Time Management in Reverse

                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!