Hi everyone,
I hope you all are having a good Friday evening. I'm sitting here in cold snowy Cleveland, where it's like 0 degrees outside and the wind is howling like crazy so I snuggled up with my pre trip instruction manual and was busy looking it over and studying it and learning all the proper terms and verbiage. So I will be sure to talk to the proctor at the CDL testing facility properly.
Actually I'll be a pro at the CDL testing facility because I get to take my CDL test twice lucky me!! When you get a passenger bus endorsement you have to go back to the CDL facility and test in a bus with the inspector. So I get to do the once around (god I hope it's only once ha-ha) in a tractor trailer get my Class A and then do the once around (god I hope it's only once) in a bus with the inspector.
Any how I would like to do a mock OTR run and see what you career OTR guys said about how I planned my trip.
My big question is what is the best way to stay out of trouble doing OTR trucking?
Here is what I mean, by that how many people go over the road and they do not manage their time well or plan stops well.
Like okay and this is hard to do especially writing, but I would really appreciate it if I could get a walk through of a typical OTR run. Like how would a seasoned career OTR driver go about a run at a company like Crete? I am going to go through how I would do a run and obviously this is perfect world, but it's all I have to go with so I'll take a stab at it and try my best. So if you don't mind climb up into the cab with me and come along.
Okay so I am fresh off of a 34 hour reset and have 70 hours available to work, I am working at Crete and we are fresh off of our reset and we are at the main terminal in Lincoln, NE and we are to pick up a refrigerated Shaffer trailer that is sitting in the yard full of hamburger meat for Denny's and our mission is to take the trailer to Meadowbrook Meat Co in Columbus, Ohio.
From Lincoln,NE to Columbus, Ohio is 811 miles according to Google maps. Dispatch tells us that we have, oh what would be realistic for a load like that 3-4 days? I suppose you could maybe do it in 2 days, but that would be pushing it a little bit. I know that from what I am told from people who have done it you eventually become more efficient then the loads the OTR companies dispatch out.
However for conversation sake will say dispatch tells us we have 3 days to get there and were starting at 00:00am to make things easy and we need to be in Columbus at 00:00am 3 days from the day we left. So say it is 00:00am on Monday and our load delivers to MBM in Columbus,Ohio at 00:00am on Thursday, right? midnight on Monday to midnight on Tuesday is day 1, then midnight on Tuesday to Midnight on Wednesday is day 2 and then Midnight on Wednesday to Midnight on Thursday is day 3.
So we have 9.5 hours to drive because we have to take a 1/2 hour break, and also we need to make sure we have a place to stop and rest when we are done working. Which is another thing I always though sometimes getting some place may involve just planning where you are going to stop so day 1 I would figure that it should be possible to travel from Lincoln, NE to Decatur, IL. The reason I choose Decatur, IL is because there is a Pilot Truck Stop there and it is 474 miles from Crete's main terminal where we started. Which by my calculations should take 7.5 hours to get to which gives us a margin of error on the day like maybe we get in a traffic jam or get pulled over by the DOT for an inspection also Decatur is about the half way point close enough so if we can get their in 7.5 hours we are doing pretty good.
So we log on duty and do our pre trip and it takes us 15 minutes to do our pre trip so out of 570 minutes we have to work for that day we just killed 15 of them which means we have 555 minutes left to work which is 9.25 hours so we are still doing pretty good. So we climb into our nice red Crete truck and we head down the road with our nice white and blue Shaffer trailer in tow. We might have the radio on and were jamming out to some rock music like maybe were listening to Rush or Alice In Chains and were driving our truck 65 mph and were monitoring our mirrors and doing our part to be safe and also deliver the load for the customer on time. Well you figure Lincoln,NE to St.Joseph, MO is 143 miles almost the distance from Cleveland,Ohio to Columbus,Ohio. Any how figure that is as good a place as any to stop and take a bathroom break, because well most of our trip will be on route 36 and there are not to many truck stops on that route at least not from what I can see on google maps. So we get to the truck stops in St.Joseph, MO and we go up to line 1 for 20 minutes. We go to the bathroom, but were careful not to talk to any strangers and we are aware of our surroundings, and we walk around the truck and make sure the refer unit is working right and everything is good. So we just killed 20 minutes.
So we have killed 170 minutes so far because isn't it if you take a 20 minute break it still counts against you because all break time has to be consecutive like you can't split a 10 hour break up?
So after we take our break in St.Joseph we hop in our truck and we get motoring down the road. So we head on down route 36 and we have the radio on and were jamming out to The Cult the radio is playing the song Fire Woman and we are nice and comfy and 5 hours later we arrive at the Pilot in Decatur, IL. So out of 9.5 hours we have to drive we made it to stop 1 in 7.8 hours.
So by that time it is 7 almost 8 in the morning and the truck stop might still be a little crowded, but starting to empty out a little and we find a place to park. So then we go and do a good post trip inspection of our truck and then climb into the back and log line 2 sleeper birth for 10 hours.
So now we are on day 2 and it is 6:00pm central time and we are ready to get going again. For day 2 we are going from Decatur,IL to Columbus,Ohio which is a 6 hour run we are going to make it to MBM in Columbus. So we just had 10 hours off we are rested used the bathroom and are ready to go to work, so we log line 4 do our 15 minute pre trip and we have 555 minutes left to work. So we get on the road and we motor to Columbus, Ohio 5 hours and 15 minutes is what Google maps tells us. So we get to MBM in Columbus,Ohio and it is 12:15am eastern standard time on Wednesday. We know we are a day early, but MBM says all is okay we are happy to have that load of hamburgers for Denny's but right now we are busy loading all our MBM trucks to go out on the road and we will get to you in the morning. So we go and log off for 10 hours. Obviously Wednesday most of the day is spent getting unloaded and waiting for directions from central command on what to do next.
Any how what do you guys think of my planning skills? I think the way I did the math and from what I understand about the rules this should have been a legal load delivered on time no complaints on either side. The only thing I may have missed is fueling I do not know how many hours a refer unit can go before it needs to be refueled, I am sure it probably varies. Like the companies like Martrac and Alliance Shippers who are real big intermodal refer fleets they have refer fuel tanks that take up the whole width of the trailer, because the railroad is not going to fuel any refer trailers. Of course the class 1 railroads run the high priority Z trains on pretty tight schedules, but you get what I am saying.
Any how thanks for coming along with me.
Mike
I hope you all are having a good Friday evening. I'm sitting here in cold snowy Cleveland, where it's like 0 degrees outside and the wind is howling like crazy so I snuggled up with my pre trip instruction manual and was busy looking it over and studying it and learning all the proper terms and verbiage. So I will be sure to talk to the proctor at the CDL testing facility properly.
Actually I'll be a pro at the CDL testing facility because I get to take my CDL test twice lucky me!! When you get a passenger bus endorsement you have to go back to the CDL facility and test in a bus with the inspector. So I get to do the once around (god I hope it's only once ha-ha) in a tractor trailer get my Class A and then do the once around (god I hope it's only once) in a bus with the inspector.
Any how I would like to do a mock OTR run and see what you career OTR guys said about how I planned my trip.
My big question is what is the best way to stay out of trouble doing OTR trucking?
Here is what I mean, by that how many people go over the road and they do not manage their time well or plan stops well.
Like okay and this is hard to do especially writing, but I would really appreciate it if I could get a walk through of a typical OTR run. Like how would a seasoned career OTR driver go about a run at a company like Crete? I am going to go through how I would do a run and obviously this is perfect world, but it's all I have to go with so I'll take a stab at it and try my best. So if you don't mind climb up into the cab with me and come along.
Okay so I am fresh off of a 34 hour reset and have 70 hours available to work, I am working at Crete and we are fresh off of our reset and we are at the main terminal in Lincoln, NE and we are to pick up a refrigerated Shaffer trailer that is sitting in the yard full of hamburger meat for Denny's and our mission is to take the trailer to Meadowbrook Meat Co in Columbus, Ohio.
From Lincoln,NE to Columbus, Ohio is 811 miles according to Google maps. Dispatch tells us that we have, oh what would be realistic for a load like that 3-4 days? I suppose you could maybe do it in 2 days, but that would be pushing it a little bit. I know that from what I am told from people who have done it you eventually become more efficient then the loads the OTR companies dispatch out.
However for conversation sake will say dispatch tells us we have 3 days to get there and were starting at 00:00am to make things easy and we need to be in Columbus at 00:00am 3 days from the day we left. So say it is 00:00am on Monday and our load delivers to MBM in Columbus,Ohio at 00:00am on Thursday, right? midnight on Monday to midnight on Tuesday is day 1, then midnight on Tuesday to Midnight on Wednesday is day 2 and then Midnight on Wednesday to Midnight on Thursday is day 3.
So we have 9.5 hours to drive because we have to take a 1/2 hour break, and also we need to make sure we have a place to stop and rest when we are done working. Which is another thing I always though sometimes getting some place may involve just planning where you are going to stop so day 1 I would figure that it should be possible to travel from Lincoln, NE to Decatur, IL. The reason I choose Decatur, IL is because there is a Pilot Truck Stop there and it is 474 miles from Crete's main terminal where we started. Which by my calculations should take 7.5 hours to get to which gives us a margin of error on the day like maybe we get in a traffic jam or get pulled over by the DOT for an inspection also Decatur is about the half way point close enough so if we can get their in 7.5 hours we are doing pretty good.
So we log on duty and do our pre trip and it takes us 15 minutes to do our pre trip so out of 570 minutes we have to work for that day we just killed 15 of them which means we have 555 minutes left to work which is 9.25 hours so we are still doing pretty good. So we climb into our nice red Crete truck and we head down the road with our nice white and blue Shaffer trailer in tow. We might have the radio on and were jamming out to some rock music like maybe were listening to Rush or Alice In Chains and were driving our truck 65 mph and were monitoring our mirrors and doing our part to be safe and also deliver the load for the customer on time. Well you figure Lincoln,NE to St.Joseph, MO is 143 miles almost the distance from Cleveland,Ohio to Columbus,Ohio. Any how figure that is as good a place as any to stop and take a bathroom break, because well most of our trip will be on route 36 and there are not to many truck stops on that route at least not from what I can see on google maps. So we get to the truck stops in St.Joseph, MO and we go up to line 1 for 20 minutes. We go to the bathroom, but were careful not to talk to any strangers and we are aware of our surroundings, and we walk around the truck and make sure the refer unit is working right and everything is good. So we just killed 20 minutes.
So we have killed 170 minutes so far because isn't it if you take a 20 minute break it still counts against you because all break time has to be consecutive like you can't split a 10 hour break up?
So after we take our break in St.Joseph we hop in our truck and we get motoring down the road. So we head on down route 36 and we have the radio on and were jamming out to The Cult the radio is playing the song Fire Woman and we are nice and comfy and 5 hours later we arrive at the Pilot in Decatur, IL. So out of 9.5 hours we have to drive we made it to stop 1 in 7.8 hours.
So by that time it is 7 almost 8 in the morning and the truck stop might still be a little crowded, but starting to empty out a little and we find a place to park. So then we go and do a good post trip inspection of our truck and then climb into the back and log line 2 sleeper birth for 10 hours.
So now we are on day 2 and it is 6:00pm central time and we are ready to get going again. For day 2 we are going from Decatur,IL to Columbus,Ohio which is a 6 hour run we are going to make it to MBM in Columbus. So we just had 10 hours off we are rested used the bathroom and are ready to go to work, so we log line 4 do our 15 minute pre trip and we have 555 minutes left to work. So we get on the road and we motor to Columbus, Ohio 5 hours and 15 minutes is what Google maps tells us. So we get to MBM in Columbus,Ohio and it is 12:15am eastern standard time on Wednesday. We know we are a day early, but MBM says all is okay we are happy to have that load of hamburgers for Denny's but right now we are busy loading all our MBM trucks to go out on the road and we will get to you in the morning. So we go and log off for 10 hours. Obviously Wednesday most of the day is spent getting unloaded and waiting for directions from central command on what to do next.
Any how what do you guys think of my planning skills? I think the way I did the math and from what I understand about the rules this should have been a legal load delivered on time no complaints on either side. The only thing I may have missed is fueling I do not know how many hours a refer unit can go before it needs to be refueled, I am sure it probably varies. Like the companies like Martrac and Alliance Shippers who are real big intermodal refer fleets they have refer fuel tanks that take up the whole width of the trailer, because the railroad is not going to fuel any refer trailers. Of course the class 1 railroads run the high priority Z trains on pretty tight schedules, but you get what I am saying.
Any how thanks for coming along with me.
Mike
