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Hours of Service Trip Planning is one of the core elements in the Truckers Trip Planning App and was a focal point in the build and release of the app in March 2016 when Young and Healthy Marketing LLC formulated the concept of "Putting the Horse before the Cart".
Don't be misled! Hours of Service Trip Planning is not the result of attempting to tell you when and where to take your breaks. As a Professional Driver, you should be able to make that determination on your own. After-all, Nine times out of ten, no one will be able to tell you where you are when you feel the need to take a break and no one can tell you how to plan your load based on your own individual driving habits!
However, what we can do is to tell you the hours of service required by a load so that you could easily determine whether you have the remaining hours of service to run that load and give you the tools to plan the load based on your own individual driving habits. If you cannot accomplish the load then you should be communicating that to your dispatcher for plans to either relay the load or simply give it to someone who can.
For example, let's assume that you have received this dispatch:
Pickup: 837 West Lumber Street, Chicago, Ill, 60608 at 12:51 am on March 15, 2018
Deliver: 521 Burlington Blvd, Dallas TX 75208 at 2:12 pm on March 16, 2018
As a Professional Driver you should be cognizant of what the load requires based on "hours of service and not drive time": You should realize that there are a few hours of service variables that are missing in the dispatch that you will have to determine like pre trips, post trips, fuel stops, load times and unload times. Furthermore, you should realize that Google Maps are not truck specific. However, in this example we will use the map just to make a point.
Ultimately, we want to show you what would be required of you in order to accomplish this insane objective.
Here is a visual of the load's dispatch and the loads time requirements while planning the load based on hours of service requirements at 50 miles per hour:
How fast must you drive to deliver this load to 521 Burlington Blvd, Dallas TX 75208 at 2:12 pm on March 16, 2018?
If you can drive 73 miles per hour continuously without any slow downs resulting from traffic, weather, road conditions and the like throughout the trip, then you can reach your destination on time. If you cannot maintain 73 miles per hour then you will have to either drive faster while pushing everything and everybody out of your way or just leave it alone.
Trip Planning a load at 73 mph is simply planning to be unsafe!
It makes absolutely no sense at all that anyone would be able to maintain that speed throughout the trip without expecting to encounter numerous slowdowns that would have a significant impact on the accomplishment of such a plan.
You should not mislead your dispatcher or yourself to believe that you will be able to meet any ETA's based on this plan because when you do, plans are made accordingly for your next load and you alone will have to account for this mistake along with any unsafe incidents or accidents that may be caused by your being irresponsible. "Commit only to those things that you know you can do and not to what you think you can do" and don't set yourself up for failure by doing only what someone wants you to do at the risk of your CDL! Maybe then we don't have to see the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) mandating such things as Electronic Logging Devices (ELDs) to keep us under control.
Take advantage of the original Hours of Service Trip Planning App; "The Truckers Trip Planning App" and see what the load requires before committing to the load. As Truck Drivers ourselves, we built this app with the help of other truckers to help all truckers to be safe and profitable while in the truck.
Please share this article to help other truckers see that the Truckers Trip Planning App was "Built by Truckers, For Truckers" so that they can be aware of imitators and copy cats who wants to manipulate us into doing the very things we seek to avoid; like being all stressed out, unsafe, and broke!!