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Jet-guy says

At Prime INC, do you enter in Qualcomm your PTA- planned time available? On TT another driver wrote to make PTA 1-3 hours from arrival time at Receiver. What do you use for PTA?

At Swift, I use some standard "delays" from the ETA. (Not reefer)

Trailer drop and hook 1/2 hr.
Live load/unload 2 hr.

Of course, if you know something different, adjust accordingly. The DM and planners use this to match available appointments with available trucks. Try to be accurate in your time estimates. Everyone knows "things" come up to throw times off.

Your company will tell you what they typically what to see. What Errol said is pretty standard 30 min for a DnH 2 hours for a Live unload UNLESS you know the place has lumpers that need to join up in a group and take their shoes and socks off to count the loads :D

When its an open window like a drop and hook that can be delivers from 00:01 to 23:59 put down the time you will be ready for the next load but give yourself wiggle room until you get more experiance. When i was training i was told to plan at 50 mph then for an open window add 2 hours when you are starting out. It allows for unexpected thing and they see you getting to places early and makes it look like you are working hard :D

At Prime INC, do you enter in Qualcomm your PTA- planned time available? On TT another driver wrote to make PTA 1-3 hours from arrival time at Receiver. What do you use for PTA?

I enter "arrived at location" but there is another after that says "docked at location" that one gives an estimated unload time. I usually put 2 hrs.... but I don't think dispatch pays any attention to this. Most customers pay detention after 2 hours... Walmart after 4. Meat loads u can sit forever and I mean 24 hours. So it differs. My FM usually gives me pre plans cause I drive nights. So normal day is I have a midnight appt at the 90 with a fresh clock cause I shut down during the day I park as close to customer as possible. FM usually assumes I'm going to be about 4 hours. Then adds time for me to get a washout and fuel the reefer. So even if my next Appt is a couple hundred miles away... I'm rolling asap. So figure I'm out of customer by 3am... get fuel and wash which takes me to 4am to 5am. I drive 4 or five hours to next appt.so now is like 10 am. If I have time I can stop and eat or relax.... if I can pick up or deliver early I do it. My loads are usually 500 to 1200 miles. So I roll until I hit about 2 hours left on my clock. By the time I shut down the truck stops are empty and I don't have to worry about parking.

The 8 in sleeper.comes in handy at times like the other day. I was at a customer for 5 hours... and had 7 hours left on my clock. My 14 was eating at my drive time. Going 8 in sleeper allowed me to still have the 7 hours because it paused my 14 clock. Instead of being like one of the other rookie drivers and complaining I was out of hours..I went rolling. It also comes in handy when I get someplace really early. For example I had a midnight Appt but got close to the customer at 3pm. By midnight my 14 would be done. But .. going in the sleeper for 8 hours gave me time at 11pm so I could get to my customer and still roll out to next location with no problem.

Yes.... one needs to understand how to use the breaks...and it can be tiresome if done constantly. I take 10 hrs while I'm loaded and do the splits around the Appt times for my convenience. Some days I just don't want to run straight through and I will take 2 hours instead of 30 min. I really like the lack of schedule cause it gives me a "do what I want" feeling. Some loads have a lot more time on them too... so running har does not good. I just cruise on those loads and break as much as I want hahahha. The next load might have me drive til I have only 6 min left on my clock hahahh