The Power of Planning Ahead

Why is planning ahead for truckers so important?  Well I'm glad you asked.  There are four main benefits of planning ahead.

To Deliver On Time

Planning ahead as a truck driver is essential for success!  Remember there are a lot of other factors involved in getting your load from point A to B on time and legally taking as many of those loads before you run out of hours as possible.  (If your grinding to make money)

You have freight, shippers, receivers, your dispatcher, traffic conditions, weather, breakdowns and who knows what else that could happen.

So it's important to plan ahead and leave early as part of that plan.

• Determine your best route
• Check the weather for that route
• Consider where you will pull over to stay the night
• Determine how many hours it will take to make it to your destination

For Your Health

Rushing is stressful.  So is not getting enough sleep.  

So proper planning is good for your wallet and health.

But you don't just want to plan your trip, you also want to plan your food and exercise.  If you don't plan your meals, you'll end up eating process food and junk food cause you're rushing.

If you don't plan in advance that you will get your exercise in and how to do it, you likely won't get it in.  And you'll gain weight and get out of shape.  Don't let that happen.  What's the point of making money and losing your health?

Tips for Being a Health Trucker

Maintain Your  Relationships

You need to be able to make it home we some type of regularity or predictable frequency.  The more chaotic it is the more taxing on the relationship.

Trucking is not a 9 to 5 which means your time away from home will already be a factor that could present challenges to the relationship.

You'll make that worse if you don't plan ahead.  Tell your dispatcher in advance how often you want to be home and if that company can't accommodate, go to another company that can.

Impact of trucking in the family and how to address it 

Control Your Spending

You must be mindful of your spending.  If not, marketing professionals that set up truck stops will fill in where you are lacking!

In other words, if you are not intentional about controlling your spending on the road, you will find that your spending is out of control!

It's called a budget!  Relax, it doesn't have to be that formal just pay yourself first, pay your bills and expenses and set aside a set amount for each week on the road!

Make It Home For Important Events

If the company has plenty of freight, and the dispatcher is competent and cares about the drivers, then its a good chance most of your important plans will turn out ok as long as you let them know well in advance and remind him/her as you approach the week of the important date.

Notice, I said important. Two reasons I intentionally added the word important. If you are trying to get scheduled time off too frequently with most companies, you will be both a burden for the company (because they can't efficiently run the truck like that), and you will keep yourself from making the type of money you expected to make (because you can't get the miles you need to make the money if your time out on the road is always affected by your need to be back in or at home).

If this is your situation, (needing to be back home frequently) trucking is simply not the type of job for you. You are basically incompatible for the trucking lifestyle.  UNLESS you can find a local or regional trucking job.

But let's continue...like I said, if you are a driver and you need to be home tell the dispatcher once and depending on him/her to keep on top of it is taking a risk. They handle a lot of drivers at most large companies each with their own problems and needs, its easy to forget.

But this is also why you want a good relationship with all people you deal with in life. Especially important to have one with your dispatcher. Like I said it is a team effort.

But no worries, you have the type of positive attitude that makes all of this easy! I can just tell. I mean really, what type of person wastes time reading about planning ahead?

I will tell what type....a winner.

The Importance of Planning Ahead

The importance of planning ahead is obvious. Even though you can't predict if the plans will work out, you need to plan ahead the best you can. Try not to over commit yourself to unnecessary obligations and let people know who are connected to the plans how being a truck driver means things may not go down as planned so the stress level is kept to a minimum if things don't go as planned.

Summary: Planning ahead is sometimes difficult but not impossible. Its just that sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn't. You need to understand that.

Family at home you needs to understand that also.

Tell the fam I said, "be easy, give you a break, It's not always the driver's fault when home time does not work out"

He/she can't leave the truck and jump in an airplane without the companies consent if he wants to stay employed.

If he's supporting the family then, well you do the math!

He needs the miles and the job.  But you remember this....Trucking doesn't have to be permanent.  Develop a plan to retire early or do something else.

Learn To Plan Ahead it Will
Serve You Well in Life

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