Truckers Trip Planning App vs The Hours of Service App – ETA Calculator (Why you Should have both)

The Truckers Trip Planning App includes the Hours of Service App – ETA Calculator but the two key differences in one versus the other is the tools available and whether you have the time and internet resources available to use them.

Remember this first. The Truckers Trip Planning App was originally released in 2016 to answer the three main questions that you need to answer before accepting loads so that you can run acceptable loads rather than having the stress and financial difficulty of running unacceptable loads. "Planning Ahead for Hours of Service Breaks" is an integral part but is not the primary reason for which the Truckers Trip Planning App was built. Now that we have that in it's proper perspective;

Remember This:

Company Drivers only need to know if they have the hours of service required by a load and whether or not they can deliver the load on time. Of course Lease and Owner Operators need to answer those questions as well but most importantly, Lease and Owner Operators need to know if running the load would result in a profit or a loss to their bottom line.

The Truckers Trip Planning App For Company Drivers have the tools to answer the first two questions but it also has the tools for planning how you will run the load (planning your rest breaks has always been a part of this!), tools to handshake with the SmartTruckRoute II App (If needed) for navigation, traffic, and weather alerts, and the tools to maintain your personal Expenses and Accounting.

The Truckers Trip Planning App For Lease and Owner Operators have the same tools as the Truckers Trip Planning App For Company Drivers but also have the tools necessary for answering the third question as to whether running the load would result in a profit or loss to their bottom line. These tools include the Operating Cost Per Mile Calculator to show the Lease and Owner Operator the rate a load must pay in order for them to pay their bills, the Truckers Trip Sheet to see the actual revenue generated by the load, and the Load Profitability Sheet which shows the Lease and Owner Operator useful information that guides them towards the decision as to whether they should accept the load.

Breaking out the Hours of Service App - ETA Calculator was actually a request from a Dispatcher from US Express who wanted to ensure that he was assigning loads to his drivers that they could successfully run. While honoring this suggestion, and looking at it from the perspective of both the Dispatcher and the Driver, it was realized that the tool should be standalone and available when nothing else was. This is the key difference between the Truckers Trip Planning App and the Hours of Service App - ETA Calculator and the key reason why you should have both! In that regard, here's when you should use them:

If you have the time and the resources such as internet service is available, you should always use the Truckers Trip Planning App and all of it's available resources so that you can take advantage of the overall plan and it's concepts to ensure your success. However, when all you need is a quick answer about whether you have the hours of service for a load and whether you can deliver the load on time, then you should use the Hours of Service - ETA Calculator. Why?

Because, first of all you don't have to worry about whether you have internet or not and you really only need to put in limited information to get the answers you need.

Here's how you do that (Watch the video to see what I mean):

Assuming that you have added the icon to your home screen, Simply click on the "icon" to open the app.

1. Select to "Reset and Plan a New Load".

2. Select your "HOS Preference" and click "Done".

3. Update your "Hours of Service Recap" "Save it" and Click on "Dispatch",

4. Select the "Number of Stops",

5. Add the "Number of 1/2 Hour Fuel Stops".

6. Set the "Average number of Hours for Load/Unloads" at each stop,

7. Add the "Distance to your Pickup",

8. Add your "Appointment Date and Time",

9. Add the "Distance to any Additional Stops",

10. Add the "Distance to your Final Delivery",

11. Select whether you will travel "East or West" and add "How many Time Zones You Will Cross",

12. Click on "Check Your ETA's",

13. Read the "Hours of Service App - ETA Calculator" and compare it to your "HOS Available" and your "HOS Gained and Available" after the Load,

14. MAKE A DECISION AS TO WHETHER YOU WILL HAVE THE HOURS TO RUN THE LOAD AND WHETHER YOU CAN DELIVER THE LOAD ON TIME!

Both the Truckers Trip Planning App and the Hours of Service App - ETA Calculator is available for sale. However, on the Stores you will need to purchase them separately. When you purchase the Company Drivers or Lease and Owner Operator Truckers Trip Planning App on the website, the Hours of Service - ETA Calculator is free. So in reality, you're getting the Truckers Trip Planning App at a 30% discount and saving even more on the cost of the Hours of Service - ETA Calculator! This is a no-brainer!

What are you waiting for? Download the Truckers Trip Planning App for your driving arrangement TODAY!

Hours of Service Trip Planning

Hours of Service Trip Planning is one of the core elements in the Truckers Trip Planning App and was a focal point in the build and release of the app in March 2016 when Young and Healthy Marketing LLC formulated the concept of "Putting the Horse before the Cart".

Don't be misled! Hours of Service Trip Planning is not the result of attempting to tell you when and where to take your breaks. As a Professional Driver, you should be able to make that determination on your own. After-all, Nine times out of ten, no one will be able to tell you where you are when you feel the need to take a break and no one can tell you how to plan your load based on your own individual driving habits!

However, what we can do is to tell you the hours of service required by a load so that you could easily determine whether you have the remaining hours of service to run that load and give you the tools to plan the load based on your own individual driving habits. If you cannot accomplish the load then you should be communicating that to your dispatcher for plans to either relay the load or simply give it to someone who can.

For example, let's assume that you have received this dispatch:

Pickup: 837 West Lumber Street, Chicago, Ill, 60608 at 12:51 am on March 15, 2018

Deliver: 521 Burlington Blvd, Dallas TX 75208 at 2:12 pm on March 16, 2018

Drive Time For A CAR Based on Google Maps at 69 mph.

As a Professional Driver you should be cognizant of what the load requires based on "hours of service and not drive time": You should realize that there are a few hours of service variables that are missing in the dispatch that you will have to determine like pre trips, post trips, fuel stops, load times and unload times. Furthermore, you should realize that Google Maps are not truck specific. However, in this example we will use the map just to make a point.

Ultimately, we want to show you what would be required of you in order to accomplish this insane objective.

Here is a visual of the load's dispatch and the loads time requirements while planning the load based on hours of service requirements at 50 miles per hour:

How fast must you drive to deliver this load to 521 Burlington Blvd, Dallas TX 75208 at 2:12 pm on March 16, 2018?

If you can drive 73 miles per hour continuously without any slow downs resulting from traffic, weather, road conditions and the like throughout the trip, then you can reach your destination on time. If you cannot maintain 73 miles per hour then you will have to either drive faster while pushing everything and everybody out of your way or just leave it alone.

Trip Planning a load at 73 mph is simply planning to be unsafe!

It makes absolutely no sense at all that anyone would be able to maintain that speed throughout the trip without expecting to encounter numerous slowdowns that would have a significant impact on the accomplishment of such a plan.

You should not mislead your dispatcher or yourself to believe that you will be able to meet any ETA's based on this plan because when you do, plans are made accordingly for your next load and you alone will have to account for this mistake along with any unsafe incidents or accidents that may be caused by your being irresponsible. "Commit only to those things that you know you can do and not to what you think you can do" and don't set yourself up for failure by doing only what someone wants you to do at the risk of your CDL! Maybe then we don't have to see the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) mandating such things as Electronic Logging Devices (ELDs) to keep us under control.

Take advantage of the original Hours of Service Trip Planning App; "The Truckers Trip Planning App" and see what the load requires before committing to the load. As Truck Drivers ourselves, we built this app with the help of other truckers to help all truckers to be safe and profitable while in the truck.

Please share this article to help other truckers see that the Truckers Trip Planning App was "Built by Truckers, For Truckers" so that they can be aware of imitators and copy cats who wants to manipulate us into doing the very things we seek to avoid; like being all stressed out, unsafe, and broke!!

"The Truckers Trip Planning App!"

The Truckers Trip Planning App allows truck drivers to see within minutes whether they have the required hours of service to safely and legally run a load while at the same time it allows Owner Operators the opportunity to see immediately whether the load is profitable enough to sustain a successful business.

Young and Healthy Marketing LLC, a software development company in Virginia, first introduced the "Truckers Trip Planning App" to the trucking Industry in March of 2016 as a tool to help professional drivers analyze loads based on hours of service prior to accepting loads that they had no way of delivering on time or loads that were not at all profitable. The original "Truckers Trip Planning App" was the first app on the market to incorporate hours of service trip planning tools and load profitability tools to help truck drivers see if they have the required hours of service to run the load, if they can deliver the load on time, and determine whether that load is profitable in less than 5 minutes and thus coined the workflow as "Putting The Horse Before The Cart In Trucking!" The overall purpose of the Truckers Trip Planning App is to eliminate the stress and frustrations that truck drivers face on a daily basis in making load decisions and to create a cohesive and win, win relationship between Professional Drivers and Dispatchers.

The Truckers Trip Planning App takes into consideration that when the Dispatcher assigns a load, they need truck drivers to respond quickly as to whether they will accept the load so that they can begin planning their next load and likewise, Lease Operators and Owner Operators that get their loads from load boards need to decide quickly as to whether they will run a load before someone else grabs it.

The Truckers Trip Planning App is simple to use. Yet, it delivers powerful results that help Professional Drivers make informed and accurate load decisions:

In the Truckers Trip Planning App initial setup:

Company Drivers, Lease Operators, and Owner Operators can setup their Hours of Service Recap Calculator so that it is up to date and only need to add their hours for the current day when calculating their hours of service recap to determine the hours they have available for the load.

Lease Operators, and Owner Operators can setup their Operating Cost Per Mile Calculator and determine their operating cost per mile so that the tool is up to date each time they need to analyze a load.

When using the Truckers Trip Planning App to analyze hours of service,

Company Drivers, Lease Operators, and Owner Operators can simply check and make changes to their hours of service recap, and make changes to their operating cost per mile worksheet when needed.

Company Drivers, Lease Operators, and Owner Operators can simply type the load's requirements into the Trucker Trip Planning Worksheet and review the Hours of Service and ETA Calculator which automatically reports:

• the load's drive time requirements,

• the load's on-duty not driving time requirements,

• the load's rest breaks requirements,

• the load's Estimated Time of Arrivals (ETA),

• the Next Available Time (NAT) after delivery,

• and the remaining hours of service for their next load.

When using the Truckers Trip Planning App to analyze the load's profitability,

Lease Operators, and Owner Operators can simply input their trucks average miles per gallon, the average cost of fuel, their percentage of the load's pay, and their percentage of the load's fuel surcharge into the Trucker Trip Sheet and the Truckers Trip Planning App will calculate and render:

• the load's actual load pay,

• the load's actual fuel surcharge,

• the load's rate per mile,

• and the overall revenue that the load will generate.

To determine whether the load is profitable, Lease Operators, and Owner Operators can then go to the Profit and Loss Spreadsheet to review;

• the total amount of fuel needed for the load,

• the per mile cost of the needed fuel,

• the total cost of the needed fuel,

• the salary cost for the load,

• the operating cost for the load,

• and most important the profit or loss for the load.

When using the Truckers Trip Planning App to measure the success of load decisions,

Lease Operators, and Owner Operators will appreciate that the Truckers Trip Planning App includes Success Metrics which records data from all of their accepted loads and provides a visual tool to help them keep their business on track towards success. Using this tool, Lease Operators, and Owner Operators can easily see where and when improvements need to be made on their load selections.

Company Drivers, Lease Operators, and Owner Operators alike will surely find that if they want to be successful, that the Truckers Trip planning App is the best and most useful app to have in their truck.

Plan To Be Successful! Get Access to the Truckers Trip Planning App and make informed and accurate load decisions.