I didn't see anyone else making comments or suggestions about this but if I'm wrong please link my comments to that post. I've been getting quite a few load assignments with multiple stops but if I want to add more than two drops, I can only add appointment time and date for the shipper and arrival time and date for the consignee, and no appointment times for any additional stops between. I think this would be a nice new feature to have with the app. Being able to see the time and dates for all stops would make it easier to keep those commitments when I can just look and see that friendly reminder on the application. Would this be feasible, please let me know in the comment section below.
top of page
.jpg)
Welcome to our Truckers Trip Planning App Forum, where helping truckers stay safe, legal, and profitable is our primary commitment.
.png)
bottom of page
Marcel this is absolutely relevant! There are a lot of variables that have to come into play before an appointment can be set. Also these sane variables have to be considered before an ETA calculation can be made. A good example of why Copy Cats can't get this right is because they haven't figured out what all of these variables are. But as the developer of the Truckers Trip Planning App and a truck driver I realize the problems Brian faced in having a specific appointment time. I am going to work diligently to write these variables and provide the best possible answer so that we can easily inform our dispatchers of insane objectives.
Every truck driver has had a scenario similar to this one but I'll be willing to bet that each driver had a different set of variables. The Truckers Trip Planning App can handle the numbers and numbers are reliable but you just never can predict the variables. Good luck and enjoy the application.
Okay, I can see now that your stop 1 was 1400 miles from your pickup and that you had an appointment already set that you could not meet because you could not drive the hours needed without first taking a rest break while a team could run continuous. However if you had a delivery window for that stop without a specific appointment you had the time to make the stop.
I can see that the appointment being set without any calculations is the root of this problem. I believe we can add the appointments to the stop but this only identifies what has been given to you in the dispatch. It still does not tell you if you can make it.
Therefore, ETA calculations for the stop need to be added to the ETA Calculator so you can see when you can arrive for comparison to what you have been given which is what you did when you put it to pencil and paper. From there if you cannot make it then you will be able to convince the dispatcher right away to either relay the load or give it to someone else. Got it!
Brian, I assume that you were held to the specific appointment time given in the dispatch and would like to know who set the appointment for the stop and how the appointment time was calculated.
I'm also confused as to how a solo driver has the required hours of service to reach the delivery on time but a team is required to make the first stop. Maybe I'm missing something! Curious though, what the distance was from your current position to the pickup and the distance from the pickup to the first stop.
When you have time, please call me so we can talk about this some more. I am confident that adding the appointment times is not enough. You also need the ETA Calculations for each stop.
I would also like to be able to have a place to add the dates and times for multiple stop loads. I had a load assigned to me earlier this week, that from pick up to delivery I could run with plenty of time, how ever, it wasn't until later when I put pen to paper, that I was able to finally figure out what had been bothering me about it. As it turned out, I could legally make the pick up, and final, but the stop in the middle, I couldn't legally make. I ended up having to turn the load over to a team, in order to keep the appointments. Had I know that when my dm first offered it to me, i would have been able to tell him i can't run it, and why, instead of committing to it, only to have to explain later, that I couldn't make the first drop on time. Luckily my dm caught it at the same time as I did, and we were able to get the load repowered with a team, instead of a solo driver. Now I am on a new load, again with multiple stops, but I had learned from before to look at the times for each stop, instead of just the big picture. My mistake cost me 1 day, and around 300 miles, but I learned a lot from it, and it could have been much worse.
This was suggested by a Team Driver before. In the original build of the Truckers Trip Planning App I had this but because I wanted to focus on showing you whether you could legally run the load from shipper to delivery regardless of how many stops was on the load, I took it out. Now that we have expanded the app with a whole lot more features other than just answering if you have the hours of service, if you can deliver on time, and whether the load is profitable, I think it would add much value to add this back in. Although you probably wouldn't have this situation much, it's a great idea to have it when you need it.