In my mind it should be no less than 30 minutes, and I take about 45. Probably 20 mins or so at a minimum for your tractor, then find and hook up to your trailer, and then another 5-10 mins for that. The tractor takes me around 30 alone. I don't just fire it up and stomp on the throttle to build air though, I let the rig warm up and build its air at idle, brake test, rebuild air at idle.
If they really wanna start riding guys you can always bring safety into question, that usually slows the conversation down a little. "Are you asking me to shortcut safety to get on road?"
The key is being consistent.
Being consistently late or whatever is what draws attention in my experience.
Sometimes finding the trailer could be maddeningly time consuming. Here, trailers could be anywhere on a big yard. Walking up and down rows of tractors for hundreds of yards looking for yours too. Then there are delays in the hub, trailer condition/problems etc.
Our mgt team taught and expected you to start and build air pressure at the highest possible rpm(not redline) at any engine temp(ice cold ok). Pkg car too. They(mgt) could have cared less.
See, there are all kinds of drivers......some would detail their tractor every day......making them late etc. Some did no pretrip and sped all over the yard trying to make that pull time and did dangerous stuff.
I am a pilot. My preflights are always about the same. Watch an airline pilot do a preflight on a huge and complicated airliner......it's pretty basic and limited. A tractor IMHO, SHOULD BE ABOUT THE SAME.
Most of my pretrips took a few minutes. I rarely broke drown with most being flats many miles down the road.
The pretrips for the cdl tests are insane.
I had a run that started with a bobtail out and the schedule was 13 minutes to leave.
When I was scheduled to leave with a set it was 33 minutes from clock in. A single is 19 minutes. I imagine these are different depending on the run but I don't really know or care.
I basically never leave on time. Leaving with a set in 45 minutes is a good day. I've heard over an hour of property time without time coded to something triggers a report, but I'm not sure.
Honestly it's a pretty crappy management choice to pressure new drivers about property time, they just need to be careful.
Best statement I've ever read on BC.
And yes, excessive over-allowed triggers reports.......always has. That's what brings focus on folks and all the rest. They won't get you for productivity per se.......but it will be something else....because you bring attention and they start watching.
Pretty soon....you walk out with a hotdog and mountain dew.....
