Tips For Time Management

I've read here in numerous posts about needing time management. Can anyone give any tips, suggestions, and/or examples of time management?

Thanx, Mark

Organization.....a place for everything and everything in its place. You can waste a lot of time looking for something you need right now.

Use line 2 as often and as quickly as possible. When I arrive at a shipper I typically go to line 4 for a few munutes to show me checking in, then it's line 2 for the rest of the time getting loaded. Every minute you can save against your 70hr clock is more time you can run later on.

One big thing I try to do when I will be loading in the morning is trying to get to and shut down at the shippers when possible. This you can't always, a lot of shippers wont let you shut down on their property.But when you can shut down on their property or on the street within 7/10 of a mile it is a huge time saver. As an example if I shut down 2 miles from the shipper the night before a 7am pick up I have to go to line 4 for my pre trip lets say at 6:30. Then drive to the pick up and check in then go to line 2. It takes 2 hours to get loaded. So once I have been loaded I have used 2.5 hrs of my 14. If I were able to shut down at the shipper I can wait until I'm actually loaded to go to line 4 for my pre trip at 9am saving that 2.5 hrs.

If I load late if they have room I will shut down for the night at the shipper to get rolling earlier the next day. Say I have a 9pm load time, again taking 2 hrs to load. If I leave there and drive a mile to a truck stop and go to line 2 at 11:15 I can't start driving until 9:15 the next morning after my 10 hr break. But if I had been on line 2 during loading and was able to move less than 7/10 of a mile to park for the night I have stayed on line 2. So now my 10hr reset is complete at 7am and I can get started earlier.

If I am shutting down at my fuel stop I may wait to fuel until the morning instead of when I arrive that night. You need to be on line 4 when fueling. By waiting till morning I can be on line 4 for fueling and do my pre trip at the same time instead of using time on line 4 the night I arrive to fuel then going to line 4 the next morning for my pre trip.

To me two of the biggest things to manage is using line 2 when at shippers/receivers and using line 4 as little as possible. You MUST use line 4 for fuel, pre trips, and some time at shippers/receivers but you want to keep it to a minimum.

Woody

I wrote an article on this very subject called Rookie Drivers: Time Management Tips And Mileage Goals. Check it out!

I wrote an article on this very subject called Rookie Drivers: Time Management Tips And Mileage Goals. Check it out!

Good Article

GREAT advice, Woody and Great article, too, Brett..I think a lot of drivers, especially rookies think you need to be "on duty" all the time and that costs them when it comes to hours....You're absolutely right about using line 2 as much as possible and about trying to get as close to your shipper or receiver as possible before you shut down for the night...

Another big time-saver is combining stops along the way whenever possible. For example, pulling in for a fuel stop, and as soon as you finish fuelling go to line 1 for your 30 minute break, or timing your potty break at a rest area to coincide with your 30 minute break. The less often you have to stop during the day, the less day you waste. Of course, that's not always possible to do. Your fuel stop may not be 3+ hours from where you spend the night, and sometimes you just gotta go OMGRIGHTNOW.

Another time and money saver, although it might not sound like it, is taking advantage of the paid reserve parking available at most TA and Petro locations. If you know you're going to need to stop where one of them is, and you know it's either an extremely busy area or going to be late at night (or both), not having to waste time off your clock driving around looking for a place to park can be a huge deal. And the time you've saved will allow you to make the $12 or $13 it costs to buy a parking spot back in short order.

taking advantage of the paid reserve parking available at most TA and Petro locations

Hey wait a minute. Now understand - I've been off the road for a few years now (after 15 years on the road). Now there's always been a small percentage of truck stops that charge for parking. But this doesn't sound like what you're referring to. Are you saying truck stops are starting to setup reserved parking spots that you can pay for in advance???? If so, tell me more about this.

Are you saying truck stops are starting to setup reserved parking spots that you can pay for in advance????

TA Reserve-It Parking

Petro Reserve-It Parking

TravelCenters of America Announces Reserve-It™ Parking

"As with many of our offerings, we introduced Reserve-It based on driver requests and have been testing it for several months,” said Tom O’Brien, President and CEO of TravelCenters. “Drivers have told us with Reserve-It, they can make more money because they don’t have to spend time looking for a place to park. Some drivers we talked with spend as much as 2 ½ hours at the end of their day looking for a parking space. That’s nearly 23% of their 11 allowable hours of service, or HOS. If a driver was on the road instead of spending time looking for parking, they could spend more time making money. Having a reserved parking space at the end of a long day may also provide the opportunity to plan for and accept longer hauls, or a greater number of hauls generally, which may increase opportunity, efficiency and profitability for drivers and fleets,” he added.