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How To: Manage Truck Cycle Times
1. BackgroundThe Logger's Edge can be used to to track truck cycle times. The "cycle time" refers to the round trip time it takes for a log truck to get a load of logs, deliver it to the mill and then return for another load. Cycle times are important because it tells you how long it takes to deliver a load from a given block to a given destination. You can then use this information to estimate how many loads a truck can deliver during any given day. One requirement in order to track truck cycle times is that you must be entering (or importing) the actual times that your trucks enter and or leave the mill for each load.
In The Logger's Edge there are three relevant cycle time reports.
- Cycle Time, by Truck (Report #602)
- Cycle Time, by Block(Report #603)
- Truck Cycle Time (Report #611)
Report #3, is a variant on Report #1 and is useful for contractors that operate 24-Hrs/Day.
2. Steps Involved
Select 'Time In' or 'Time Out'
In The Logger's Edge, a 'cycle' is calculated as the difference in time between two loads from the same block delivered to the same destination on a given day. In the example below, there are four loads for a given truck on a specific day.
| Load # |
Time In |
Difference (Time In's) |
Time Out |
Difference (Time Out's) |
| 1 |
7:00 AM |
N/A |
7:30 AM |
N/A |
| 2 |
10:00 AM |
4 Hrs |
10:25 AM |
3:55 Hrs |
| 3 |
1:30 PM |
3:30 Hrs |
1:55 PM |
3:30 Hrs |
| 4 |
5:00 PM |
3:30 Hrs |
5:45 PM |
3:50 Hrs |
| Avg |
3:40 Hrs |
3:45 Hrs |
We start with the first load, but cannot assign a cycle time to it because there is no previous load. For the second load, we see a difference between the first time in and the second time in of 4:00 Hrs. The difference in the time out of the second and first load is 3:55 Hrs. Depending on how unloading times vary, the cycle time does depend on whether you base the difference on the time in or the time out. This is a setting that can be made in The Logger's Edge.
In the chart, we see that we have four loads, but only three differences -- we will always lose one observation at the start of the day (or shift). The average is 3:40 Hrs based on the time in and 3:45 Hrs for the time out. Deciding on which to use -- either the time in or out -- is somewhat arbitrary and can depend on what measure the mill uses (so you can check their data) or whether you have data available for one or the other.
In The Logger's Edge the default is set to 'Time Out'. If you want to change the setting their is a flag in the basic setup table that allows you to toggle between time out and time in.
In the screen above, there is also a setting for the 'Default Max Time." This setting is used in one of the truck cycle time reports that does not cut off at the end of each day, but rather runs continuously until it its a cycle time greater than the max time. This distinction is important for contractors who run 24-Hours during certain times of the year. In the example below, we set a set of loads where the truck operates through mid night. The first load is delivered on day one, but the second load is delivered on day two for the same shift.
| Load # |
Time In |
Difference (Time In's) |
Time Out |
Difference (Time Out's) |
| 1 |
11:00 PM |
N/A |
11:30 PM |
N/A |
| 2 |
3:00 AM |
4 Hrs |
3:25 AM |
3:55 Hrs |
| 3 |
6:30 AM |
3:30 Hrs |
6:55 PM |
3:30 Hrs |
| 4 |
7:00 PM |
12:30 Hrs |
7:45 PM |
12:50 Hrs |
| Avg |
3:45 Hrs |
3:42:30 Hrs |
The max time is used to determine when the truck is out of service -- presumably the driver is catching some sleep. For load #4, we see the difference is 12:30 (based on time in) and exceeds the maximum time of 12 hrs, and therefore we do not include that observation in calculating the average cycle time. Thus, in computing the averages in the table above, we would only use 2 of the observations (loads 2 and 3).
The
max time is only used for the third truck cycle time report (#611). The other two
reports simply do not calculate a cycle time for the first trip of the day
(that is, the first trip delivered after 12:00 am).
Enter Times on the Load Ticket
You will need to enter/import either the time in or the time out (or both) for each load ticket in order to make use of the cycle time reports:
Cycle Time Reports
Report 1: Cycle Time, by Truck
This report shows the average cycle times for each truck, by block/destination combination. From this report, you can see all the block/destination combinations that the truck traveled, and can compare the average cycle times for a given truck from one type of trip (that is, one source/destination) to the next.
This report shows the loads, by truck, for each block/destination combination. The columns 'In Avg' and 'Cause' indicate the observations that are included in calculating the average trip (cycle) time. In this report, the first load of each day is omitted from the average. (This rule can result in 'lost' observations for contractors that operate 24-hours/day, which is why we developed the 3rd cycle time report mentioned above as an alternative.)
The Revenue/Hr is included as an estimate of the implied hourly rate you are earning for each load. The revenue for a load is based on the result earned for the trucking phase and is calculated when you run the invoices calculator. (If you do not automatically calculate your revenue, you will need to manually enter your trucking revenue. -- the report is driven off the loadslip revenue table.) The report takes the trucking revenue for each load (regardless of the pay basis, e.g. tonne, distance, etc.) and divides it by the cycle time to estimate an implied hourly rate. And, because we are talking revenue, a higher hourly rate is better than a low hourly rate.
In
order to make use of this statistic, you will need to have a revenue
contract set up for the trucking phase.
In
the total row, the revenue/hr is not the average of the observations
in the table. In the total row, the revenue/hr is calculated as the
total revenue for all loads (including those not in the average) divided by
the product of the number of loads (all loads) and the average cycle time.
In effect, we are assigning the average cycle time to those loads not
included in the average. For example, in the table above, the rows 3
through 13 contain 11 loads (but only 6 are used in the average cycle time).
The average cycle time is 3.03 hours. The revenue/hr in the total line
is the sum of the revenue for all 11 loads ($3,728.96 - not shown) divided
by the product of 11 and 3.03 (=33.33 hours) and equals the average of
$111.88/hr.
Report 2: Cycle Time, by Block
This report shows the average cycle times for each block/destination, with subtotals for truck making that trip. From this report, you can compare the average cycle times across your trucks that are hauling from the a given block/destination combination. As compared to report #1, this report shows all trucks for a given block/destination; report #1 shows all block/destination combinations for a given truck.
Again, this report shows the loads, by truck, for for each block/destination combination. The columns 'In Avg' and 'Cause' indicate the observations that are included in calculating the average trip (cycle) time. In this report, the first load of each day is omitted from the average. Like Report#1, this rule can result in 'lost' observations for contractors that operate 24-hours/day.
Like report #1, the Revenue/Hr is included as an estimate of the implied hourly rate you are earning for each load. The revenue for a load is based on the result earned for the trucking phase and is divided by the trip time to compute the Revenue/Hr. As in Report #1, you will need to have a revenue contract set up for the trucking phase. In the total row, the revenue/hr is not the average of the observations in the table. In the total row, the revenue/hr is calculated as the total revenue for all loads (including those not in the average) divided by the product of the number of loads (all loads) and the average cycle time.
Report 3: Truck Cycle Time
This report is a variant of Report #1, but does not automatically omit a load observation when a new day starts. Instead, this report uses a maximum trip time to determine if an observation should be omitted. In essence, any trip time (as calculated as the difference between two sequential loads for a given truck from the same block to the same destination) that exceeds the maximum is omitted from the average. This rule allows you to use the report if you are operating 24 hours a day or if you simply want to omit observations that you consider as 'outliers.'
This report shows the loads, by truck, for each block/destination combination. The columns 'In Avg' and 'Cause' indicate the observations that are included in calculating the average trip (cycle) time. In this report, loads are only omitted if the difference between two sequential loads exceeds the maximum trip time. Thus, for example, in the report above the load in row 36 is retained in the average, even though the day changes because the difference in time out (3:16:00) is less than the maximum.
Special Selection Window:
This report has a special selection window:
This window allows you to select C_PART_1 and the block(s). In the screen above, C_PART_1 has been set to be 'Working Circle', but in other configurations might be 'Area', 'Forest', 'Subdivision', etc. This selection window allows you to run the report for a specific group of blocks (all trucks & all destinations) in a certain working circles (C_PART_1). If a block is selected on the right, but is not in a selected item (working circle) on the left, it is omitted from the report.
The
report will not run if you do not have C_PART_1 enabled in your system.
Setting Specific Maximum Trip Times
As noted above, you can set a default global maximum (the default is 12:00 hours) for this report. You can, however, set up specific maximum trip times on a block/destination basis (see below). In the block set up wizard you can enter a maximum trip time to each destination. This maximum will override the global default and be used instead to exclude loads from the cycle time report.
In
order to make use of the maximum trip time, you will need to enable the fuel
rebate module. Once enabled, you need to enable the max time on the
Block Distances Table:
This setting will enable the maximum trip time in the block set up wizard.
