Trip planning

Make the attempt.
To sit in rush hour like a dumb cow
when you could do the same stretch of highway in the wee hours of the morning
when roads are empty, and still deliver early. But that's cheating, see. Real drivers stick with the herd, drive when everyone else does, quit when everyone else does, and then "make their own space" at the Flying J.

 

That is true, at least some of the time, however, I rarely ever took a short load and was generally a day or even two ahead of when I needed to be there, and most flatbed freight that I hauled, they were more than happy to take it when I showed up. I didn't deliver to many retail type of places, unless I was hauling a pieced together ltl load.
I did haul a 17 drop load out of arkansas once, something I never did, but that load paid a good weeks pay. lol It had a lot of wallmart store drops, but the people had it in their contract that it would be unloaded 24 hours a day and within one hour max. I got a chance to test that one out. lol

 

Yes.. In the old days. The joy of driving for an owner who quoted it is X dollars per mile, you will load him/unload him when he gets there. It was agreed to right then.

 

and you see, that is what i'd always "anticpate" when going from FL/GA to CA. i knew i had the the time, given too, the hours changing as i crossed the time zones, but "what if" a problem came up?

so yeah, i'd beat feet (always legally on paper, ond alwasy ONLY ONE log book), to get as close as possible. another thig too, is that many times, i "got lucky:, got to my destination either a day earlier or several hours earlier, got unloaded (or loaded) and made good time to my next destination. i was not then, nor ever had been a "truck stop driver", or one that would take my 8 hour break and play video games, then be dog tired later, as then not enough hours to sleep.

it always "bothered me" how many times drivers would say that they were late, or over slept, and missing appointments....i never had any sympathy for drivers that were told they will go from the 8 AM time, to maybe 5 PM, or the NEXT DAY, before thier load is worked on.

you see, here is you, (and many others) and i disagree....

my thoughts are, if you have 3 hours left to drive....you drive.....yes, traffic IS a mutha to deal with, i don't need to be told how bad I-95 in VA/DC is or New Haven, CT can be, at mornig or evening rush hours, again, been there done that.....

this is what service plazas are for, rest areas, shopping malls, (sometimes) DOT scale houses where you can park,.

Yes too, I KNOW that the number of rest areas has dwindled over the years, mostly always due to state budget cuts.

but to stop, 3 hours or 150 miles away.......

now come the "what if's"??

what if, he stopped (and he did) 3 hours earlier, and had he drivien, "could have been", 150 miles closer, but wait, "what if" a road construction site got back up and running, during his break, (that he was not aware of when he stoipped??) or an accident (they hapopen all the time, i know), but he could have been PAST that area, had he kept driving...cuz now, he really risks being late!!

like the cross country thing, you get as close as possible, so ok, a major accident happens there too, but you're AHEAD of the game by several miles/hours. rather than to think..."i got a long way to go, i can chill along the way"......no you can't.......

it comes down to, "it's a JOB and a RESPONSIBILTY" to get to your destinations on time (earlier if possible)....

that's the way i rolled...NO DRUGS, ONLY ONE LOGBOOK, and i was ALWAYS on time, or EARLIER, which frankly at times, Tee'd off the load planners or dispathcers cuz they had to find loads for me earlier...lol

but they kept me rolling, as i was a driver......not a sitter.

 

when you run up against your hours, or run hard as i used to do, you get back earlier, giving you either a full day or half day off more than had you sat someplace else. i personally allways like at least that extra day off, cux then i could use it as a rest day, or run a local laod or 2 and earn more money. it was "easy work" for me as a road driver, to do a day of city work.

 

i could care less...everyone has an opinion/viewpoit, as i do.

i ran hard many if not all times, had plenty of "off duty/rest" hours to deal with.

traffic, smaffric, there is traffic 24/7/365 (366 leap year).....

i always got as close the the destination as possible.. sometimes even at the customer (i'd call ahead and ask if i can park on thier property). if they said no, i said ok, i'll be there at XX or even a bit early...and i always was.

people can debate me all they want, i ain't gonna give in....

made it 48 years, how many others here can.......or will..?????

 

A few years ago I was heading from east Texas to NE Ohio. I got to Texarkanna where I was going to fuel and take my half hour break, I still had an hours to run after that. I elected to shut down and start my 10 hour break instead.

Why would I leave 7 hours on the table? I could have been 300 miles closer to making delivery.

The answer is simple - it was the only way to GUARANTEE on time delivery. I-30 was down to one lane for 30-50 miles, even taking US-67 wouldn't have worked because I needed to average 55 mph to make delivery within my 70. It was better to shut down WAY early, get up WAY early and run with little to no traffic. Was is possible to slog thru? Yes, but the safer plan was to shut down early. I made OTD, and it did not matter one iota that I had 6 hours less on my 14 when I was done getting off loaded as I had less time on my 70 than I did on my 14 or 11.

When I run by myself, the limiting factor is my 70 hour clock. Not my 11 or my 14. If I had more time on my 70, I could run more miles. A big part of my trip planning is how to conserve my 70 hour clock.

Last week I delivered into a customer - drop and hook, 24/7, load doesn't have to deliver until midnight the next day. I got to the truck stop 7 miles away and shut down with 1.5 hours left on the 14 and 45 minutes left on the 11. Why did I shut down? I know that customer usually has a line in the evening. I also didn't have my next load, and there is a good chance I will reload out of that customer or one across the street. If I delivered that night i would have to run back to the truck stop, then return in the morning. That's 20 minutes off my 70 that I'm "not getting paid" for. I would also have hooked to an empty that I would have to recheck in and drop in the morning, there's another 15 minutes. Shutting down early will cost me 1 hour on my 14 the next morning, but conserve an hour on my 70. Which one will be more valuable to me?

Look at it another way - sometimes it's better to run the ball on 3rd down to position the ball well for the field goal than it is to try and pass to get the first down. Sometimes it's better to let the opposing team score quickly so you have last possession.

Even running just one paper log book I can do more miles and run harder than I can on an AOBR. Running more or less by the book on an AOBR I can run harder than I can on an ELD. I did things years ago that I wouldn't dream of doing now. Coming into Chicago this morning at 0430 there was already heavy traffic. I remember driving thru the same area as a kid and having the road to ourselves at that time of day. Even 10 years ago, there would be a bunch of trucks, but few cars. I value your 48 years of experience, there is a lot of valuable knowledge there. However not all of your experiences are relevant to today's environment. Every time I cycle the ignition, it gets recorded. Every time I set my brakes, my gps coordinates are recorded and time stamped.

 

Pima County sheriff is doing level 3s and looking specifically for drivers trying to game their ELDs … turn off the ELD or advance the load on PC and you may find yourself taking an unwanted 34.

 

as long as ur on time, who cares how ya get there

 

Unfortunately, the better you get at managing your clock the more tight loads your dispatcher will put on you. They begin to learn who will get it done and who won't.