Man, I Am Terrible At This :(

Gonna have to call dm.again tomorrow, going to be late on this load as well, and this time, I'm not sure why....

Tell me if you think this load is doable:

Load appointment time is 1400 pacific time. I log in at the fontana yard at about 1200, which is about 30 miles away from industry, ca. Do my Pre trip and head out. I get to my shipper at 1330, so I'm 30 minutes early.

My load is a preload, so, I drop my empty in their yard and find my loaded trailer. Hook up, do my Pre trip of the trailer, get my paperwork, plug it all in to the computer and head toward the guard shack. I'm out of there in just under an hour.

Load is going to lubbock, tx and my appointment time is 0700 on 12/1.

My bills say the load is 41000lbs, so I head to the nearest scale, which is the ta in Ontario. 38 miles away, takes me about 2 hours in afternoon traffic. Comm system for the scale isn't working, so I have to call the desk and get weighed, then park and walk to the desk to get my ticket. While I'm in the ta, I pick up a soda and a personal pizza for dinner, then head out. Total time used was about 20 minutes.

Now, I am concerned about what the ticket is telling me. It says I'm only 73000lbs, which doesn't seem right. The other day, I had a load that was 44500lbs and I was over gross at 80900lbs, granted I ha nearly a full tank of fuel on that load, and on this one, I was less than half. Still, fuel.should of be maybe 1000 lbs difference, and if I was almost 81000lbs with 44500 in the box, then I'm thinking I should be about 76000 or 77000 with just over 41000 in the box.

Because of this, I stop a little ways down the road and scale again, just to be sure that the scale at the ta wasn't messed up or something. Total time for that scale was maybe 10 to 15 minutes.

Truck is governed at 63mph, and coming out of California on i40, I'm pulling several hills.

Anyway, I just shut down at about 0300 central time and I have about 680 miles left on this trip. I used up all but 30 minutes of drive time today.

When I start again at 1pm central time, I'll have a full day of driving ahead, which will put me shutting down at about 1100 to 1200 on the night of the 30th/1st. Generally I can get about 630 miles on a good day of running, which means I'm going to have about 50 miles left on my trip.

Now, if I shut down at 1200, I won't get done with my 10 off until 1000 the next morning, and I'll still have about an hour of driving left, so I won't arrive at my consignee til around 11am, which means I'm going to be 4 hours late.

So to recap:

Shipper: industry, ca. 1400 11/29 Consignee: lubbock, tx. 0700 12/1 1156 miles Truck speed: 62 to 63 max.

Even if I figured my run at 60mph, that puts me at 20 hours of.driving. 21 if you add in the 30 minute rest breaks. Add in 2 10 hour breaks, that's 41 hours total time to get the load there.

So, even if I had left at 2pm on the dot , which was when my appointment was, from 2pm on the 29th to 7am on the first is 41 hours.

So, where did I go wrong on this load? Or is it possible that this load was not doable in the amount of time i had?

If I missed the mark somewhere, I need to figure this out, because I can't keep having late loads.

I'm trying, but something is not working out for me. My dm will probably say it's fine, but that doesn't work for me and my service record is going right down the toilet I'm sure.

Any advice would be helpful.

I trip plan everything at 50 mph and assume I can travel a MAXIMUM of 500 miles per day. Very few times out here in the real world do I ever log 600 miles in a day. I have never had a late pick up or delivery. Give yourself some extra time on your trip plans. It sounds like you are trying to cut things way too close.

Oh i love puzzles. I remember my husband getting comments like "oh, there's a 10 hour window on that delivery" and hubby saying "it would have been nice to know that in the beginning!"

I would agree with Tractor Man....Governed at 63 and hauling Heavy. 50 mph is what you have to use....either empty or loaded you should always use 50 mph.....but if you 70k or more weight I would even compute 47/48 mph or just add 5% ......I know from experience being new. I was late like 50% of the time in my first month. I would also add in or account for an extra 30 minute pit stop wether or not you plan on it or not. And make your 10 hr reset ..10.5 hrs instead. Sometimes it takes time to find a parking place for the night and then backing into that space ....

Gonna have to call dm.again tomorrow, going to be late on this load as well, and this time, I'm not sure why....

Tell me if you think this load is doable:

Load appointment time is 1400 pacific time. I log in at the fontana yard at about 1200, which is about 30 miles away from industry, ca. Do my Pre trip and head out. I get to my shipper at 1330, so I'm 30 minutes early.

My load is a preload, so, I drop my empty in their yard and find my loaded trailer. Hook up, do my Pre trip of the trailer, get my paperwork, plug it all in to the computer and head toward the guard shack. I'm out of there in just under an hour.

Load is going to lubbock, tx and my appointment time is 0700 on 12/1.

My bills say the load is 41000lbs, so I head to the nearest scale, which is the ta in Ontario. 38 miles away, takes me about 2 hours in afternoon traffic. Comm system for the scale isn't working, so I have to call the desk and get weighed, then park and walk to the desk to get my ticket. While I'm in the ta, I pick up a soda and a personal pizza for dinner, then head out. Total time used was about 20 minutes.

Now, I am concerned about what the ticket is telling me. It says I'm only 73000lbs, which doesn't seem right. The other day, I had a load that was 44500lbs and I was over gross at 80900lbs, granted I ha nearly a full tank of fuel on that load, and on this one, I was less than half. Still, fuel.should of be maybe 1000 lbs difference, and if I was almost 81000lbs with 44500 in the box, then I'm thinking I should be about 76000 or 77000 with just over 41000 in the box.

Because of this, I stop a little ways down the road and scale again, just to be sure that the scale at the ta wasn't messed up or something. Total time for that scale was maybe 10 to 15 minutes.

Truck is governed at 63mph, and coming out of California on i40, I'm pulling several hills.

Anyway, I just shut down at about 0300 central time and I have about 680 miles left on this trip. I used up all but 30 minutes of drive time today.

When I start again at 1pm central time, I'll have a full day of driving ahead, which will put me shutting down at about 1100 to 1200 on the night of the 30th/1st. Generally I can get about 630 miles on a good day of running, which means I'm going to have about 50 miles left on my trip.

Now, if I shut down at 1200, I won't get done with my 10 off until 1000 the next morning, and I'll still have about an hour of driving left, so I won't arrive at my consignee til around 11am, which means I'm going to be 4 hours late.

So to recap:

Shipper: industry, ca. 1400 11/29 Consignee: lubbock, tx. 0700 12/1 1156 miles Truck speed: 62 to 63 max.

Even if I figured my run at 60mph, that puts me at 20 hours of.driving. 21 if you add in the 30 minute rest breaks. Add in 2 10 hour breaks, that's 41 hours total time to get the load there.

So, even if I had left at 2pm on the dot , which was when my appointment was, from 2pm on the 29th to 7am on the first is 41 hours.

So, where did I go wrong on this load? Or is it possible that this load was not doable in the amount of time i had?

If I missed the mark somewhere, I need to figure this out, because I can't keep having late loads.

I'm trying, but something is not working out for me. My dm will probably say it's fine, but that doesn't work for me and my service record is going right down the toilet I'm sure.

Any advice would be helpful.

Hey Sambo, I took the time to plan this trip as if it were my own. Here's what I came up with:

11/29 1400 Pacific time Going to Central Time so convert by adding two hours: 11/29 1600. Add another hour for picking up the load: 11/29 1700--this is what time you should be leaving the shipper (you said it was drop and hook so I only planned an hour for pickup).

You said 1156 miles. I plan at 50 mph, so, if I round up to 1200 miles (I'm assuming 1156 is household miles?) we come up with 24 hours total. Now, others will disagree with me here, but I plan a ten hour break every twelve hours. We can only drive 11 hours per day, but these hours we are calculating is more like the actual time it will take you, including breaks. So you will need to plan for two ten hour breaks in this case. Add that to 24 and you get 44 hours total time for the trip.

Now, go back to our calculated departure time which we already converted to Central Time: 11/29 1700. Add 44 hours: the result is 12/1 1300. I always plan on being two hours early.

So you tell dispatch your ETA is 12/1 1500.

Remember we're planning at 50 mph so if you hustle with scaling and fueling and don't take any unnecessary breaks you can actually get there earlier, which you did. You actually made very good time, but you should have given dispatch a more accurate ETA up front. And do it over the Qualcomm so your butt is covered.

This is how I calculated trips for months and I was never counted late. I usually also look at what major cities I'll be going through and what time I'll be going through them to account for traffic. Thinking about it more, you actually did really well considering you left Cali in the middle of the afternoon. Anyways, hope this helps.

I'm sure others will chime in with slightly different methods. Just remember, the key to good trip planning is coming up with an accurate ETA but still giving yourself some wiggle room. If you push your ETA too far out, you might get some pressure from dispatch since they know you should be able to do it in less time. If you don't give yourself enough time, even if you make good time, it can be counted as a service failure.

So always plan a couple extra hours on your trip to be safe. If something out of the ordinary happens, like a huge wreck that delays you by 3 hours, don't sweat it. Just pull over and send a message on the Qualcomm so you're covered.

Also, it didn't really apply in this case, but if you can shut down at the receiver, you might be able to scoot your ETA way up by taking your last ten there and planning on getting unloaded before your ten is up. I ran reefer for six months and did this all the time.

I didn't do the math, but just by looking at it i think it can be done. A couple of things.

If it's a preloaded trailer i would have shut down the night before at where the trailer is. Whether it be a drop yard or a shipper. Preloaded usually means they are done with it hours before the appt time. You really want to aim for having a fresh 11/14 leaving with the load.

2 hours stuck in traffic is terrible. That alone is going to push you into taking 2-10 hour breaks instead of 1. I don't drive in cali, but pull up google maps, set it to traffic and see if there is a better way.

Stop with the scaling shenanigans. Scale once, Your good, go.

Remember you also have a time zone in there i believe.

Tractor, I too usually plan at 55 mph. This wasn't a planning thing because, I was at my appt early and I started on the run immediately after. My appt was 1400 pacific, I departed the shipper at 1430.

This wasn't an arrival time I told my dispatch, the appt time was set by the customer.

In cali, there really isn't much parking, and where my pickup was, there wasn't any. Our terminal was probably the closest thing and cali traffic, well there really isn't much you can do, during rush hour, there is a traffic jam on every major highway just about.

I plan my loads for 10 hours off for every 10 hours of driving, that way, if something happens, or if you have to stop early, you're covered. I try to run my full clock every day.

Anyway, if you think it could have been done, then I need to figure out what I did wrong and where I could have saved time.

Short answer: no, it couldn't be done. They didn't leave enough time on the load.

Long answer: You put the loaded miles at 1156, so round up to 1200. Good rule of thumb for trip planning is take the miles (in hundreds) and multiply by 2 to get the number of driving hours required. So, with 1156, that gets rounded up to 1200, which works out to 24 hours of driving time. What should be obvious here is that you'll also need to figure in two 10 hour breaks, as well as an extra hour to allow for your two 30 minute breaks you'll need to take during the two drive shifts. So now you need to add 21 hours to the 24 hours of driving time, which puts you up to 45 hours total. Except you're also going to be jumping two time zones, so you need to add in another 2 hours, which makes 47 hours. Which would make your earliest ETA to your receiver in Lubbock (assuming you left the shipper with a full 11 hours, which you obviously didn't) 12/1 at 1300. A more realistic ETA would probably be 1500.

So, no, in this case it's not you who screwed up, it's whoever planned and scheduled your load. It happens. Some people just can't math, or don't know that you can't do 63 from dock door to dock door. Your DM should be able and willing to work with you and your company's CSR team to either get the load rescheduled or repowered.

Short answer: no, it couldn't be done. They didn't leave enough time on the load.

Long answer: You put the loaded miles at 1156, so round up to 1200. Good rule of thumb for trip planning is take the miles (in hundreds) and multiply by 2 to get the number of driving hours required. So, with 1156, that gets rounded up to 1200, which works out to 24 hours of driving time. What should be obvious here is that you'll also need to figure in two 10 hour breaks, as well as an extra hour to allow for your two 30 minute breaks you'll need to take during the two drive shifts. So now you need to add 21 hours to the 24 hours of driving time, which puts you up to 45 hours total. Except you're also going to be jumping two time zones, so you need to add in another 2 hours, which makes 47 hours. Which would make your earliest ETA to your receiver in Lubbock (assuming you left the shipper with a full 11 hours, which you obviously didn't) 12/1 at 1300. A more realistic ETA would probably be 1500.

So, no, in this case it's not you who screwed up, it's whoever planned and scheduled your load. It happens. Some people just can't math, or don't know that you can't do 63 from dock door to dock door. Your DM should be able and willing to work with you and your company's CSR team to either get the load rescheduled or repowered.

Haha Fatsquatch, read my response...great minds think alike!