Trip planner for truckers: fuel stops, breaks and park points

A trip planner for truckers has to answer three things a car app never asks: where to fuel, when the break is due and where the day has to end. Your router knows the roads. This planner takes the miles from it and lays the clock and the tank over them, so you know before you leave roughly where each fuel stop and park point will fall.

How far can a semi truck go on a full tank?

Range is simple math: the gallons in your tanks times your miles per gallon. Semis burn diesel, not gas, and most carry one or two saddle tanks, so capacity varies a lot from truck to truck. Use the number on your tanks and the MPG from your own fuel receipts or dash, not a figure from someone else's truck.

The planner then takes off your reserve, the fuel you never plan to run below. That gives two results: your full tank range, and the miles to your reserve on what is in the tanks right now. The second one is the number that decides your first fuel stop.

How the planner works

It drives the route forward in steps and stops at whichever comes first:

1. Reserve: the tank reaches your reserve, so it adds a fuel stop and fills to full.
2. Break: you reach 8 hours of driving since your last break, so it adds a 30-minute break.
3. End of the day: your 11 hours of driving are used, so it parks you for 10 hours.
4. Cycle: your 60 or 70-hour cycle runs out, so it adds a 34-hour restart.

With the top-off box ticked, it also fills up at any break or rest stop where the tank is under half. That is how most drivers fuel anyway: at stops they already make, so a fuel stop rarely costs a separate exit. A fuel stop of 30 minutes or more also counts as your break, because fueling is on duty but not driving.

POSTED: eCFR, 49 CFR 395.3 (driving limits, break, 10-hour rest, restart) · checked Oct 2026

What a good plan and a bad plan look like

A good plan has park points you can reach with a known, legal place to stop just before each one, and fuel stops that land on breaks or nights. It also leaves room: if the trip only works at your best average speed with no waits, it does not work.

A bad plan has a park point in a stretch with no truck parking, a fuel stop forced by a small reserve in the middle of nowhere, or a restart that lands far from home. Change the departure time, top off earlier or split the day differently and watch the stops move.

Using it with your other tools

Pull your driving left and break count from the hours of service calculator first, and your cycle hours from your ELD recap. If the plan shows a restart, the 34-hour reset and recap planner shows when hours come back without one. To turn the gallons into dollars, run the same miles through the trip fuel cost calculator, and the fuel stops themselves cost less on a good loyalty card, which we compare in fuel rewards programs for truckers.

For the road itself, use a truck router that knows low clearances, weight limits and restricted roads. Our guide to truck route planning software explains what to look for. This planner does not check any of that.

When someone plans the trip with you

Building this plan for every load, on top of driving it, is part of the work our dispatchers take on. They check your hours and your home date before offering a load, chain the next pickup close to where your day ends, and aim each night near a legal place to park. We cannot reserve parking, and you still confirm every load. Read how it works for owner operators, or apply for dispatch and a dispatcher will call you.