Trip planning made easy? need help.

45 hours minus driving time and on-duty time. You are over thinking this...

 

You said

this means you have used 25 hours of your 70 hour clock....

You take the remaining hours available (45) and plan based on having those hours to run the trip. Figuring that you only used 25 hours your not going to gain any hours back using your recap before the next load is finished. So you simply put 45 in place of the 70 and subtract your driving time and on-duty time from that. Leaving you with your answer. "Can I Do It"

Again you are over thinking trip planning if you can't wrap your head around recapping and when you gain hours back you need a logging refresher or a better understanding of how the HOS rules work.

 

Most drivers get between 2500 and 3000 miles a week. So, you drive 500 miles a day. You can do that in about 8.5 hours. Plan on that. If you need to do a 1500 mile run, it is going to take you 3 days and you will get there about the same time you leave minus or plus any time allowed for time zones. You will have a window of time that you can get there. Usually it is 2 hours before and 1 hour after you appointment. Sometimes, they will take your loads earlier if you call and speak nicely to the person who thinks he is god's gift to the world the little sob who has nothing better to do then mess with you......but I digress.

In practice, most companies have computers and know if you can make your next appointment. Get in to practice of asking them how much time you will have once you reach your destination. If you guard your on duty time by going off duty every chance you can, you should be okay.

 

The recap method is to drive for no more then 8.7 hours and you never have to do a reset as that 8.7 hours is always available to you. It falls off every time you change dates on the calendar. So you, recapture or recap, that 8.7 hours. This is the way folks stay out. If you are going to be in Vegas or some place you want to visit, then you run up to 14 hours in a 24 hour period. Plan on running out of time where you want to run out of time. Not 2 hours from your house.

 

Guess I'm screwed ... as of right now I have 4hr and 54 minutes on my 70 and I just booked 2600 miles through next Monday morning ... sigh.

Recap, learn it. It's simple. What you use on Monday you get back after the following Tuesday. It's 70 hours in a moving 8 day window. Not a fixed 8 day period.

Now want to know how your mentor could make a decision in a matter of minutes - and frankly, it should be seconds?

Use what ever method you want to determine how many miles you can run in an hour. You've got more than a few examples here. Most of them are more complicated than they need to be, but they will work. Think in terms of shifts, available hours plus a 10 hour break.

Now look at your PTA. How many miles can you run in 24 hours, 2 days, 3, 4 etc. for the hours you have available/recapping at your PTA. So when you get a preplan, you already know what you can run. It either fits or it doesn't. No need to do any calculations, no need to plan the route. The miles and times fit your hours - by what ever methodology you use.