Time
management can be tricky. Most of the
trainees I get don’t understand that even on days that we don’t pick up or
deliver, we still need to cover X amount of ground. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the
average person’s experience with cross country driving is to plan on getting
there on a certain day. The idea of
having to plan and arrive by X time on that day is foreign. When you couple that with a very loose
understanding of hours of service laws, it’s a recipe for disaster.
One of the questions in the Depart
Shipper message that we send in once we’re loaded is “I can make the next stop
on time?” The only options the QC will accept is “Y” for yes, or “N” for
no. Sometimes I wish it would accept “M”
for maybe or “?” for no idea! Seriously,
we have some loads that are scheduled so tight that I’m not sure I can make it
until I get under one drive shift out from delivery. Usually my DM knows if I can’t make it before
I do. He’s good like that. So how do we figure out if we can make the
next stop on time?
If the Load Info and GPS mileage
match, we know that the GPS is routing us about the same way as the company
routing. If they don’t match, we use the
mileage from the Load Info.
1. Using 60 mph as the average, we know
that for every 600 miles we will drive 10 hours. A 1,300-mile trip will take about 22 hours of
drive time. We plan 10-hour drive shifts
as opposed to 11 because I’m rarely lucky enough to have a place to stop
exactly where my 11-hour clock is going to run out.
2. For every 10 hours of driving, we add
in an hour to the day for fuel stop, 30-minute break, another potty break and a
post-trip inspection. Even if I can
combine the fuel stop with the 30-minute break, we figure in 3 stops during a
shift. For every drive shift, we also
need a 10-hour rest break.
If we leave OKC at noon on Tuesday
(CST), can we make it to City of Industry, CA, 1,300 miles away by Thursday
morning at 7:00 am (PST)?
22
hours of straight driving takes us to 10:00am Wednesday. 2 hours of fuel/potty/etc takes us to noon
Wednesday. Add in two 10 hour breaks and
that takes us to 10:00am Thursday, which is 8:00 am Pacific time. That is logging as a solo driver. A solo driver could not make on time
delivery. Since I’m teaching this to a
trainee, we have two drivers in the truck, which means we have two log books so
yes, we can make it. FYI: we factor everything on Central time
because that’s what we log, we then adjust for crossing time zones.
I’m
going to stop here and share the really confusing part next week!
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