In the app, we have a place to put how many miles per hour we want the app to calculate its info on. That's great, if you put in an accurate number. When I first started, I was figuring everything at 60 mph. I figure, truck is governed at 65, so 60 should be a good number to work with. It wasn't until about week 3, that I started to take a hard look at why I seemed to always be running behind. The first thing i did, was to sit down and calculate how many miles per driving hour i was actually doing. As it turned out, over the previous 8 days, my avg was 53.2 miles per hour, and the previous 3 days, it was 54.6 mph. Then it dawned on me, that we don't always drive under perfect conditions. That weather, traffic, the weight of the load, and the route your given all work against you.
Since that day, the first thing I do, is find my avg mph from the last 8 days, and the last 3 days, and use the lower number in the app. As a consequence of doing this, I haven't been late to any more appointments, and I feel more comfortable telling my dm what I can realistically do with any given load, because using that average, helps to take into account things like weather and traffic.
As a side benefit, it also gives me a goal to improve upon. Bringing that avg up, and forces me to pay even stricter attention to my clock, and driving habits, because it shows me if I am driving not just safely, but also profitably. And that has had a huge impact on my checks, and my stress level.
It would be nice if the app had a place to track those two figures for people like me, so we can be more accurate with our times, instead of just guessing. Not to mention that the formula I can up with is a lot to type into a calculator, and I am not that good at setting up spreadsheets to make on of my own to do the calculations for me. Maybe it could be added to the same page as the hos recaps, or a page on it's own. I have looked for an app that will do this for me, but I haven't found any, anywhere. So in the meantime, its pen, paper, and a calculator for me.
I will gladly share the formula I use with anyone who wants it.
This is a good dialog. It would be great to see other drivers chime in on this conversation. I would love to hear your perspectives on this topic.
However, I'm curious if a formula calculating the best speed is necessary and whether the app needs this resource or if the speed range that is currently on the app sufficient enough for each driver to make their own call based on the run and their governed speed.
I think too that it is important to remember that the ETA's we give to our Dispatcher or broker is what we will be held to. So to safe side our ETA as much as possible, will more than likely be to our best interest because this keeps us from being stressed out in the truck later after having stated that we could make it and finding later that we can't.
Thanks for sharing Bryan Barkley, You make some good points. Me personally I can remember when I was still in school studying for my class A license, we based all of our speeds at a 45 mph concept straight out of the DMV booklet. Still a good rule to follow though because the information found in those study guides is based off of research compiled from many paid professionals and drivers. I set my calculation speed at 55 mph when using the truckers trip planning app because is the posted nationally accepted speed from state to state. And if I had to say which one was the better rule to follow it would be the 45 mph rule. All in all though the truckers trip planning app will do the calculations for me on the fly, all I have to do is pick a speed.
Brian, thanks for your post. In setting your speed for the load, you should go with 50 miles per hour because this compensates for unexpected events like weather, traffic, construction and such. In general trying to pinpoint a specific speed will only lead to more problems because each route or even each load it will more than likely change based on those unexpected events.
The general rule of thumb is to use a speed that you can actually maintain for the run. Calculating at 60 gives you the results based upon your ability to maintain 60 throughout the run which is highly unlikely for any driver.
However setting it at 50 allows you to run as hard as you can whether it is 60, 65, 70 or whatever but when you have to slow down to 30, 35, or whatever, the fact that you planned at 50 compensates for the slow down. Some people like to plan at higher speeds and that's why I set the speeds the way I did. In fact I have often used 60 if I knew I was running nothing but interstate. However, the best and safest bet is always to plan your loads at 50 mph.