Trip Planning

Congrats! I can offer no help because I am local but just wanted to say congratulations on the new job!

 

• First understand what you are being asked to do
  • Where are you picking up? Is it a d/h, live load, pick up relay? How long will it take to pick up the load? Are there customer specific requirements?
  • Where are you delivering? Is it a d/h, live unload, drop relay? How long will it take to deliver? Are there customer specific requirements?
• Second figure out your route (use an atlas) (don't obsess, just get the broad strokes)
  
• Figure out how may hours you have on 8/11/14/70 to start with
• Figure out how many miles from where you are to where you pick up, round up to the nearest 50, divide by 50. This is how long it will take to get to your pickup from wherever you are. This is your pick up eta
  
• Add in the time spent at the customer -
  • d/h take 1 hour, 30 on 30 off;
    
  • live loads I generally plan 2 hours, 15 minutes on, 1:45 off. If the customer details suggest longer, I add more time. If shorter, I still plan two hours minimum. Under promise, over deliver.
  • relays take 30 minutes
• Figure out how many mile to delivery and how many hours you have on 8/11/14/70
  • round miles up to the nearest 50, divide by 50 and you get total hours to delivery. Do you need to take a 10 hour break or can you deliver?
  • If you can deliver today you have your delivery eta, else add in a 10 hour dot break and 30 min pti
  • Do you need a 30 minute break, if so add it in.
  • If you need fuel, add another 30 minutes
  • If you do need a 10 hour break, figure out where you will need to park, then repeat the above steps until you can deliver on your current shift. This is your delivery eta
• Figure out your Next Available Time (NAT)
  • d/h take 1 hour, 30 on 30 off;
    
  • live loads I generally plan 2 hours, 15 minutes on, 1:45 off. If the customer details suggest longer, I add more time. If shorter, I still plan two hours minimum. Under promise, over deliver
  • relays take 30 minutes
• Figure out how many hours you have on 11/14/70

Whole process should take less than 30 minutes starting out, by the end of training less than 15 minutes.

 

Watch videos on people net or whatever ELD they use.
Remember you will average about 45mph for most trips.
You have 14 hours per day to show 11 hours driving. And you need to take a 30 min break before the 8th hour on duty.

 

Type address into GPS and see which 2 routes it picks.
Look at the National HazMat Registry for any HM restriction (I only haul HM)
Look at the driving time GPS shows for each route.
Pick the route (based on expected traffic congestion/places to sleep near destination, place to shower on the way). There are many considerations, but I am dedicated to one customer so most trips I already know the above. It's just a matter of refreshing my memory. We're a small outfit so if the location is new to me I call a driver that went there in the past and get the info.

If I have sandwiches and waters in cooler and don't need a potty break, start driving. If I don't have a lot of food and water in the cooler, but there are numerous acceptable truck stops with the right fast food I will just buy something along the way plus something for the cooler.

I leave Trucker Patch app running on my smartphone which shows me traffic congestion, truck stops, rest areas along the way and their amount of parking and current status.

Of course I do the pre-trip and all necessary ELD items as required.

 

Its a lot simpler than this makes it seem., Your going to the big orange, they will have you routed more than likely. Start off with run legal, don't wait for the last minute to park the truck for your 10 off, earlier in the day is much easier to find a parking place. Normally as far as routing I would tell you take the interstates as much as possible, most direct route route, but the big orange may have their own ideas as far as routing. They will have an ETA on the preplan more than likely, if you take your 10 off and you know your not going to make the delivery on time call them before you go on duty let them know. Don't over think this...Really.

 

Most trips procedures are very similar except for one or two details. So every trip is practice for every other trip after that. You may feel "learning disabled" on your first few trips, which is normal because many company don't tell you many, many important details that "everybody already knows". Don't be overly critical, but LEARN from the event.If you're making the same mistakes, then you are the problem. Change what you are doing. The first trip feels like planning the whole trip to the moon. You hardly even know where to start. Riding with a trainer is normally where you see how an experienced driver does it. Just beware your trainer is just one example of how to do it, and he will likely skip some steps because he has experience in his head. Ask questions and listen until you understand.

 

Here is a practice one for you...

You are parked in Idahofalls, ID with a fresh 70 hrs available to you. There is a preloaded trailer sitting right beside your truck. Your Truck is fully fueled already. You can leave at 4 a.m. Mountain Time Sunday morning (that is when your 34 hr reset is finished). You must deliver in Bloomington, IN at 1 p.m. Central Time on Tuesday. Your truck is governed at 67 mph, and averages 7.4 mpg, with a fuel capacity of 200 gallons. You can only fuel at Pilot or Flying J.

Tell me your route (I will start you off... I-15 South to US 30 East to I-80 East)

Tell me where and when you will...

Stop for fuel.
Stop for the night.
Stop for 30 min. break.

Also how long will you be at each place you stop. Approximately how much time will be left on your 70 hours once you have made delivery. Will you arrive early, on time, or late to delivery.

You must scale your load and adjust your tandems before leaving Idahofalls, ID. You must show a 10+ min. Pre-trip at the beginning of every shift (can be combined with fueling if you so choose).

Good luck.... FYI this is the exact load I have for tomorrow.