How Exactly Does All Of This Work?

When you are given a load it is my understanding that you are to plan a route to get it done. Are you given a certain number of miles that you are not allowed to exceed? I am aware that there are timeframes and my understanding this far is that your good as long as you make it in your time frame. Anyone care to break it down for a rookie?

When you are given a load it is my understanding that you are to plan a route to get it done. Are you given a certain number of miles that you are not allowed to exceed? I am aware that there are timeframes and my understanding this far is that your good as long as you make it in your time frame. Anyone care to break it down for a rookie?

With Swift we don't get to choose. We take the route they give us, but we are able to ask dispatch if we can go a different way. When I was training we had to change route to avoid going through i70 in Colorado, which was pretty bad at the time. All we had to do is let dispatch know and wait for them to approve it. It really depends on the company.

Your dispatcher or your company GPS will give you probably the shorter route. My own GPS is set to find the fastest way, which can be different by a few miles. But overall, either one of those will get the job done.

If you want to take a route that has a real difference in mileage, say to avoid a snowed-in mountain pass for example, check with your DM. But if you want to take a longer route to see a friend, or to get some good catfish, do that at your own risk.

As Glad says - most of the time, at the larger starter companies - you are given a suggested route (or even mandatory) and fuel stops. They try to plan out for you - and all things being equal (weather, accidents, road closures, etc.), you should have enough time to make your appointments with some room to spare.

They DO NOT (typically) tell you how long to drive on any given day - this part of "trip planning" is on the driver (how to make the most effective use of your HOS clock).

You are not allowed to exceed speed limits, and most larger company trucks have their top speed limited to 60-65 (62/63 on pedal, typically 65 on CC). You can drive faster than the speed limit on secondary roads, AT YOUR OWN PERIL (as in, you DO NOT WANT to be getting speed or any other tickets). You have 11 hours that you can drive in a 14 hour "On Duty" period (per HOS regs) - plus you need to take a 1/2 hour break at some point in that 11 hours. So that's 13.5 hours (1/2 hour break counts on your 14 hour clock). You're going to want to stop & fuel, use the restroom, eat, etc., so that lops some more time off your 14 hour clock. If you actually got to drive your full 11, all highway miles, on cruise control @ 65MPH - you could still only max out at 650-700 miles.

So while your company isn't going to regulate how many miles you CHOOSE TO DRIVE - there are still physical and regulatory limits on how many you ACTUALLY CAN DRIVE.

So - you look at the load assignment - check the route the company gives you. You look at your Road Atlas, GPS, Google Maps, etc. - and see how many ACTUAL MILES are involved (because load/paid miles are typically zip-to-zip, not actual hub miles), and whether the assigned route has "issues" (because sometimes the routing software can send you places trucks aren't allowed). Then you jump on Wunderground or The Weather Channels weather maps, to see what your weather is going to look like on your trip, so you can factor that into your time calculations, check the DOT sites of the states you're traveling through for road closures, construction, detours, etc.. At that point - you can figure out how many hours/miles you can get into your day, where your fuel stops are going to figure into your route - and where you're going to try and stop for the day. And don't forget to figure your TIME ZONE CHANGES - pickups/deliveries are in the LOCAL TIME ZONE of where they're located - while your HOS CLOCK runs on the local time of your HOME TERMINAL.

Just think - back before the internet - your got sent somewhere, and navigated almost like Christopher Columbus - an atlas and the stars to guide you - now you can look at live cameras, and get up to the minute traffic reports (some GPS's will factor them into your arrival times too).

It's really not as complicated as it sounds - and today's technology makes it a lot easier than it was "back in the day".

Rick