Trip Planning Section In High Roads Training?

I have been reading up on trip planning on the forum but it is a lot of sifting to find the pertinent information. It's probably a little late for me but I wondered if I wasn't the only person who would have devoured a duties section on trip planning like the log book and weight distribution sections.

I know you have to be super busy Brett but it sure seems like it would be an awesome addition! It seems like from reading the forum posts people do have their own ways of doing it but putting together some tips and tricks some do's and don't in one location sure would be neat! Maybe even an example or two😀

I can't say enough how much this site has helped me and how thankful I am for it!!!

That reminds me I wondered if there is a need for donations, I'm guessing it costs some money to keep this site going, I would love to help keep it going!!

IMHO, trip planning is/should be taught during company training. Different companies will route their drivers differently.

The way we were taught to trip plan at my company is to find the most direct truck route in your atlas, calculate the miles and round it to the nearest 50 miles and figure an average travel time of 50 mph. If you'll need one or more 10 hour breaks on your trip add that time in and add 2 hours for fueling, scaling, pre/post trip for 1 day and an extra 30 mins for each additional 10 hour break you'll require.

It will make much more sense when you're in a truck. Some companies require you to follow their preplanned route exactly, mine doesn't.

I see very different from company to company. I'm in CDL school now they spend very little time on it so I have been trying to get a better handle on it before heading to a company.

Thanks Susan!

Hood that you have the initiative to work on this ahead of time. As Susan rightly states, once you get with a trainer, that's when the "finishing school" subjects are learned. Trip planning, HOS management, load securement, tire chains, scaling loads, budgetting/saving money on the road, etc.

As we know, the CDL school is getting you proficient enough driving, backing, and shifting to get your own license. Really, nothing more than that at most places.

I've had plans for expanding our offerings and it's something I'll be working on soon. I want to add sections to the High Road, including one on time management, and I want to add a huge "how to" section that includes all kinds of stuff like sliding tandems , hooking/unhooking trailers, backing, shifting, etc. Also, a big section on how things work like air brakes, Jake brakes, Qualcomm , etc.

The best tool you could get now is a Rand McNally truck atlas. It is the only product of their's that I will recommend. The laminated one costs around $30.00. You should get a current one. In that book there is information on pretrip, weight limits, restricted roads, etc. It will never die on you. Learning how to use this tool is one of the most important skills a CDL driver can have. Good luck.

I figure the more I can start to learn now the better, so much to learn!!! It seems like there are some general principals to trip planning on the forum discussions I read, mainly don't rely on GPS!! Maybe a list of factors that you need to think of like terrain, weather, traffic, road construction, this seems like a hard thing for a rookie like me to think of everything you need to consider.

I will have to get on ordering a laminated atlas for sure. I really loved Susan's tip about using a dry erase marker to trace your route, even using another color for an alternate route if you think you might need one. I thought maybe a small dry erase board mounted on the dash would be nice for writing out the turns to my next stop, then erase and put the next set kind of like the sticky note people say they use. I have to admit this part as well as optimizing our HOS sounds so fun and exciting to me I love trying to do things the most efficient way possible!! It's like an awesome puzzle to be solved!!!!

Again can't thank you enough Brett for this site!!!

And thank you to all the people making it work!!