Trip Planning Issues

I am having issues with always being to my shippers and receivers just in a nick of time. Today, I'm actually going to be late.

I was always told to figure @ 50 mph.

Yesterday I left the terminal (springfield, MO) at 2:30pm cdt. My drop is 482 miles away in Louisville, KY. @ 9am edt

I was asked an eta, and said 0100. (That's when they gave me the 9am slot) (482 ÷50 = 9.64 (10) ) =12:30pm I got close to my stop and Shut down for an 8 to reset. Now, I'm gonna be late.

If I would have shut down earlier, I would have been too far out.... any closer, and is be in the city with no place to park.

And as I'm writing all of this, I can now see what happened. (Damn time zone change wasn't clearly expressed by me. )

However, do you think that 50 mph for trip planning is sufficient ? I mean since we are not allowed to roll 70 or even 65.

I am having issues with always being to my shippers and receivers just in a nick of time. Today, I'm actually going to be late.

I was always told to figure @ 50 mph.

Yesterday I left the terminal (springfield, MO) at 2:30pm cdt. My drop is 482 miles away in Louisville, KY. @ 9am edt

I was asked an eta, and said 0100. (That's when they gave me the 9am slot) (482 ÷50 = 9.64 (10) ) =12:30pm I got close to my stop and Shut down for an 8 to reset. Now, I'm gonna be late.

If I would have shut down earlier, I would have been too far out.... any closer, and is be in the city with no place to park.

And as I'm writing all of this, I can now see what happened. (Damn time zone change wasn't clearly expressed by me. )

However, do you think that 50 mph for trip planning is sufficient ? I mean since we are not allowed to roll 70 or even 65.

I run about 60 mph so I known what I'm capable of. I figure it out that way. 60 x 8 hours is 480 miles. Then I add 2 hours for breaks and fuel. Then an extra hour for hills. So 480 miles equals 11 hours. If I'm driving thru rush hour I'll add more time.

Heck... my FM once asked an eta and I told him "for you about noon. For sales... tell them 1800.. in case of problems" He was cool with that.

To be at a customer without parking for 0900.... I probably would have left at 2000. I'd figure it would put me there around 0530 or 0600. If I'm ahead I could stop a couple times.. if behind I could only stop once for the 30.min.

Your problem above is that the Appt was made after you left. So the trip planning is not your problem.. it is lack of intelligence on their part. If they would have given me 0900 after I said 0100... I would have been like. "Are you repowering me during my break?"

Try leaving for the customer as soon as you get load and stay at customer if parking available. I drive mostly nights and avoid traffic. Right now I'm 50 miles from 90 time is 0800... Appt is 1700. I stopped to avoid rush hour and will roll in there about 1100.

Most times I will drive my shift then park for the night as close to customer as possible. So in the above case... if possible.. I probably would have been shutting down at 2000 and got my hours back at 0600. Would have parked less than 50 miles away and would be good to go.

Unfortunately each run is different. One trainer told me to figure it out at 45mph then add the rest.

There's more to it than just mileage. You have to take into account what you're hauling, where you're hauling it (mountains or flat) and the time of day you'll be running so you can account for traffic times through cities and towns. Every load I get will be figured out first in my Atlas, unless it's just somewhere that I'm familiar with. Then I'll check distance between major cities and figure out where I'm likely to lose time and if I have to run in a certain time frame, figure out where I can run a little harder to make up time or an alternate route if need be.

I think 50 is OK for general usage. On longer runs without urban interference it could go to 55 or 60. When it's a trip to LA or Chicago it goes down to 30 for the urban portion. Those time zones mess everyone up. On longer trips I use a dry erase pen in my Rand atlas. I write down on the map when and where I'm stopping. I make a note at time zones to adjust an hour. If time is close I even calculate fuel stops and 30 minute breaks.

I should have added in, never figure your time based on the dispatched miles. Dispatch miles and actual miles are never the same and you can see variences of 50+ miles at times which that alone adds an extra hour of drive time.

And... dispatched miles are zip code to zip code. It usually adds 10%. So for 1000 mile run.. expect to do 1100. That's an extra 2 hours!!! Plus... you have to figure in fuel stops.

I'm now manipulating the fuel stops with the macro 27. The last run they took me 150 miles out of the way for fuel!!!

Thank you everyone.

I'm now manipulating the fuel stops with the macro 27. The last run they took me 150 miles out of the way for fuel!!!

Just don't overdo it on the fuel macro manipulation. Sometimes you have to, or get dispatch to open your card, or even pay cash and get a po.

But yeah I'm not driving 150 miles out of route for fuel. Sometimes they do some funny stuff to guarantee fuel contracts but I've never seen one that bad.

The one I always remember working around is there is a fuel stop in Boston that is not open 24 hours. You literally can't fuel there at night (no card readers on pumps). I got there one night on fumes and spent 30 minutes trying to figure out how I could fuel.

I think out dispatch is being told not to open our cards for truck. . Just reefer. I was told in class to ask for fuel at 1/3 tank. They didn't want us down to 1/4 cause some routes have nothing for hundreds of miles.

From Ohio to NJ I asked for truck and reefer. They only approved reefer. By carlisle pa I was at 1/4 tank. Couldn't macro 27 cause I was running a claim return and not on an official load. The macro would have given me the 90 in ohio.

I told them.... "if you don't want to approve the truck fuel that is understandable. But please understand that I am going to the NJ boondocks.. so when I run out of fuel there there won't be a stop for 60 plus miles."

Approved 100 gallons in seconds. Shouldn't have to beg for fuel hahha

50 mph works fine for me. I can be more precise doing what Rainy said, but it usually comes out to about the same anyways. But if I plan at 50 mph I'll add on an extra 2 hrs at least. If it really does take 10 hrs to get there (which it probably will), you'll end up arriving 2 hrs early since you planned that extra 2 hrs in there. If it takes longer than 10 hrs for some reason, you're still on time or early.