Trip Planning · Freight Group

Trip Planning

A post in here about drivers being late triggered this thought & inquiry to you drivers out there. HOW DO YOU TRIP PLAN?

I'll begin....

1) I looked at my HOS to make sure they would align with the PU & DO times and that I had enough to do the load period without a repower or reset.

2) I'd look up the route in my Atlas to include my DH & wrote down the route in a notebook I kept on my dash. (Yes ATLAS, I never used a GPS to guide me)

3) I knew I could drive 650mi a day no problem so I divided the total miles by that to give me a timeline of how long it would take to do the load. This is my "rough draft timeline".

4) Then I checked every road I wasn't familiar with for low clearances, no truck routes, weight limits, tolls, etc. Also if the route took me on US highways or on back roads I'd add a little time for that too.

5) Check weather conditions along the route to see if anything may hinder my schedule.

5) I then call the shipper to get directions & make sure the info I was given was correct for the appt times, weights, destination, etc.

6) Arrive at shipper to load

7) Redo my "rough draft timeline after I'm loaded to make sure I'm still on schedule or need to make adjustments. I would redo this any time I stopped for more than 30mins to keep a constant updated ETA for myself.

8) Call the receiver to get final mile directions

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