrating it is when some driver only matches the last 3 numbers and takes the wrong trailer. Or the trailer has the same numbers, just transposed.

 

To make your life 'easier', Schneider has developed ETAi and the Trip Plan App. ETAi is an 'AI' that will constantly update a driver's eta and nat. The Trip Plan App is a visual representation of ETAi that a driver can change some of the inputs on. I hate them both more than words can express. You need to do your own planning so you can identify when ETAi is being a meth head. You can push things out with the Trip Planning App (to a degree), but you can't bring up etas and good luck getting the nat correct until you're within 3 hours of delivery.


Pick up south of Atlanta, but trailer is TBO, so I send a message asking for a routing point for the Atlanta OC and asking Ops to lock out my etas/nat, put the trailer in the shop and go to bed. Problem #1 is ETAi sees I still have 4 hours left, so it keeps thinking I'm going to 'leave shortly', and because of the appointment times it won't let me push things out. Going from Atlanta, GA to Marion, IN which is about 650 miles. Easily doable in one day, especially with a truck stop across the street from delivery and starting at 0300. However, ETAi thinks you can only do 550 miles with a full set of clocks, so it thinks I need to leave now and knock out at least 100 miles. When I leave out at 0300, ETAi has me stopping at Indy for a 10 and is showing me 12 hours late for delivery. It wasn't until I was just south of Indy before it figured out I could make delivery. The key in these situations is messaging into ops with "etai is drunk again, this is my eta and this is my nat". That way if the computer assigns you an impossible load, it's not your fault - provided you hit your etas.

I will say, when you get within 3 hours it does get accurate, but the further out the worse it gets. Leaving Youngstown, OH heading to GB with a plan of delivering that night. Full day, but again easily done. ETAi has us stopping for the night in Sheboygan. 30 minutes into the day, ETAi updates with us delivering that night, but available the next day. By lunch it was showing us with 1/1/whatever on 11/14/70. That isn't enough time to do diddly squat with, but it wouldn't let me push things out to the next day. So I send a message asking Ops to lock in my NAT. At our last stop before GB, ETAi was matching the NAT that I'd set 48 hours before.

The other thing you need to watch is ETAi will default to a 12 hour break, unless you'll be late for an appointment, at which point it will have you running on your 10. When Schneider rolled out ETAi, it was supposed to take into account a driver's profile - what time do they usually start, when do they usually stop, how many miles they drive a day, how their dwell times compare to the average, etc. It doesn't do any of that. And when your clocks get low it does dumb things. I was in GB with 9 hours on my 70. I was assigned to dead head down to Manitowoc, d/h, then relay down in Gary, pick up a relay in Gary, deliver into Beaver Dam, WI, then head back to GB. All told, about 500 miles. No way to do that with 9 hours on my 70. ETAi had me making pickup then driving into Chicago before taking a 10. Then finishing the last 50 miles to Gary on Friday morning, swapping trailers and driving back to Kenosha where my 70 would expire, take a 34 and deliver at 0100 Sunday morning, just before the appointment window closed. The best way to run it would be to get to Gary Thursday night and do a restart, but that would have been very tight on my 14. Second best would be to pick up, get down to Kenosha, and do a 34 there. I could then leave out 0600 Saturday morning, be in Gary by 0830, out by 0930, into Beaver Dam by 1230, out by 1330, into GB by 1530. That's a lot more reasonable than what ETAi planned - I'm available earlier, with more hours and keep my normal driving schedule.

Moral of the story, do your own trip planning and don't let the computer bully you into bad decisions.

 

Never thought I’d hear someone say W. Memphis was their favorite place!
Everybody I know avoids W. Memphis like the plague

 

The "oh-so-cleverly-named" ETAi sounds like it may have the unintended consequence of "thinking" for the driver, which undermines all the trip-planning training. Not such a great idea, is it? The company wants drivers, especially the newbies, to learn how to manage time and communicate properly.

 

But the Schneider facility in W Memphis is secure and one of their best.
But W Memphis itself? Don't even slow down.