One important habit I try to instill
into my trainees is to get close to where they are delivering early enough to
get in a full 10 hour break before delivering.
I want them to still have enough time available after delivery to get
the next load picked up and knock at least a couple of hours out before they
are out of hours for the day. The only
time I am more than 2 hours from delivery the night before is when my logs
won’t allow it.
I teach them to figure out how close
we can get the night before and work our way back from there so we can figure
out how much we have to accomplish each day to make that happen.
Using OKC to City of Industry again, leaving
OKC with a full clock Tuesday morning with a 7:00 am delivery on Thursday.
I
won’t drive down into the LA Basin the night before a delivery, parking is too
much of a challenge down there. I
usually stop the night before in Barstow.
I give myself two hours to drive the final 90 miles from Barstow down to
the delivery and I route myself in to all appointments an hour early to give
time for any problems like traffic, construction, inaccurate directions or even
problems getting checked in.
If
I want to be in Barstow Wednesday night, I know I must make it to at least
Grants, NM by Tuesday night. With a 7:00
am (PST) delivery in CofI, I want to be parked in Barstow and my break started
no later than 8:00 pm (CST) to be able to get there an hour early and with as
many hours available as possible. I need
to be leaving Grants by 8:00 (CST) Wednesday, because remember, it takes 12
hours to run an 11 hour shift.
I
usually have at least 6 extra hours on a load, sometimes as much as 24. I teach them to take most of those extra
hours with the last break before delivery.
By saving their extra time to the end, if they blow a tire (say in
Kingman, using our example load) they have time to get it fixed without risking
being late for their delivery. I also
tell them it’s totally okay to take one of those extra hours at one of the
casinos in New Mexico if they want, just don’t take them all there!
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