I've been wondering this one myself,
When is the best time to use abilities such as a cyborg data channel or trade route?
In my legion, we usually do it at any random time when it would affect our next shipment, however, would it be much better to activate within 10-30 minutes of shipment just in case we get locked anywhere in between those 20 hours?

as long as you don't do it when the base production timer is between 23:59:59 and 20:00:01 (the first 4 hrs after production timer hits 0), you're ok

just find a time that works best for you... like... as soon as you get home from work... or as soon as you wake up... or whatever...