What is the best way to project how many days, etc to deliver? My husbands trainer drove a dedicated route and never really trained him to route his stops, figure if he'd be on time, etc. I've been trying to help him and he basically says you figure hours driving at 50mph. If that is true, would a 1389 mi delivery take 27.78 hours or 2.5 days to deliver? What kind of cushion do you leave for traffic or other problems? Would appreciate any feedback... :?

 

Calculating at 50 mph would work fine but your estimate of 27.78 hours is off because you failed to add in required breaks. You need to add in a 10 hour break for every 11 hours of driving. (Personally I use 10 hours ) and add the number of breaks into your hours calculation. Then for good measure I always figure in an extra hour into my ETA calculations becuase you never know when you are gonna get lost, or simply have one of those days the hours fly by a little faster than the miles.

So on your example of 1389 (loaded miles) I would round up to 28 hours, and if I did not have 8 hours of drive time available after loading I would figure 3 breaks, 30 hours, (or 2 breaks, 20 hours) if I had 8 hours of drive time) then add in 1 more hour to get an eta of 59 hours after completing pickup. This way you actually have roughly a 3+ hour cushion built in for problems, breaks, etc.

 

59 divided by 24 = 2.5483 days

But, she is also right, even without using the 10 hour breaks.

27.78 or 28 divided by 11 hours = 2.54545454 days.

Now, if he's ambitious, he can drive 11 hours, plus the pretrip and post trip and fueling... 11.75/day + 10 hour break, = 21.75 hours. Round that off to 22. Gives him another 2 hours each day. He could plan on getting there as much as 4 hours earlier. Or spend 4 hours waiting in traffic to get through road construction.

 

"figure hours driving at 50 mph"
What's his company's dispatch speed? I doubt it's 50 MPH, more likely it's lower, like 40. BOL

 

First, want to thank everyone that responded...second, don't know the dispatch speed right off - his trainer was the one that gave him the 50mph formula - I'll tell him to check. Lastly, how many miles do you shoot for in a day...450, 500,...?

I know none of this is rocket science, but it's kind of confusing when he's so new. His trainer was fairly decent, but did a WHOLE LOT OF YELLING more than anything!

 

"trainer was fairly decent, but did a WHOLE LOT OF YELLING" Don't think so, good trainers don't yell... at all.
"miles do you shoot for in a day...450, 500," Hours are logged, not miles. The number you mention could be doable depending on variables. BOL

 

[quote="Sealord"]" Don't think so, good trainers don't yell... at all.
"

That's what we thought also...does nothing but stress a trainee out and half the time the yelling had nothing to do with anything the trainee was doing. To the company's credit, they offered to bring him (my hubby) in and give him another trainer, however, that would have pushed his training back a couple of weeks and at that point, he wasn't willing to do that.

The part about hours logged vs miles - he's just trying to get the best formula to map his route and know what he should realistically expect.

 

If theres a day where he can get a little ahead of schedule and he FEELS up to it he should run with it...a nice sunny day for eg. getting a little ahead provides for an extra cushion in case theres a road closure or bad weather etc. and builds confidence. Be sure he does his streaches and walks a bit when stopping for a break. breaks should be every 4 to 5 hrs. Use shortcuts whenever possible, plan out the day, check map for points of reference like towns to pass, state lines at every stop or at least twice a day. Combine tasks when stopping in order to save time. E.g: Food, fuel, shower. Organize the cab well so everything needed is within reach. E.G: Antacid if he eats at truckstops. load a 12v cooler with non-messy food and healthy snacks. Milk even keeps in them! Bread and tuna in a bag makes for a descent, quick meal without a long break at a Truckstop and hassles with parking, traffic, etc.
Rest Areas rule!

 

Sorry, WW: 28 driving hours divided by 11 hours = 2.5454545454 DRIVING WINDOWS (or 11 hour SHIFTS.) With fuel stops and PTI's that would be say... 12 hours ON, 10 hour break, 12 hours ON, 10 hour break, and about 6 more hours driving... for a total of 50 hours, or JUST over 2 full days.

Personally, I think 50 mph average for DRIVING time is too slow! IF your truck will do more than 65 mph, and you keep the left door closed, you can average about 60mph WHILE you are driving. Of course, this would depend on what part of the country you are in.

IF you can average 60mph while driving, even a 10 hour day behind the wheel will get you 600 miles. Two of them gets you 1200, and you only have about 3 hours left to drive on the third "shift."

Again, depending on the speed limits, and what your truck will do, I'll tell you what your dispatch will EXPECT. They will expect you to log by miles, not hours, and to get half of those miles each of two shifts.

It may take me my whole 14 hour window (with breaks and fueling,) but I will get those 695 miles per day (at 63 mph average,) take a FULL 10 hour break between them, and do the job in 38 hours.

 

It is real hard to do better than 50 mph. Maybe out west.


kc0iv