Dumb Question...maybe

Moe. I have followed your postings On here for awhile and i am glad you didn’t give up and are finally in a truck. But... Some of the stuff you ask about kinda has me scratching my head. Not just this post but this is the one I will focus on.

Your fm isn’t really responsible to do your pre planning for you. If this is an every day occurrence I can see them being frustrated. You are the professional driver and while newish you are expected to be able to take a load and get it there with minimal oversight.

Plan your route. See if it’s reasonable to make it. If not give them an updated eta. If they didn’t give you ample time it’s on them. If they gave you the time and you didn’t take advantage of your hours you will need to figure something out in the future and take the hit in this . They will not hold your hand

There is a fine line between uncomfortable and unsafe. Everyone says to shut down when you are tired and I agree BUT there are different levels of tired ie.uncomfortable or unsafe. Sometimes we are gonna be tired and sometimes we are gonna be hungry. We have to learn to manage our rest , food needs, while doing our jobs and getting the freight to the appropriate place at the appropriate time.

Sorry if this has came out bluntly but I don’t think pulled punches are as effective. This job will have its ups and downs but a lot of the ups we have to make for ourselves. You have came a long way and i genuinely hope you are successful. Good luck

PackRat runs recaps most all the time. Because I am on a dedicated run from Jerome Idaho to Greensboro NC, I generally get back and do a reset. However, depending on the loads I get coming back from Greensboro, I may turn right around and run the next 9 or 10 days on Recaps. My load planner, Sandy, can work with both methods, but I think she likes fresh hours.

What I do when I'm close to my 70 hours, I look back to see what kind of hours I would have going forward. For example, tomorrow I pick up my load for Greensboro and may get only 5 hours of drive time. The next three days, I will use all 11 hours each day. On Friday, I deliver and will pick up another load going somewhere. I will have a total of 6-7 hours of drive time. Then I start looking at what I have and what I will get back and the 5 hours tomorrow may have enough carry over time on the 70 that I can get more than just 5. If not, I will drive less the day before so that both days are evened out.

Reset time is not paid because you are parked, but if you take it while home, you are resting and getting stuff done that you need to do. I make enough with my drive time that I don't even worry about home time and that's even when I first started 7 years ago.

Hope this doesn't confuse you.

Laura

Moe, the more tools to help with trip planning the better. The most basic are Atlas, paper and pen. Then their is Google maps and getting the final truck safe directions. Then there is GPS. Nothing beats knowing where you're going and the route the company wants you to take.

I have company supplied nav system that I won't use. I get a fuel and route message with general directions I could follow.

Laura gave you some great info as well.

Here is something else I can use. I hold 190 gallons of fuel. My fuel gauge is in 8th. 190/8=23.75 gallons per eighth. I average I use 6 mpg to figure out how far I can go on what's left in my tanks. This is a way I can estimate if I can get to my fuel stop. Comes in handy often.

Good luck.

I know I maybe going against the grain here but you might want to invest in a GPS. When I pick up my load I can plug the address into the GPS it will tell me exactly how many miles and it will give me the total number of hours that it takes me to get there. I can then look at my available hours, which I pretty much always do 34-hour resets, so my hours are always 11 and 14 each day.

As I'm driving each day I will set a destination on my GPS that is within the available hours that I have left on on my clock, based on the ETA that the Garmin displays on the screen. If I get delayed and that destination is now beyond the available hours that I have left to drive there is an "up ahead" function on my Garmin that I can pick another destination that is within the available hours that I have to drive that day.

With regards to the route that I take, and this is where I'm going against the grain, I pretty much follow my GPS. I do look at the general overview on Google Maps just in case the GPS is taking me a route that is not the best. I run both my personal GPS and the prime Qualcomm navigation system simultaneously which gives me comfort that the route that I'm taking is good. I will also look at the last few miles to a shipper or receiver so that I can look for any quirks as far as the routing getting off of the interstate to the exact location. And you also have to use some common sense. As I'm driving along if my GPS wants to take me down a street where trucks don't belong, I will not follow the GPS and I'll let it reroute me on more major roads. I've had to go around the block a couple of times, and I've done a couple of loops on the Texas u-turn ramps but eventually I get there and I don't get myself into a situation where I'm stuck.

I too budget hours based on 50 mph. I also check my route and time against at least 3 sources - my suggested route and fuel solution, Paper atlas, Google and Truckers gps or trucker path (paid subscription). I also add in a minimum of +3 at shipper. Since Im new and slow, things might take me longer than a veteran.

My trainer made me responsible for route, trip planning and clock management pretty early on. Im glad he did. One of the things I discovered is that in order to prevent a situation where I might not have enough hours left to make an appointment, Ive got to address it before the start. Im wondering how many hours total you had available for this trip when you got to the shipper. In other words, if you got the load on Saturday, but didnt get out of the shippers until today, even if not your fault, it robbed your budget of at least one shift if that makes sense. Your DM might be thinking its perfectly reasonable to get the load delivered by Tues at 0800, and it would be if you left on Sat, but as we know, life doesnt always work that way.

Im not saying thats the case here, but if youre sitting at a TA, Im guessing you have the load and left the shippers already. Again, Im new so I dont know much. That being said, I have to look at how much of my 70 is before I get to the shipper , How many hours will it take to get it to the receiver, including time spent at the shipper and do I have a buffer left in order to figure out if I can make the load work. The sooner I have all that done the better, So I do it as soon as I get a pre plan, before Im dispatched. Also, If I get hung up at the shipper, I can call my DM and tell him that I am going to have an issue getting to the receiver on time.

I have a tendency to overthink things and I just dont feel comfortable unless I have thoroughly mapped out and planned out my route and time and added some possible plan B and Plan C just in case. By the time I start driving, I want to be free to drive without having to worry about that stuff.

Yes, though my truck is governed at 61, so I would use 51 mph as a baseline. That helps me for future referencing. There's just alot to know and it will all click eventually, in fact some of it has already.

If I could ask on average wht is the range of the Freightliner Cascadia (full tank assuming) we get what 300 gallons total?

So if you have to deliver between 0800-1200 on Tues, you will not make it. It would be tight for me with my faster truck, cause I do only 5mph over CA's and OR's 55 mph. WA is 60 mph bit I still use 50 mph average.

Google maps have Wheeler Ridge, CA to Kent, WA at 1037 miles. You said 1060 so I'll use that.

1060 ÷ 50 mph = 21.25 hrs.

You have only 19 hrs coming back. Even running faster than the average speed (50 mph), it will be unlikely you will be able to make it with your 19 hrs.

Back when I started in 1988 with May Trucking, I learned to use 50 mph to figure how long it will take. Back then we didn't have governed trucks. I have used that as a general rule and it allows for quick stops at rest areas, even truck stops and road construction. Now that I have more experience and know that I will make only one or two stops during my 11 hours and I do have a faster truck, I use 60 mph for an average. When I have a fresh 70-hour clock, it's not as critical. When I'm running on recap, that's when I figure with my average time of 60 mph. I use that even tho I can run 75 mph in those areas

Do you understand what I did?

Laura

200 gallons max is more likely.

It should be stamped at the top of each tank, near the cap, for each tanks capacity.

Our Freightliners have either 2 60 or 2 80 gallon tanks, like Packrat said it is stamped around the fill opening. I'd highly doubt you will have tanks much bigger than that as it adds unnecessary weight.

Generally I figure an average of 7 mpg that of course will very based on weight, road and weather conditions. Without know your capacity it is hard to say but figure between 850 and 1100 miles.

You should figure out your range to be safe, never want to run out as it may require a tow.

I generally have about thousand miles out of a tank and at each each quarter tank that's 250 miles. I've gone as far as a hundred and forty miles after the low fuel light comes on. You should be able to find a fuel stop within a hundred miles after the light comes on.

I generally have about thousand miles out of a tank and at each each quarter tank that's 250 miles. I've gone as far as a hundred and forty miles after the low fuel light comes on. You should be able to find a fuel stop within a hundred miles after the light comes on.

Just checked the daycab that JUST pulled in; 100 on driver side; 40 on the opposite.

Not sure how 'standard' that is, but back in the 'tanker' days, the Pete's were 100 gal on the driver's side, and ONE Pete had a matching passenger side. Other Pete's were 'maybe more' .. per Tom.

PJ ?!?

Others were a bit less on the blind side, so he recalls.

Interesting topic, actually!!

I'm in~!!

~ Anne ~