I was asked awhile back to supply some measurements on the shelf that I have placed at the end of my bunk. In my own inimitable style I have managed to procrastinate once again, but I have finally gotten around to pulling it out and making some measurements along with pictures to help anyone out who would like to do the same.

This shelf will fit a Freightliner Century or Columbia. I’m not sure about the Classic and have no idea what the inside of a Cascadia looks like.

This shelf will set solidly in position with no fasteners being used to cause any damage to the interior of the truck. Let me know if you have any specific questions and I will eventually get around to answering them.

Here is a photo of the shelf installed:



Material that I used was as follows:

• One 8ft Wood Plank (or 7/8” plywood) – Home depot sells these as pre-finished pine shelving in various widths. I chose to go with the 20” and it works well. The cost was around $40.
• One 1x4 6ft long.
• One 1x2 6ft long.
• Two heavy duty 6” hinges with counter sinking screw holes, or hinges of your choice.

• One 18” piano hinge. (See photos)

6. Box of counter sink wood screws. (Don’t use nails, they will not hold the unit together with the constant road shaking)

The left support for the shelf is a 46” long:

I cut out two square sections of the plank to make room for the APU vents. Had I built this in my garage (if I currently had one) at home I would have done a much cleaner job of it, but I built it in the parking lot of a Home Depot, so some concessions had to be made.

The reason for the left support extending beyond the top of the shelf was to provide mounting area for Flat Screen TV mounting in the future. It will also allow me to mount extra shelving should I ever want to add a cubby hole or two in the future.

The length of the shelf itself is 40” and the left side butts up against the left support at a height of 30 ½” from the bottom of the left support, while the right side sets on top of the legs for support. There is actually enough room to make the shelf 41”, but I chose to make it a little shorter and push a binder notebook between the outside of the legs and the right side of the sleeper to get it snug. If you chose to make the shelf 41”, the legs must be mounted at the 40” mark so that they sit inside the mattress pan of the truck.

Here is a pic of the left side of the shelf from underside to show how I used another leftover piece of the shelving plank to form a brace that the shelf could sit on. These trucks do a lot of shaking and there are times when I have a substantial amount of weight on this shelf. You need this support to hold up to the stress.

I also chose to use a piano hinge on the joint to improve its strength.

A 1x2 is placed along the top/front of the shelf in order to provide a lip to keep things in place and a screw is placed every couple of inches to provide additional strength to the length of the shelf.



The legs on the right side of the self are 21” long:


I used a left over piece of the shelving to form a cross brace and hinged that to the bottom of the shelf. The cross brace is only 15” wide compared to the 20” width of the shelf. The right legs must also be mounted to the front of the shelf. This must be done so that both legs set inside the mattress pan. You will notice that I placed an additional 1x4 under the shelf at the point where I attached the hinges. This was done because the screws I bought were too long and would go through the shelf. Oops! It’s not pretty, but it does the trick.

The final cut you will need to make is a 45° angle cut along the right back side to allow for the curvature of the sleeper bunk where the trucks HVAC vents are located.

Once everything is put together the left panel of the shelf slides neatly and tightly against the interior closet and the bunk and the right side legs sits in nicely between the mattress and inside wall of the mattress tray.

This is a very basic shelf and done in the parking lot of a Home Depot. If you take a little time at home there is room for a lot of improvement and many options for adding additional shelving or cubby holes to greatly increase you storage and accessibility to your belongings.

The hinges make it very easy to pull the unit out and fold it up for convenience of transporting it around at a later date.


There are a few more close up pics if you want to see them (along with all the others I have posted on this thread). Just go to Photobucket and do a search for evertrucker (one "r"). And you have to make sure you have selected "people" from the search menu and not the default "image".

__________________
"I REJECT YOUR REALITY AND SUBSTITUTE MY OWN" Mythbusters

WEEK SEVENTEEN
Monday, April 27th through Sunday, May 3rd


This was going to be a very quick week from the truck driving point of view. I started my Monday out with a quick hop over to the receiver. I pulled in about 2hrs early, mainly because I wanted to avoid the brunt of LA’s morning rush hour. I also hoped that an early arrival might get me unloaded a little sooner than planed so that dispatch could get to work with a load to get me home to Phoenix.

Even though I arrived early, it did nothing to expedite the unloading process and I ended up spending a good 3hrs there before I was able to put in my MT call. It was now mid-morning and I didn’t know what kind of luck I would have getting a load that was ready to be picked up. At this time of day it was much more likely that I would be getting a late afternoon load.

Instead of getting a load offer I was told to take my trailer to our Ontario drop yard with no further instructions (a little detail would sure be nice). I currently had an old 211xxx series trailer. These older trailers have wood paneling on the inside and some of our customers will not load these trailers because they tend to damage the cargo when being loaded. Another reason may have been that some of our customers will not load trailers older than 8yrs old due to the weight distribution of these loads and the stress that it placed on older trailers.

I didn’t know what the exact reason was at the time, but it made it clear that dispatch had a specific load in mind for me to get me home that would require a newer trailer and I was all for it. The Ontario yard was about 50 miles away and I pointed my truck in that direction. Once I arrived, I had a nice selection of empty trailers to choose from and picked the nicest one I could find for my first and final trip of the week. Once that was taken care of I sent off a message to dispatch and awaited my homebound load. Instead of that I ended up getting another message from dispatch. Apparently there was a customer down the road a bit that had too many empty trailers on their lot and I was know being asked to go pick it up, at which time I was to let dispatch know I had the trailer and they would then send me a load offer to get me home.

This mystery trailer tour thing was starting to get a little annoying, but if that’s what I needed to do to get a load home I was all for it, although I was starting to get a little concerned about my 14hr clock. If they kept up this cat and mouse game I was going to be hard pressed to make it home tonight. Something I wasn’t exactly thrilled about since my last load that I delivered here in LA this morning was suppose to be the load that landed me in Phoenix for the previous weekend with a Tcall.

Instead of that happening, I was informed they we were overbooked with freight in the Phoenix area and I would have to deliver this load. That not only meant that I would not be home over the weekend; it also had the undesirable effect of landing my planned four days of home time smack dab in the middle of the week. This is something that just doesn’t work out too well for a guy that has a wife that works during the week. It doesn’t do much for quality time spent together. I knew that I could stretch out my home time to include the following weekend, but with the way freight has been of late and the constant battle to scrape up some extra miles; I wasn’t too crazy about taking the better part of an entire week off. But it looks like that is what’s going to happen and I didn’t relish the idea of spending another night in this truck in the middle of the Arizona dessert because dispatch wanted a bunch of trailers shuttled around town.

So with that I dropped my newly acquired trailer and bobtailed out of the yard and headed off to get another on. About one hour later that deed was completed and I sat there waiting for my load offering and info. I had fully well expected to get a late afternoon load out of town that would have left me in the middle of nowhere for the night, but after a short wait the unknown was answered.

The load was better than I had thought it would be. It was to be picked up at 1pm, which was less than 2hrs away. I didn’t really like sitting around that long with Phoenix in my sights, but the pickup was still early enough in the day to make it possible for me to get home tonight if everything flowed along at a good pace, even more possible if I were to arrive early.

I didn’t have too far to go to get to the shipper and pulled in early as planned. Although I was set and ready to go, the shipper wasn’t really as enthusiastic as I was and simply told to get in line. This place wasn’t exactly a model of efficiency and it had actually taken me a good 30 minutes just to track down someone that spoke some semblance of English so that I could get some kind of idea of what was going on.

I wasn’t exactly clear about what was expected of me other than to find a place to park out of the way (not so easy to do in any small California shipper yard), talk to the other truck drivers sitting in the yard and figure out when it was my turn. Basically, it was a first come, first loaded kind of place and I was responsible for knowing when it was my turn. Yah, that always works out with a bunch of truck drivers staring at the same 3 docks.

The pace was very slow, but progress was being made and I had found myself a perfect little parking spot out of the way. The only problem was that it was so far out of the way I was concerned about someone “cutting the line” when my turn came along, but I was situated well enough that I could thwart anyone’s attempt to do so should it become necessary. I had a good understanding with the two drives that were in line before me, but since that time a couple more had pulled in and, well let’s just say there was a language barrier. That doesn’t necessarily mean they didn’t speak English as much as they weren’t about to admit it. Nothing new to me after living in Phoenix for over 20 years, I knew that game well.

It wasn’t long after that when I was approached by an employee of the shipper informing me that I would have to move. I was being told that I couldn’t park in front of the dumpster (which was being used by no one), even though I was in the drivers’ seat and could move immediately if there were ever a reason to do so. I didn’t expect that excuse to work (it didn’t) and simply drove on down to the far end of their lot which put me way out of anyone’s direct line of sight and set up the perfect “line cutting” scenario. It was complicated further by a constant stream of their company trucks that kept backing into docks as they became available. As in most places, company trucks always get preferential treatment, but it does little to alleviative the frustration of waiting or the speed in which outside carriers (like me) were getting loaded.

My turn was finally approaching. I was next in line and patiently (not so much) waiting for yet another one of their company trucks that had docked in front of me. While this was going on another Crete truck pulled into the yard and headed my way, parking next to me. I went through the days events with him so that he would know where to go and how the “system” worked here. I also let him know that I had been here for the better part of 2 hours and it was finally my turn as soon as a dock door opened up. I also let him know that he needed to talk to the drivers of the other four trucks that where parked in various parks of the yard to find out which one he would be following.

With that he headed off on foot to complete the lengthy trip to the shippers door with a wave and a thanks. It would have made things much easier for me if I had received the same speech when I arrived, but I was more than happy to make life for this driver just a little bit less complicated.

It was about 15mins later when I saw this same driver walking back towards his truck and mine at a rather good pace. As he got closer I had expected him to stop by and update me on the current situation, but instead of that he kept his eyes on the ground, walked by, jumped in his truck and started it up. “That’s odd”, I think to myself. Then he puts his truck into gear and started to pull out. At this very moment I notice the truck I had been waiting on pulled out of the dock and everything became very clear to me. This yahoo was actually under the misguided impression that he was going to be loaded next.

Well, that’s not going to happen!

Before said driver had managed to get out of his truck and both of his feet on the ground to open his trailer doors I was already parked behind him, standing next to him and asking him with a laughter of disbelief, “May I be so bold as to ask ‘what are doing’?” This was followed by some half hearted, lame excuse about being told by some dock worker to go ahead and pull in after the other truck pulled out. I reminded him of the little story I had told him about how unorganized they where around here, me having been here for 2hrs already and the other four drivers that were here before him along with a “You know better than to try to pull something like this”. He offered up a meaningless apology and sheepishly headed back to his truck. I really wonder what goes through someone’s mind when they do these kinds of things. This profession definitely draws in the socially deficient.

I had finally managed to get a dock door, but it did nothing to eliminate the problem of their company trucks getting taken care of before us peons and it was almost another 2hrs before I manage to pull out with my 6000# load of empty soda cans. All of my delays throughout the day had taken their toll and there was no way I was going to make it to Phoenix within my 14hr clock. Not really that big of a deal though, because I had to deliver this load tomorrow at 7am. If I had made it to town tonight I would have simply driven up to the house long enough to get some sleep and had to leave by 5am anyways. This way I got a good nights sleep to recover from my Vegas stopover that I made on my way to Cali, got a good early start Tuesday morning, made my deliver and headed home by 8am.







WEEK SEVENTEEN
Monday, April 27th through Sunday, May 3rd
Miles include deadhead

Ontario, CA to Phoenix, AZ…………………………………….397mi

Paid Miles ………………………………………………397 Miles
Actual Miles………………………414 Miles

397 Miles x .43 + $170.71 (Monday and a couple of hours on Tuesday-Home time week)

__________________
"I REJECT YOUR REALITY AND SUBSTITUTE MY OWN" Mythbusters

I don't really see myself being able to catch up on all of these updates. I may, but not really counting on it at this time. So I'm just going to post my trips and miles for all the missing weeks just to catch up to get the info up.

I will most likely go back two weeks and try to keep up from this point.


WEEK EIGHTTEEN
Monday, May 4th through Sunday, May10th
Miles include deadhead

Phoenix, AZ to Grand Prairie, TX…………………………………………1057mi
Paris, TX to Guin, AL………………………………………………………......642mi
Fulton, MS to Front Royal, VA……………………………………………..787mi
Front Royal, VA to Knoxville, TN…………………………………………..413mi
Nashville, TN to Texarkana, AR(first leg)..……………………………654mi

Paid Miles……………………………………………………3553 Miles
Actual Miles…………………………..3666

3553 Miles x .43 = $1527.79




WEEK NINETEEN
Monday, May 11th through Sunday, May17th
Miles include deadhead

Texarkana, AR to Carrolton, TX (last leg)…………………………………….200mi
Roanoke, TX to Brenham, TX………………………………………………........267mi
Beaumont, TX to Topeka, KS…………………………………………………......946mi
Lawrence, KS to Plainview, TX………………………………………………......676mi
Wichita Falls, TX to South Bend, IN (first leg)……………………………1193mi



Total Paid Miles…………………………………………….3282 Miles
Actual Miles………………………………3238 Miles


3282 Miles x .43 = $1411.26




WEEK TWENTY
Monday, May 18th through Sunday, May24th
Miles include deadhead

South Bend, IN to Goshen, IN(final leg).………………………………………..47mi
Plymouth, IN to Bedford, PA………………………………………………….......547mi
Winchester, VA to Atlanta, GA………………………………………………......688mi
Atlanta, GA to Richland, MS………………………………………………….......379mi
Jackson, MS to Cleburne, TX…………………………………………………......459mi
Ennis, TX to Ashtabula, OH………………………………………………….......1331mi

Total Paid Miles……………………………………………3451 Miles
Actual Miles…………………………………3466 Miles

3451 Miles x .43 = $1483.93




WEEK TWENTY ONE
Monday, May 25th through Sunday, May31st
Miles include deadhead

Ashtabula, OH to Wilmington, MA………………………………………..627mi
Norwich, CT to Greensboro, NC…………………………………………..786mi
Browns Summit, NC to Villa Rica, GA……………………………………402mi
Cartersville, GA to Alexandria, LA………………………………………..595mi


Total Paid Miles………………………………………….2410 Miles
Actual Miles……………………….2524 Miles

2410 Miles x .43 = $1036.30 + $60 Drop pay = $1096.30





WEEK TWENTY TWO
Monday, June 1st through Sunday, June 7th
Miles include deadhead

Pineville, LA to Pauls Valley, OK………………………………………….465mi
Ft Smith, AR to Phoenix, AZ……………………………………………..1390mi

Total Paid Miles (Mon-Thr morn only, home week)……………1855mi
Actual Miles………………..1930 Miles

1855 Miles x .43 = $797.65



WEEK TWENTY THREE
Monday, June 8th through Sunday, June14th
Miles include deadhead

Phoenix, AZ to Du Quoin, IL…………………………………………...1589mi
Centralia, IL to Lancaster, PA……………………………………………821mi
Blandon, PA to Elk Rapids, MI…………………………………………...831mi

Total Paid Miles………………………………3241 Miles
Actual Miles……………………..3305 Miles

3241 x .43 = $1393.63

__________________
"I REJECT YOUR REALITY AND SUBSTITUTE MY OWN" Mythbusters

I've hit a snag with Crete, specifically their starting pay. They initially said they would hire me on with the Western Division at 39-40c/mi. Two weeks later, I ask about the pay rate again, and was told because I've worked for "several companies in the last 5 yrs", my starting pay would be 37c/mi (the 1-2yr driver rate).

I've been driving OTR for the last 12yrs, with only two employers (May and Interstate; I was hired on by Marten but did orientation only) in the last 7yrs. I was self-employed for a couple of months in 2005, but that business never took off. I also took leave for 4 months in 2007 to do a motorcycle trip to Alaska and get some r+r.

I got final approval today with these stipulations: I must go out with a trainer for two weeks because the majority of my driving these last 4 yrs was with an auto-shift tranny (about 90%), even though i'm confident I could shift their 10spd, and i've run every tranny from 8-15 speeds the previous 8yrs. That also means $600/wk while training. The starting mileage rate has dropped again to 35c/mi, they say because i'm Western Division. I must also get notorized statements from non-relatives for any time I wasn't working or self-employed, and re-endorsed for Hazmat, which I'm in the process of doing.

No problem. I was a little perplexed at the training requirement, as I know with 10 minutes behind the wheel, the shifting rust will come off (shifting is like typing; once you learn it you don't forget). But if that's what it takes to win their confidence, I'll oblige. However, does the starting pay sound a little low based on my years of experience? The difference between what they stated in the beginning (39-40c) to what they're offering now is at least $4800/yr in lost pay, based on 120K miles/yr.

I've been completely up front with Crete from the beginning about my driving experience, employers and any time I've taken away from the road. Based on that info, and knowing from the beginning that I was to be assigned to the Western Division (national fleet was not offered), they should have no reason to drop my pay rate twice. I'm a reasonable guy and I don't want to risk losing the opportunity for work, because I know it's hard to come by. Do you Creatans think I have any recourse, or is everyone dealt the same low hand in the beginning with them?

__________________
"You fall out of your mother's womb, you crawl across open country under fire, and drop into your grave." Quentin Crisp

I have a bergstrom NITE system with a battery powered A/C unit. The batteries under a full load, hot outside, will run for 10 hrs after being charged for 10 hrs. They will run longer if the A/C can cycle on and off a little. I have two vents at the back of the bottom bunk, they keep me cool while on the bunk, but can't cool the whole truck. With the use of a breezeway type fan circulating the air it does not do to bad at cooling the truck in the evening after the sun goes down. It has it's limitations but is a very quiet unit.
If you are on a 34 hour reset you sweat or go inside. IF it is hot you can turn the Bergstrom off, go inside, come back out in the evening fire up the truck to cool it down, then shut it off and let the Bergstrom keep you comfortable. There is an option for a small diesel motor and alternator to charge the Bergstrom batteries but we do not have that option. I like mine. But I would have liked the motor with it and the optional inverter for 110v power on the aux batterries

__________________
A foolish man makes a mistake and learns nothing from it.
A good man makes a mistake and learns from it.
A wise man observes the mistakes of others and learns from their mistakes
Lord may I grow to become a good wise man.

JChors,
You have little to no recourse, they do make you jump through the hoops, and set the pay rate and if training is required. None the less if you can get the 125,000 miles per year you will rise to the top of the scale quickly, assuming you enjoy the job. Time flies when your having fun.
.
Crete is playing the market, and right now the market is not driver driven it is all in the companies hands.

__________________
A foolish man makes a mistake and learns nothing from it.
A good man makes a mistake and learns from it.
A wise man observes the mistakes of others and learns from their mistakes
Lord may I grow to become a good wise man.

When I started with them (the first time) I had about 2 years total exp and they started me at .43 That was in Sept of '06. I've been rejected by several companies within the last 6 months or so. They DO have the upper hand at the moment. My problem is the same; too many different jobs in the last 5-6 years. (Three companies plus Schneider initial training).

And also, of course, regional positions for almost ALL companies pay less than national. If you really want high .CPM try Heartland Express out of North Liberty, IA. I was making .48 with them with just a touch over one years exp. Real nice fellow named Jim Tornblom is pretty much over all of dispatch and the drivers. 'Course at least ONE of the dispatchers is a real 'hole and wouldn't ya know I got stuck with him.

The tranny issue is a load of #### IMHO. Once you learn to float 'em, you never forget. It's actually as easy (maybe even easier) than clutching a standard tranny 4 wheeler.

And finally, I still think your biggest problem will be getting along with the FM out of the cheyenne terminial. Remember, I warned you.

Boo

I hear ya. Changed days.

__________________
"You fall out of your mother's womb, you crawl across open country under fire, and drop into your grave." Quentin Crisp

Agreed.

You mentioned Salt Lake before. Is there a chance I'll be dispatched from there? BTW, how many drivers are on the Western Div? Is there a large customer that Crete runs for out West?

__________________
"You fall out of your mother's womb, you crawl across open country under fire, and drop into your grave." Quentin Crisp

I do not know the answers to any of these questions. Either way on the dispatch location, SLC or Cheyenne, I could not speak highly for EITHER of them. Hopefully, you will have better luck.

With regard to Cheyenne, I never heard from her unless she had something to *itch about to me. Getting her to respond when *I* needed something (via qualcomm or telephone) was pretty much an exercise in futility. When I'd finally go over her head, she'd just deny that I'd sent any messages. I said "check the qualcomm log", but nobody ever did.

Like I said earlier, I left the company after only two months(last time there) pretty much because of RB. Very much a "the glass of water is half empty" rather than "half full" type of person. The strangest part is, that BEFORE I went on her board, I had heard one or two POSITIVE comments about her from a couple of other drivers. Who knew??

Good Luck.

Boo