Part 1 of 3
Trip Planning is a major subject for discussion throughout truck driving school. Our goal here is to give you some tips on how to plan your trip in a manner that will help you maximize your income.
Trip planning and logging go hand in hand because you need to understand Hours of Service rules in order to trip plan properly. In a trip plan, you lay out what you are going to do. Your logbooks show what driving you have already done.
A basic Trip Plan is designed to answer these four questions:
- Where am I going?
How long will it take to get to my destination?
Where and when am I going to stop along the way?
What can I do to make my trip as profitable as possible?
Some successful drivers have provided these tips to students so you’ll know what to expect after truck driving school.
Spend your Hours Of Service Driving and not handling personal business. If you are able handle all of your personal business outside of driving you will be able focus on meeting your driving goals.
Run ahead of schedule so you can take your slack time at the end of the trip. Professionals are often looking to deliver early so they can reload that much sooner.
Practice multi-tasking. If your waiting at a shipper, get other things like trip packs and trip planning done. Don’t waste your time when your on duty. Get as many things done as you can so when you have down time you can relax and get refreshed without having to worry about other things.
Drive at slower speeds. Try not to rush so you can drive a little slower and get better fuel economy. If you plan ahead for it, you’ll be fine and you will have saved some money.
Make daily reviews of your trip plan so you’ll know where you are as far as meeting your goals. Another benefit of keeping constant watch is that you can make adjustments to improve the plan and make better use of your time. And always remember to ask for that early delivery so you can reload sooner.
Use up every last scrap of your drive time. The scraps of time that are left can be the difference maker when you’re adding up your miles come the end of the week.
Consider your health. Remember that eating well, sleeping well and exercising will keep you from losing money do to illness.
In part 2 we will continue to look at other parts of trip planning. part 2 of this series of Trip Plans The Easy Way for Truck Driving School Students. Even though you may still be in trucking school, if you follow these tips you will become a highly profitable truck driver.
Tags: Trip Planning
