Hi there smart drivers! Rick with Smart Drive Test
talking to you today about route
planning or sometimes called trip
planning in Canada. This is mostly for
regional and long haul drivers who are
going to be gone overnight or for days
at a time.
Essentially when dispatch gives you your
information about where your drops are,
you plug that into google maps--my
favorite piece of software on the
internet in this day and age--to figure out
how long the trip is, where your drops
are, and how long each leg of that trip
is going to take you. Now when you get
dispatched, you may get some of the
information, you may get all of the
information. In my experience, most of the
time I'd only get part of the information.
So what happens is I get the outbound
freight, and as you're out dropping off the
freight--as you probably will--dispatch is
working on getting you another load, or
whomever the load coordinator is, to bring
freight back. So when you get to your
final drop on the way out,
they'll say, okay we have another pickup
for you. Head up there and get that. So
today we have a trip planned for you
from Kenora, Ontario--way way up there in
the north.
Yes Kenora is still in Ontario - over to
Winnipeg you got a drop in Winnipeg--a
plastics manufacturer--and then you head
over to Regina. You have a drop at a farm
equipment place--at Brandts--and then you
head up to Saskatoon. You have a pickup
in Saskatoon. By the time you get to Saskatoon, though, you're out of hours, so you
overnight at the Petro Pass because
that's where you get fuel. You get fuel
there, you pick up your load of pallets in
the morning at Costco & head back to
Winnipeg. So that's what we're going to do today...
is we're going to go over to the
computer and we're gonna go into Google maps and
show you the different legs of that trip.
We'll give you some information about how to
do that trip and things that you need to
consider - how long it's going to take you
and how you figure that according to
hours of service regulations in Canada.
and the total kilometers that
you going to drive for that trip.
This trip is a 2,100 kilometers, so
it's a two-day trip minimum, depending on
delays and how fast you get in and out
of your drops and pickups and fuelling and
those types of things. It could be a two
and a bit days, which is probably more
what it's going to be. So we're gonna
head over to the computer. We'll be right back
with that information.
Stick around.
[OPENING CREDITS & MUSIC]
Hi there smart drivers, welcome back. Rick
at the computer talking to you today
about trip planning or route planning as it is
sometimes referred to. We have a
trip planned out for you from Kenora,
Ontario over to Winnipeg, Manitoba and
then we're gonna head over to
Saskatchewan. First to Regina and then to
Saskatoon--two drops--we have a drop in
Winnipeg, a drop in Regina and then we have
a pickup at the Costco in Saskatoon. As
well, by the time you get to Saskatoon, SK
you are going to be out of hours and
going to overnight and get fuel at the
Pretro Pass there in Saskatoon. You're
probably going to do your pick up in the
morning first thing at Costco. Costco
does open quite early and starts
receiving and shipping at about 4-430 in
the morning. You might also have an
appointment ,but you're only picking up
recycled pallets in Saskatoon at Costco
and taking them back to Winnipeg. So you
can pick those up and that could be loaded
on quite quickly and you could be on
your way down the road depending on how
busy Costco is. It does get pretty busy
in the morning at four, so you might have
to overnight in Winnipeg on your way
back to Kenora, however with a push you
could probably make this trip in two
days.
You do know it is two days because if we
look at the details here you can see
that the total number of hours in a car
or light truck is 21 hours 51 minutes, so
you know that the driving time in a big
truck--depending on how heavy you're
going to be coming out of Kenora, into
Winnipeg and over to Regina. So I would
budget probably 25-26 hours for this
trip. Because if it's 22 hours in a car or
light truck, it's probably gonna be 25-26
hours of driving time - just driving time
in a big truck, depending on how heavy
you are. Now you're on the flat, so it's
going to be a little better. You're
probably going to average 85 or 86 km/h
for the whole trip. The determining
factor will be your drops and pick ups.
Those are going to determine how long
it's going to take and whether you're going
to have to stay over in Winnipeg
on the return trip or whether you
can push it through and get home in two
days. When you budget for drops and those
types of things, budget an hour at each
drop. It could be longer, depending on
whether they make you wait in the dock
and those types of things. I have found
that that has happened with van trailers -
that you end up sitting around for
awhile and sometimes you can be up to a
couple of hours before you get either
unloaded or loaded and on down the road.
So budget that as well to get into the
yard in the morning and pick up your
trailer and get your paperwork filled
out and actually get on the road can
take you anywhere from an hour to two
hours. As well, depending on whether the
loads ready, you can find the paperwork,
your truck & trailer and those types of things.
All of that can have an influence on how
much time you need in order to get your truck
ready, get your paperwork done, and get on
down the road.
One of the other factors that's going to
influence how long your trip is going to
take is whether you get pulled into
scales and those types of things. And
some of the busier places are actually
going to pull you in and you're going to
take some time. You're not just going to
roll over the scale. There's going to be
scales outside Winnipeg & those types
of places. And if you just roll thru, it's
not a big deal, it's just a minor
inconvenience of pulling off the road,
going through the scale. and carrying on
down the road. Now if you get pulled in,
and they want to look at your paperwork,
you're probably gonna have to budget
another hour. So you always want a buffer
of time. So probably just looking at this,
25 hours of driving time - you're probably
looking at 30-32, maybe even 35 hours for
the whole trip. We look at just the
overall destinations here, so we've got
Kenora, ON, Winnipeg, MB Acrylon Plastics Plastics in
Winnipeg. They're going to do a drop.
We have a drop at Brandt Industries, which
is a farm equipment place in Regina, SK.
We're going to Saskatoon to the Petro Pass
and then the Costco. We're going to pick
up pallets and we're gonna head back to
Winnipeg and then
head home to Kenora. And then we click on
the details down here at the bottom, on
Google maps and that will give us all
the details of where we're going -
directions and those types of things.
Of course, in this day and age, most of you are
going to have GPS (Global Positioning Satellite)-- either a commercial
version-- orare going to have the GPS that's
on your phone. Now know that if you have a
phone, it's not a commercial GPS, and
will take you down non-truck routes. Make
sure you stay off non-truck routes with
big trucks, because unfortunately
authorities--police,
CVSE (Commercial Vehicle Safety Enforcement), & DOT (Department of Transport)--depending on who is policing
trucks, have the right to pull you over
and give you a ticket for being on a
non-truck route. So pay attention to that
if you're using a GPS that is
not a commercial GPS. Now we can see the
first leg of the trip here. Kenora, Ontario
over to Winnipeg is two hours 36 minutes.
It's probably gonna take you three hours -
three hours 15 as I said, depending on
how heavy you're loaded, if you're pulling
Super B's or pulling a tridem trailer,
it's gonna take you a bit longer than
that. Even more than if you're just running
tandem-tandem. And then from Winnipeg over to
Regina is five hours 48 minutes, which is
probably going to be closer to seven
hours for you in a big truck. There you get
unloaded and then up to Saskatoon, SK. We're
gonna overnight, you're going to get fuel
at the Petro Pass. And getting fuel can
take you anywhere from half an hour to
45 minutes, depending on the size of the
tanks on your truck. If they're 150
gallon tanks not so long as 300 gallon
tanks obviously. All of these fuelling stations are high
pressure hoses and
whatnot. As well, you're gonna have to put
DEF (Diesel Exhaust Fluid) fuel. Most newer trucks are all
going to have DEF tanks on them--
diesel exhaust fluid and it's just a
matter of filling up that tank as well.
There's two fuel gauges on the dash: 1) one
is for DEF and one is for regular
diesel fuel. The DEF fuel...one tank of
DEF fuel will last about six tanks of
diesel fuel, but it's easier to fill that
up if you have bulk DEF. You
certainly don't want to be dealing with
those jugs that you have to in some
truck stops and whatnot. But you do have
to put DEF fuel in and it can take you
anywhere up to 45 minutes
to get fuel and then get into the truck
stop and get parked. And just on that note
of getting parked and looking for
places to park and sleep overnight - you
usually want to get into these places
fairly early, because in Canada it's much
more difficult to find truck stops and
parking & those types of things. More so
than it is in the States because of the
Interstate system. And truck stops are
just more well developed in the United
States than they are in Canada. Now if
you know where you're going,
it's not going to be so bad because there's a
lot of pullouts and of those types of
places that you can park and whatnot. But
in Canada, truck stops for the most part,
tend to be in major cities. And if they do
have parking, some of it could be limited.
There are places where if you are not in
there by six o'clock atnight, there's just
really no chance that you're going to
get parking in some of these truck stops.
So it's a good idea to know, maybe
you can even phone ahead and ask
what the parking lot looks like - those
types of things. But parking overnight in
a big truck is definitely more
challenging in Canada than it is in the
United States - so plan accordingly for
that as well. So Saskatoon, and then we're
gonna head back. We're going to pick up
our load in the morning, and we're gonna
head back to Winnipeg. And we can see
here from the Costco in Saskatoon, back
to Winnipeg is eight hours and three
minutes and it's probably closer to nine -
nine and a half hours, depending on
traffic,
how heavily you're loaded and those types of
things. You do have a load of pallets on,
so you're not going to be too bad in
terms of weight coming back to the
Costco in Winnipeg. And again, it's a
matter of getting unloaded and how busy
they are at Costco and then you might
just overnight in Winnipeg and head home
to Kenora, ON in the morning. As you can see
here, that the last leg of the trip from
Winnipeg back to Kenora is two hours and
44 minutes. So it's 3-3 1/2 hours, so if you
got up fairly early--three, four, five
o'clock you could be home by nine, ten
o'clock in the morning very easily
deadheading from Winnipeg back to Kenora,
Ontario.
So in conclusion, today we went over
route planning or sometimes called trip
planning in Canada. We plugged everything
into for our trip from Kenora, Ontario
over to Winnipeg, Manitoba over to Regina, Saskatchawan, up to
Saskatoon, SK back to Winnipeg and dead
headed home to Kenora. We figured out
that the trip was 2,100 kilometers. In
Canada, according two hours of service
regulations ,you can drive nine hundred
to a thousand kilometers a day, depending
on traffic delays, getting in at loading
docks and those types of things. So
that's your total distance that you can
drive for the day.
The other thing that you have to figure
out is the amount of fuel that your
truck holds. In Canada most trucks are
going to hold 550 liters of fuel. Some
trucks will hold twice that - they'll have
the bigger tanks on them but for the most
part 550 litres. Most big trucks, for the
purposes of route planning, you want to
figure out 40 liters per hundred
kilometers. So you're going to know that
a 550 liter tank on your truck is going
to get you about 1,400 kilometers. So
every time you get around a thousand
kilometer mark you're going to have to
start looking for fuel - to put fuel in
that big truck. And just on that note:
don't run a big truck less than a
quarter tank. First and foremost, it's for
your own safety, especially if you're
running in the wintertime and those
types of things. If you end up in the ditch,
you want fuel in that truck so you can
keep it warm...
[CHUCKLING] be nice and toasty while you're
waiting for people to come and get you.
The other thing is is that if you let it
run below a quarter tank, the sediment
and whatnot in the bottom of the tank
gets up into the filters and will
prematurely wear out your filters. So
keep it above a quarter tank.
Finally we plugged everything into Google
maps. We allowed buffers of time for how long
it's going to take you to get out of the
yard, how long it's going to take you at
loading docks, and those types of things.
We talked a little bit about parking and the
challenges of finding parking in Canada.
You're going to overnight in Saskatoon, SK and
you're gonna head back to Winnipeg. Now
the other thing that we talked about was
the fact that this is two days - probably
two and ina bit days because in order to do
this trip--2,100 kilometers in two days--
as a is going to be a real push. So
you're gonna overnight in Winnipeg, get
up in the morning and then run the three,
three-and-a-half hours back to Kenora,
Ontario. So that gives you some
information about how to route plan
and trip plan when dispatch sends you
off in your big truck to deliver
freight, pickup freight, and come back. And
again, as a
said, dispatch won't give you the whole
trip all at once. Most of the time what's going to
happen is you're going to have freight
going out and as you're working on
dropping off the freight on your way out,
they're gonna be looking for a load for
you to come back.
I'm Rick with Smart Drive Test. Thanks
very much for watching. If you like what
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those too will give you links to the
videos. And while you're up there, hit
that subscribe button. Question for my
smart drivers: what software do you use
to figure out your route plan and how
long it's going to take you to complete
a trip after dispatch gives you that
information? Do you use Google maps, use your
GPS, your phone or whatnot?
Leave a comment down in the comment
section there. All of that helps out the
new drivers that are coming into the
industry.
Thanks again for watching. Good luck on
your road test. Remember, pick the best
answer, not necessarily the right answer.
Have a great day. Bye now!
[CLOSING CREDITS, MUSIC & BLOOPER]
question for my sof... [STICKING OUT TONGUE & MAKING FUNNY NOISE]