Trip planning

Scope

All professional drivers should make trip planning a habit to ensure that they are able to deliver their cargo safely and on time while maintaining compliance with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs) .

Regulatory citations

• 49 CFR 392.3 — Ill or Fatigued Operator
• 49 CFR 395.8(a)(1)(i) — Driver’s Record of Duty Status

Key definitions

• Personal conveyance (PC): Personal use of a commercial motor vehicle for personal purposes only when a driver is completely relieved of all responsibility for work. This is also called off-duty driving.
• Electronic logging device (ELD): A device or technology that automatically records a commercial motor vehicle (CMV) driver’s driving time and aids in the accurate recording of the driver’s hours of service by being integrally synchronized with the engine control module (ECM) of the vehicle. The ELD replaced the need for paper records of duty status (logs). Under federal rules, ELDs became mandatory for most interstate CMV drivers December 18, 2017.

Summary of requirements

Proper trip planning takes into account such things as hours needed to complete a run, total miles of a run, time of day, city vs. highway driving, the hours of service regulations (if applicable), and weather conditions. Proper trip planning also requires basic map (atlas) reading ability and time management skills.

Most customer service failures (late pick-ups or deliveries) occur as a result of either a poor trip plan, or a poor execution of a proper trip plan.

Speed limits. FMCSA guidance on trip planning conveys that drivers are required to conform to the posted speed limits prescribed by the jurisdictions in or through which the vehicle is being operated.

• Where the total trip is on highways with a speed limit of 65 mph, trips of 550-600 miles completed in 10 hours are considered questionable and the motor carrier may be asked to document that such trips can be made.
• Trips of 600 miles or more will be assumed to be incapable of being completed without violations of the speed limits and may be required to be documented. In areas where a 55 mph speed limit is in effect, trips of 450-500 miles are open to question, and runs of 500 miles or more are considered incapable of being made in compliance with the speed limit and hours of service limitation.

Electronic logging devices. Electronic logging devices should provide accurate hours of service available for planning purposes. If drivers are allowed to log on manual logs for 8 or less days in any 30-day period, the dispatch process should take into consideration of hours reported by drivers in their check-in calls.

Hours of service. A carrier’s specific trip-planning policy must require drivers to be dispatched on trips that can be done within the available hours of service including all tasks from the start of a dispatch through delivery and any waiting time that is required to be logged as on-duty time. Drivers may not drive ill or fatigued in violation of 392.3 and a carrier may not allow a driver to become ill or fatigued.

Stopping points. Trips should also be planned with an approximate stopping point each day so the driver can safely and legally reach a reasonable and safe place to park with appropriate facilities. With scarce parking in some areas at certain times of day, drivers must plan for an appropriate stopping time that may be well before they completely exhaust their available hours. Drivers cannot use personal conveyance to reach a park location if they run out of hours, unless they are leaving a shipper or receiver after loading or unloading delays.

Interruption of driving time. Under 395.3(a)(3)(ii), a property-carrying driver not using either 150 air-mile exception from logging in 395.1(e) must plan for a 30-minute break from eight total hours of driving when applicable.