Question:
Ok,let me start by saying I've been lurking here for a couple of months. Reading and searching for answers as I investigate this new career. Thanks to all for the great info. It has been a great help in not only understanding the ins and out of trucking but also different companies.
Now I have a question that I can't seem to find a answer to no matter how I search. It's most likely buried in here some where, but haven't found it.
Now if I can just ask it so it make since to someone besides me. Remember I'm a wannabe so this may be very simple I just don't have the knowledge yet to understand it.
I've read just about everything on HOS and the reg, etc. What I'm wondering is when a driver is dispatched how is the distance/time calculated from pickup to delivery.
Let's say you p/u in Salt Lake with a delivery in Des Moines. Now it's doesn't take a lot of brain power to realize that if the p/u is on Friday you're not going to deliver on Sat the next day. But lets say the delivery is for Monday AM. In my pov twice this year I drove from SLC to South of Des Moines in about 27 hours. Pretty much straight through. Now I know with HOS this would be impossible in a truck. But when dispatch gives a load is it based on ideal driving conditions. ie, no driving time lost to contruction, scales, accidents (not truck related) etc. If so what is the margin of error if any. I mean is there a window to work with. If for some reason you are suppose to be a sleep, but for what ever reason you can't sleep, noisey environment, thunder storm, etc anyway you don't get enough sleep. So while driving next day you feel you are to tired and can not drive safely and pull over to get a nap. What happens to the delivery time. I understand that maybe you have a delivery time of say 8 AM and you need to be there on time. Not real sure I'm asking this correctly.
Let me ask it this way If you leave from point A and hit all the marks, (no accidents, no construction, no breakdowns no delays what so ever) will you arrive at point B at or close to the delivery time. Or is there a few hours built in to allow for unforseen delays. Or are all the loads basically just in time.
Also I understand that a lot would depend on what type of load or even a given companies' policy. I'm just looking for generalities here.
Thanks
Thom

Answer:
Hi Thom and welcome to Trucknet.
I'm up early this morning and will give this one a shot. Hopefully someone else will add to and correct me. I'm not a driver but a driver's wife who rides with him almost all the time.
Much will depend on your company as to how tight their schedules are set. Companies tend to use a formula for figuring delivery times based on governed speed of your truck and allowing time for your 8 hr. break.
I'm not sure what mph Swift used when dispatching it's trucks while Hubby was there but they gave the driver's a guideline to use of 50 mph.
Before accepting a preplan, the driver would need to look at the miles and route involved and divide the miles by 50 mph (60 mph truck) to get an estimate of how long it would take to get there. Then allow time for your rest breaks and of course look at your logbook to determine if you have the available hours to complete the trip legally.
At Swift, if you didn't have the available hours needed you would call dispatch and advise them of such. They would either find you another load you could legally do or get the delivery time on that one rescheduled to something you could legally complete. If that load had to be there, then they would pull it off you and give it to another driver who had the available hours or a team. Sometimes they will have you pick up the load and take it to a terminal or yard to leave for another driver to complete who has the hours. You are paid for the miles from pickup to the place you leave the load.
Another thing to remember is once you make a commitment by accepting the load then companies expect you to meet that delivery time. At any time if you run into delays and the schedule is tight, you need to advise dispatch. To CYA you should do this on Qualcomm (so there is documented record) as well as make a phone call if needed. Most of the big companies that accept newbie drivers for training will place a service failure on your record if you committ to a load and then fail to deliver it on time unless you have a good reason for your being late (mechanical, illness, accident, etc.). Oversleeping doesn't count. -->
For instance, Hubby was given 2 service failures at Swift. One was for accepting a load and then being about 2 hrs. late delivering because he had a migraine headache when he woke up that morning and had to lay there a little longer to be able to drive. He called them too late for them to do anything about load but it wasn't like he planned on waking with a migraine either. All the managers there always told him, "We don't count that against you". Then why was it on his record? Hmmm.
He had another for accepting a load, thinking he had enough hours to legally complete. He made a mistake in calculations on his logbook. I knew he was running short on hours so after he picked up the load I was looking at his book and realized he had made an error and should never have accepted the load. Coincidentally, it was during the annual 72 hr enforcement kick DOT in all states enjoys every June.
We were in FL, heading for south GA. We were going right by the Ocala, FL terminal so Hubby called dispatch to inform them of his mistake and ask if he should t-call the load at Ocala so another driver could deliver by next day. They advised him to take it in there and they would let him know something shortly.
We arrived at Ocala and he hadn't heard anything on Qualcomm so he went inside to dispatch window and asked about t-calling. They immediately began to fuss and said nobody had cleared it with them to t-call. They told Hubby to just sit on load until morning when his driver manager would be in because they had nobody to deliver load. They said his DM could reschedule load. So we went to bed until morning.
First thing in morning, his Qualcomm began to beep. Message from DM, call me now! So he goes in and calls her and she is freaking because this load is critical JIT (just in time) load and is now going to be late and she says people in Phoenix are looking at this and asking questions. Umhmmm. So, she says she will call and see if can reschedule. A few minutes later she is beeping again, saying get your paperwork into office NOW so someone can get on this load. Duh, Hubby tried to get someone on the load over 8 hrs. earlier but couldn't get any cooperation from anyone. -->
She then wants him to take his logbook into Ocala terminal to have someone look at it and see WHY he couldn't complete load. --> Hubby was so mad and was cussing, he said he resented anyone thinking he didn't know how to manage his log and he hung up on her.
I talked to him and calmed him down and convinced him to take book inside so the "idiots that be" can see for themselves. He did and a driver manager inside looked at it and said immediately that he should never have been dispatched on that load to start with. He then called Hubby's DM and told her so. -->
That was the end of it, so we thought. Hubby stayed there until he regained hours and got some needed work done on his truck. The next day he got a message from his DM saying thanks to all you drivers who complained about me because now I've been fired!
He got a new DM and a few months later he found out he received a service failure for that load. --> Nobody seemed to be able to tell him how he could go about disputing the service failure either.
Good news is after he quit, there were no service failures reported on his DAC report and they gave him a Satisfactory report.
Hope this gives some of what you are looking for and will help other newbies avoid the potential pitfalls of company policies.
Another piece of advice is study the HOS rules and regs and learn to use it to your advantage to get your necessary rest.
A mind is a terrible thing to have.
_________________
A mind is a terrible thing to have.

Answer:
Welcome to Trucknet. Glad to see you have graduated yourself from lurker to participant.
You have asked a great question.
Let me try to sum up an answer that has no definates in it.
Rate of dispatch depends on many things. Company speed policy, area traveling in, solo or team operation, customer needs, drop and hook or live load, etc.
Most companies I have worked for generally use 50 mph figuring dispatch times. The one problem here though is these are often figured from point of pickup to delivery point and do not count for deadhead miles/time.
Dispatches are given assuming there will be no problems enroute, but you often have a little extra time built in automatically since the speed you can travel and average will more than likely be greater than the rate of dispatch.
It is illeagal for a company to "force" you to do a run that you can not safely and legally complete in the time frame provided.
It is the DRIVERS responsiblitly to determine if he iis able to complete the run in the time frame provided and to COMMUNICATE any and all problems be it before or during the run that will effect the load being picked up or delivered on time as soon as possible.
Most companies require some type of daily check in either by the onboard commeunications (quualcomm for instance) or by phone to report your on duty hours (the total spent driving and doing other tasks) and sometimes the amount of hours available for that day. Some companies also require the driver the report the ETA to destination every day as well as estimated hours of service left for the day before your next required break upon delivery. This in no way means that the company will take this into account before dispatching you on your next load, but some companies do make the effort to take your available hours into account.
I hope this helps you out some, and please feel free to ask any question you have at any time. The only dumb question is the one not asked.
I have a name not a number. I am not cheap but I am resonable.
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Answer:
Flying MuskRatWelcome to trucknet
When I am trying to judge if I have enough time to do a load I use a 3 step method.
1: I take the total mileage loaded and empty add 10% and divide by 25 mph = hours, a good efficient pace on a long dispatch.
2: I take the total mileage loaded and empty add 10% and divide by the hours dispatched. Gives the avg. mph
3: Total mileage loaded and empty add 10% and divide by the days dispatched
Gives Miles per day needed.
Example
You are dispatched out of SLC at 15:15 hours 12/28/02 on a load of 1077 Miles to deliver 12/30 at 7:00 in Des Moines IA
1: Take 1077 miles + 10% = 1184 rounded up/ 25 Mph= 47.4 hours necessary to do the load.
How do you determine if you have enough time to do the load?
2: You would take 12/28/02 24 – 15:25= 8:75 (decimal equivalent time) +24 hours ( 12/29 ) + 7 ( hours on 12/30) = 39.75 Hours( DET) So it’s 1184 miles / 39.75 = 27.1 mph average speed rounded up. Hard running.
How many miles per day do you need to go to get there on time
3: 39.75 Hours / 24 = 1day.6875 Rounded up so you take 1184/1.6875= 701 miles a day. Sounds like a lot? On 12/28 you drive 481 miles till midnight. 8hours sleep 08:00 till 20:00 on the 12/29 you put in 630 miles with two hours of break 1111 miles so far. Leaving 73 miles to drive into Des Moines on the 12/30 hard run? May be you have a window of 07:00 – 10:00 things just got easier.
1077 miles SLC to Des Moines, IA
As far as the things that can make you late keep in touch with dispatch and communicate.
Clear as Mud I bet but the best I can do to explain it.
Seek to know God and Jesus who was presented as the sacrifice of full payment for sin.

Do the VI maintain your following distance maintain your lane position observe the speed limit observe the things around you and keep good records

Safe driving to you.
Joe

Answer:
...it seems that we're dispatched on a 500 mile per day schedule, and as Joe mentioned, a lot of our runs have pick-up/delivery windows that allow you to get the load there earlier or later.
"Pain is weakness leaving the body."
"Nobody ever drowned in their own sweat."

Answer:
Practical mileage from SLC - Des Moines = 1,068 miles. If a person drove every inch of the way at the speed limit it would take 14 hours 34 minutes driving time.
So for the practical sense let go with 20 hours driving time. Keep in mind for every 10 hours driving time a persone needs 8 hours off-duty to zero the 10/15 hour rule.
So now a person needs 28 hours to get from SLC to Des Moines. Keep in mind that's on a continuos flow 10-8-10.
Keep the faith.
Mike
Disclaimer: The views posted are those of the author and in no way represent the US Department of Transportation or the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. The accuracy of the rules posted are subject to the status of rules and regulations posted by the GPO and other Government Agencies. The author accepts no responsibility for inaccuracies of any posted regulation or interpretation. Readers should seek legal counsel for all legal issues.

Answer:
Thanks all for the great rely and the welcome. I understand it a tad better. Going to print it out so I can mull it around in the ole noggin a bit. Ain't the brightest bulb on the tree some days.
Hope you and yours are having a joyous holiday
Thom

Answer:
In oTR, not all you 70-hour weekly "budget" is used for driving. There are several hours each week (one or two each day) you must log for pre-trips, fueling, loading and unloading, etc... This leaves you with apx maybe 60 hours each week to actually log as driving time (depending on the kind of driving job)
When you factor in some city driving, etc, this averages to about 450 miles per day.
Some days are less. Some days are more -- up to almost 800 miles you can legally drive in 24 hrs running 10-driving and 8-off.
But large companies try to match you with loads that keep you around that 450 mile per day average. If they run you harder than that on a regular basis, you'll use-up all your 70 hours too fast and be stuck a day or two waiting to "pick-up hours" from eight days ago.
In a perfect trucking world, you'd actually be assigned loads that give you this nice smooth work flow, so you could sleep well each night and have plenty of time for a shower and a sit-down meal or two. Of course, in reality, our customer's schedules are something less than perfect -- you work in waves of running hard a few days, followed by days with plenty of time to shower, eat, do laundry, etc.
Everytime you have a "hard run" where you barely have time to visit a bathroom, you're banking (in effect) a few days down the road where you'll have more time to rest, shower and enjoy sit-down meals......or run shags
In any event, under almost any load, there's one basic principle or rule that'll serve you well:
Run the load as far as you can, as soon as you can, each day.
-->

Answer:
1. Take the mileage and multiply by 1.1 giving the Working-Miles.
2. Divide Working-Miles by 50 mph to determine how many hours of driving.
3. Add number of hours driving since your last 8 hour break to hours of driving for total hours driving.
3 Divide total hours of driving by 10 to determine how many D.O.T. 8 hour breaks are required.
4. Add total driving hours + D.O.T. 8 hour breaks + reasonable number of personal breaks(shower, meal, bathroom etc) for total trip time.

Answer:
lets see, if i remember my gzindas,you know, 2 gziida 4 a total of 2 times,the formula used by many dispatchers is simple: solo driver, divide the miles by 35 mph, teams divide by 55. doesn't get much simpler than that! hope this helps. remember, the only dumb question is the one you DON'T ask. -->

Answer:
And then of course when you have finally figured out this 'drive 10/sleep 8' rule, and you DON'T have time to get there IF you sleep 8, you then kick into superman mode, and do the 'splitting-hours' rule.
Someone else will explain that to you. -->

Answer:
I don't understand the 25MPH part of your figures.(I'm not saying it's wrong, jst I don't get it). I figure everything at 50MPH Average.

Answer:
huett38,
I think the 25mph average accounts for eight hour breaks.....I think. If so, it's a different way to look at it than I do. I also separate driving time from line-4 and rest time, and use about 50mph for my extimated average running speed.
You get good at just looking at the appointment times and miles and figuring a basic plan in your head. To someone new, it seems rather confusing. But after a while, you're just solving the same arithmatic problem over and over and over and over.....
If you're looking at more than 700 miles each 24 hours, you have to buckle-down and do some careful planning. You'll have to keep driving, take your 8hr break, and start driving again as soon as possible. Each new 10hr shift will start a couple hours sooner than the last one, and you may end-up sleeping at odd hours by the time you're finished (hate that). But anything less than 700 miles each 24 hours is no sweat if you've got available hours in your seventy. You've got at least a couple extra hours every day to play with -- I try to put them at the end of my trip and keep the load moving regardless.

Answer:
The 25 mph is a target average that I have come up with over the last 20 years to determine if I have roughly enough time to do the load offered at a comfortable pace and yes it dose include 8 hour breaks as well as fuel showers meals VI and trip plans getting directions and doing record keeping and paper work pu and delivery and walk breaks also.
I find 25 mph to be a comfortable pace efficient, faster makes harder running slower and I am looking for a place to kill time.
Seek to know God and Jesus who was presented as the sacrifice of full payment for sin.

Do the VI maintain your following distance maintain your lane position observe the speed limit observe the things around you and keep good records

Safe driving to you.
Joe

Answer:
What screws everybody up is when you get to a shipper 30 minutes before your pickup time and there is some problem or another.
Maybe the last shift didn't clear the loading area and the current shift is stuck with it, maybe something broke down, maybe the computers went down, maybe somebody pulled away from the dock without making sure everything was ready and there is a forklift laying sideways on the ground and paramedics on the way.
When this happens--CALL DISPATCH IMMEDIATELY!
Or when you deliver--same kinds of problems--somebody didn't show up, somebody got the numbers wrong, your outfit screwed up the times, etc.
Again--CALL DISPATCH IMMEDIATELY.
Most outfits have a pretty good idea of what the real-time requirements are. You have to make sure that you are running more or less legal--if you have a doubt---guess what? CALL DISPATCH IMMEDIATELY!
The key is communication. If you have a problem (and there will be many)--don't spring it on people at the last minute. Even if you think you have a problem but maybe really don't, call 'em.
Whether you are a brand new driver or have 30 years and 4 million miles--the folks at the office usually have a better handle on things than the guy/gal behind the wheel.
USE them. Don't be afraid of sounding like a newbie or of not knowing something that everybody else take for granted.
Believe me, they would much rather answer a call for help than a customer complaint.
Within a very short time you will be able to "ballpark" the time for a run from any point A to any Point B.
Generally, JIT (Just In Time) loads are dispatched to experienced and proven reliable drivers. Newer guys are cut some slack.
But no matter what, COMMUNICATION!
May you be well and happy!