Once you start running solo, every dispatch becomes a planning exercise: how do you get from origin to destination on time, comply with hours-of-service rules, find legal parking, and avoid low bridges and truck-prohibited routes? This is trip planning, and it's a learned skill that separates competent drivers from struggling ones.
Step 1 — Verify the load
Read the dispatch carefully: pickup time and location, delivery time and location, weight, commodity, special instructions (driver-assist unloading, lumper required, hazmat placards needed, refrigerated set point). Confirm pickup and delivery hours of operation (a 24-hour delivery window is very different from a "must arrive between 0700–1100" window).
Step 2 — Map the route
Use a truck-specific GPS or trip planner: Trucker Path, Rand McNally TND, Garmin dezl, or Hammer GPS. Truck routing avoids low bridges, weight-restricted roads, and routes prohibited to commercial vehicles. Verify the routing matches your truck's height, weight, and equipment configuration. Note: car GPS apps (Google Maps, Waze) routinely route trucks under low bridges and onto residential streets.
Step 3 — Calculate HOS
Map your driving in 11-hour daily increments accounting for pickup/delivery windows, fuel stops, scale stops, mandatory 30-minute breaks, and required 10-hour off-duty periods. A 1,200-mile run is roughly 22 driving hours = 2 driving days at standard interstate speeds. Add buffer time — a single hour of unexpected traffic or weather routinely turns a 2-day trip into a 3-day trip.
Step 4 — Plan fuel stops
Use your fuel card's preferred-vendor list. Major chains (Pilot/Flying J, TA-Petro, Love's, Sapp Bros, AmBest) accept all major fleet cards and offer fuel discounts. Check fuel prices via the GasBuddy or Fuelio apps — a $0.15/gallon savings on a 200-gallon fill is $30. Stop fueling near, but not at, your overnight parking — many drivers fuel in the late afternoon and then continue to a quieter rest area.
Step 5 — Plan overnight parking
Truck stops fill up by 6 to 7 PM in busy corridors. Use the Trucker Path app's parking-availability data, or pre-reserve through Park My Truck or Pilot's Reserve-It program ($14 to $20 per night, but guaranteed parking). Walmart parking has been increasingly restricted; many municipalities now prohibit overnight commercial parking. State rest areas have time limits (typically 8 hours).
Step 6 — Pre-trip and execute
Complete a thorough pre-trip inspection. Pre-fuel and pre-DEF if needed. Test all lights and signals. File your trip plan with dispatch. Then execute your plan, communicating any deviations to dispatch as they happen. Read our pre-trip inspection guide.