Trip Planning

Just figure the time needed to complete the trip.

Lets say you have a 1200 mile run. At 50 miles per hour that is 24hrs drive time... you know hou can not drive more than 11 hrs without taking a 10 hr break, so It will take at least three days figuring at 50 mph... 11 plus 10, 11 plus 10, and 2...so you are up to 44 hrs minimum meeded to make it, but you also have to figure in fueling, PTI etc,

Now what time are you leaving loaded and is the delivery appt at least 44 hrs away?

That is really all there is to the calculations. Can you fit your hrs of sevice guidelines into the delivery schedule?

As I said I use 500 miles a day as a rule fo thimb so I would consider this doable but a tight schedule I usually run between 550 and 580 miles a day.

 

all the big companies already know you can legally make the trip
part of thier software for the planners
it will seem overwhelming at first but like everything else it becomes second nature after awhile
just a quick read thru the load info and you will get a handle on it in a very short while
and always plan for 2-3 different places to spend the night
I finish most of my days early so parking isn't an issue but try to find a spot at 10 at night can be burdensome

 

The short answer is yes. Often, I've done a good scenario and bad scenario plan, and if it's even remotely close on the best scenario, I'll inform them it may be too close for me to promise that delivery time. If the load has an absolutely, positively, no wiggle room delivery time, yes I'll tell them I can't make it in time.

If they think they know better, you'll have to put on the qualcomm you refuse the load, and the reason (Hours of service). Now if they disagree, and they think you can make it in time, they have to be able to justify putting you on it, knowing it might be late. Most of the time, if it wasn't an emergency to begin with, or the time really was adjustable, they'll have to make that adjustment before you accept it.

If they don't change the times and they ask you when you can get it there, you give them your best guess between your worse case scenario and your best case scenario, but you hold back a bit on the best case scenario, that way if you make it, you look like you really busted butt (most of the time you will have. ), but just in case you are off on your calculations (road work, accidents, unforseen issues, etc) you'll be closer to your calculations and hence, your word will be good.

This is important when a dispatch has a real problem load and needs to know exactly what parameters he can quote the customer with confidence that you will in all likelihood, meet those parameters, thereby pleasing the customer and dispatch by being a knowledgeable and conscientious driver.

Since you'll be in training somewhere, you'll most likely get "unimportant" time loads till you prove/establish you can plan properly, and deliver, so don't stress about it right now, but you can practice all you want. You'll end up doing like everyone else after awhile in your own personal vehicle, figuring out your own trips. If fact, try that with those addresses I gave you up there for an Atlas. Figure out the distance from your house, the time, the speed you can go...and just start doing the math in your head. You don't think we just sit in a truck and stare ahead at the road do you?

 

My school spent about a half hour on trip planning (basically just reading a map) and my trainer kept telling me we will work on it later but later never came. I ended up having to ask other drivers for help and figure it out on my own. I almost got a service failure in my 2nd week solo. I was so worried about my 11 and 14, I forgot about my 70. This cost me miles and money.

There is some great advice in this thread, take some notes and bring them with you. I make notes about different truckstops and rest areas. Notice if they fill up early or still have a lot of spaces late at night or on the weekend. This comes in handy when you need to cut it close. There's no guarantee that you will always find parking just because it was empty when you were there before but at least you know if it was full by late afternoon, you probably don't stand a chance on finding parking at midnight.

 

Most of us also use a GPS, which gives you the ETA.
All you have to do is add in the time for breaks, pre-trips, fueling, delays for construction and rush hours, etc.

If I had to rely totally on the atlas, I would add in an extra few hours on top of that.
Because it takes much more time to do it manually.

 

By Jove, I think he's got it!

 

You can not get there from here you have to go over yonder to start!