One of the biggest mistakes is not budgeting time properly. So many factors come in to play to determine when you can drive, when you can't, what routes you can and can't take, and so on. I couldn't possibly list every possible scenario here, but I can list some of the ones I've encountered.
Passing through time zones always confused me as a beginner. If I was heading west and my delivery was in the next time zone, I had to plan accordingly. Pick-up and delivery times are always based upon the location of the shipper or receiver.
Early on I made the mistake of burning through my hours too fast. You want to try to budget your hours in such a way as to avoid having to take a 36-hour reset. Resets mess up everything. So, as I got better at budgeting my time, I would strive for driving no more than 10 hours a day, give or take. That way, I could count on picking up 10 hours every day. Some days I would use more, some days less. You'll find out what I mean as you get out on the road, what I mean by budgeting your hours.
Another mistake I made was not taking in to account the amount of fuel I had before making pick-ups. In one case my fuel gauges were registering about 1/4 tank, and I pulled in to a shipper who loaded me to the hilt with some heavy cargo. Then I went to the closest truck stop, filled up, then scaled. The load, plus all the additional fuel, put me overweight. Sliding my tandems had little effect. I had to go back to the shipper and have them take off some cargo. That cost me about four hours of driving time- time that I wasn't getting paid for.
A big mistake is routing. You MUST KNOW THE ROUTE YOU INTEND TO TAKE! One time the shipper handed me a piece of paper with the route (a short cut) to get back on the highway. Well, it was a route.... it just wasn't a route that a truck could take. The route was the route that the EMPLOYEE took to get to work, and involved an old bridge with a weigh restriction, and which I was was too heavy for. I had to find a place to turn around and head back the way I'd come. As a general rule, leave a facility in the same manner as you'd arrived. If signs are present directing truck traffic, follow them.
One time I followed the directions given to me by my company. The directions placed me on some windy narrow road which, as I soon found out, had a completely impossible railroad trestle up ahead. The road was chosen not because it was a truck route, but because it was a route that shaved a few miles off the overall distance to the next stop. Had I gone with my instincts and remained on the state route just a few miles away, I'd have avoided the windy country road and saved myself about three hours. I didn't check the route I'd been given against my truck road atlas. I assumed that since it was a route generated by my company, that they wouldn't put me on a road I shouldn't have been on in the first place. Wrong!
Passing through time zones always confused me as a beginner. If I was heading west and my delivery was in the next time zone, I had to plan accordingly. Pick-up and delivery times are always based upon the location of the shipper or receiver.
Early on I made the mistake of burning through my hours too fast. You want to try to budget your hours in such a way as to avoid having to take a 36-hour reset. Resets mess up everything. So, as I got better at budgeting my time, I would strive for driving no more than 10 hours a day, give or take. That way, I could count on picking up 10 hours every day. Some days I would use more, some days less. You'll find out what I mean as you get out on the road, what I mean by budgeting your hours.
Another mistake I made was not taking in to account the amount of fuel I had before making pick-ups. In one case my fuel gauges were registering about 1/4 tank, and I pulled in to a shipper who loaded me to the hilt with some heavy cargo. Then I went to the closest truck stop, filled up, then scaled. The load, plus all the additional fuel, put me overweight. Sliding my tandems had little effect. I had to go back to the shipper and have them take off some cargo. That cost me about four hours of driving time- time that I wasn't getting paid for.
A big mistake is routing. You MUST KNOW THE ROUTE YOU INTEND TO TAKE! One time the shipper handed me a piece of paper with the route (a short cut) to get back on the highway. Well, it was a route.... it just wasn't a route that a truck could take. The route was the route that the EMPLOYEE took to get to work, and involved an old bridge with a weigh restriction, and which I was was too heavy for. I had to find a place to turn around and head back the way I'd come. As a general rule, leave a facility in the same manner as you'd arrived. If signs are present directing truck traffic, follow them.
One time I followed the directions given to me by my company. The directions placed me on some windy narrow road which, as I soon found out, had a completely impossible railroad trestle up ahead. The road was chosen not because it was a truck route, but because it was a route that shaved a few miles off the overall distance to the next stop. Had I gone with my instincts and remained on the state route just a few miles away, I'd have avoided the windy country road and saved myself about three hours. I didn't check the route I'd been given against my truck road atlas. I assumed that since it was a route generated by my company, that they wouldn't put me on a road I shouldn't have been on in the first place. Wrong!
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