Indian River

Spjza80tt · May 17, 2025

TruckDriver87 said: ↑

I spoke to a recruiter and he said that their OTR division is all drop and hook.

Is that not true?
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Definitely not true at all .. some places with juice are drop and hook.. then there's juice "drop and hook" where juice has to be sampled first in the milk bays, so show up at appointment time and still waiting behind milk trucks to be sampled they you can to drop it.. you still end up waiting hours.

There's cream that goes place that's drop and hook...except you have to wait for the same empty to come back to you once they're finished with it

#### hole Muarry, Kentucky is one of those places

Spjza80tt · May 17, 2025

Tanker_82 said: ↑

He works for Bynum, not IRT.
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It's the same here though , Ive had it happen numerous times where a loads dispatched late, and I wait hours to get loaded and no detention because " I was late "

Tanker_82 · May 17, 2025

Spjza80tt said: ↑

It's the same here though , Ive had it happen numerous times where a loads dispatched late, and I wait hours to get loaded and no detention because " I was late "
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@nextgentrucker if you experience anything like this, especially on a repeat basis where it’s a recurring issue, I would talk to someone in your office about it. If it’s affecting your ability to get the average number of miles you were expecting, just voice it to them in a mature way and ask if they can correct the problem. From my experience at IRT, that has done the trick the few times I’ve had an issue. The other option is become unhappy, stew on things, and fall into the rut of criticizing your employer which usually doesn’t help matters at all. That’s just my opinion. You are your own person and have to make your own decisions.

nextgentrucker · May 17, 2025

Tanker_82 said: ↑

I wish it had worked out for you, too. I could’ve helped you more without the conflict of interest being an issue when it comes to your loads, customer routines, and the internal business of your company.

That mindset is how you will make money and make yourself valuable.

It doesn’t make as much sense to you, probably because you entered the industry in the post-paper log era. Most of us on here had to physically write out our previous days in preprinted boxes on a paper log and use a calculator to find our available hours on a daily basis at one point in time. I’m going to take a shot at explaining it to help you understand better. If anyone wants to correct me or chime in, feel free to.

You have a 70 hour clock. The hours you work today, along with the hours you’ve worked in the previous seven days can’t exceed the number 70. So, hypothetically speaking, if your previous seven days total up to 65 hours when you add them together, that means you can only work a total of five hours today. Eight days are factored into the math, and today counts as one of those eight days.

Why do you gain time back at midnight? Because every night at midnight, that eighth day drops out of the equation. It doesn’t get counted anymore. The day you had been referring to as #7 now becomes #8 as if it were playing musical chairs. The “musical chairs” take place every night at midnight, and the math has to be recalculated. Just remember it this way, the previous seven days subtracted from 70 is what you have available today.

Your electronic log does the math for you. It tells you on the right side of the screen “Hours to be gained” (referring to tonight) and “Hours to be gained in 2 days” (referring to tomorrow night) as a convenience feature to help you trip plan and enable you to forecast what you are capable of doing over the next few days.

When drivers make the statement “I’m running off recap,” they are basically just saying that they’re doing what they can, and everyday isn’t a guaranteed 14 hour clock. They are continuing to operate based on what they gain back each night at midnight when that eight day drops out of the math equation like I explained above.

You thought “in order to get recap you have to run at least 8 hours each day,” end quote. Erase that thought from your mind. Here is what you were probably thinking or trying to say:
70 hours divided by 8 days = 8.75 hours. You could also word it “8 hours and 45 minutes.”
Technically, if you only work 8 hours and 45 minutes, you could operate indefinitely. Why? Because every night at midnight you would gain back 8 hours and 45 minutes, which would replenish the 8 hours and 45 minutes you worked today. That will never be realistic, especially in the tanker industry.

My advice is to run your 70 down throughout the week, then run off of recap when things start to get low. If you find yourself in a position where you only have a few hours available and notice on the right side of the screen that you only gain back a handful of hours at midnight, you might consider telling your dispatcher that it’s time for a 34 hour reset.

It’s not a perfect world. Trucks break down and have to go to the shop. Drivers have a bad day and quit without notice. Tires blow in desolate areas where it turns into a multi-hour delay. Customers add loads at the last minute when they realize they miscalculated production. Remember the unseen variables I mentioned earlier that justify things.

If you want to make money, never talk a dispatcher out of assigning you a load. Let them stack it up on you. In situations like that, limit your breaks to 10 hours and 1 minute, then get moving, that way you’re not at fault for late deliveries and things like that. If they have a poor planning habit, it will eventually catch up to them. Let that be between the dispatcher and their boss.

I probably shouldn’t say this since you work for a different company, but I’m going to anyway, because you just started your job, and I feel keeping quiet would be allowing you to hang yourself, so to speak. Most dairy loads have a 72 hour window once they are loaded on the tank. If you’re on a dairy load and have the ability to make it to the consignee, be careful doing a 34 just to benefit yourself personally.. If you cause that load to get rejected unnecessarily, it could turn into a big deal. I would run it by someone who is in a position to advise you on that beforehand so you don’t have an issue two weeks into your new job.
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Tanker_82 said: ↑

@nextgentrucker if you experience anything like this, especially on a repeat basis where it’s a recurring issue, I would talk to someone in your office about it. If it’s affecting your ability to get the average number of miles you were expecting, just voice it to them in a mature way and ask if they can correct the problem. From my experience at IRT, that has done the trick the few times I’ve had an issue. The other option is become unhappy, stew on things, and fall into the rut of criticizing your employer which usually doesn’t help matters at all. That’s just my opinion. You are your own person and have to make your own decisions.
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Thanks for the advice!!! I now know how to run my week, because it was different at Cypress, we use our tablet for our logs not Qualcomm so I'm still trying to figure out some things. About the load, thanks for telling me that, and yes I think I'm hauling cream, I stopped in Cordele, GA. I wanted to make it to Valdosta but there was traffic on the road and stuff, that's why I stopped here. I'm getting about 10hrs at midnight, so I can make it tomorrow and head to the yard, the reason I wanted to do a 34, like I said earlier, I'm gonna get about 3hrs for both Monday and Tuesday, and I'm going home this next week, I don't how this company dispatch drivers the week they're going home yet so I was thinking of starting with a fresh clock next week just to be on the safe side. This load was due on Monday anyway, plus I talked to dispatch and told him I'm gonna do a 34 and he didn't tell me to deliver tomorrow, he just told me to come see dispatch with an empty when I'm done dropping it. BUT! If you think I should drop it tomorrow, then I'll do that, I'm always looking for advice and stuff. One more thing, the sample they gave me should it be in a fridge? Because I don't have a fridge on the truck yet...

nextgentrucker · May 17, 2025

Spjza80tt said: ↑

It's the same here though , Ive had it happen numerous times where a loads dispatched late, and I wait hours to get loaded and no detention because " I was late "
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Have you talk to your dispatcher about it?

Tanker_82 · May 17, 2025

nextgentrucker said: ↑

Thanks for the advice!!! I now know how to run my week, because it was different at Cypress, we use our tablet for our logs not Qualcomm so I'm still trying to figure out some things. About the load, thanks for telling me that, and yes I think I'm hauling cream, I stopped in Cordele, GA. I wanted to make it to Valdosta but there was traffic on the road and stuff, that's why I stopped here. I'm getting about 10hrs at midnight, so I can make it tomorrow and head to the yard, the reason I wanted to do a 34, like I said earlier, I'm gonna get about 3hrs for both Monday and Tuesday, and I'm going home this next week, I don't how this company dispatch drivers the week they're going home yet so I was thinking of starting with a fresh clock next week just to be on the safe side. This load was due on Monday anyway, plus I talked to dispatch and told him I'm gonna do a 34 and he didn't tell me to deliver tomorrow, he just told me to come see dispatch with an empty when I'm done dropping it. BUT! If you think I should drop it tomorrow, then I'll do that, I'm always looking for advice and stuff. One more thing, the sample they gave me should it be in a fridge? Because I don't have a fridge on the truck yet...
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As long as you told them you were doing a 34 on the way and they didn’t say anything negative about it, you should be fine.

I rarely haul dairy, but when I do, I put my samples in the fridge then walk them in to the customer’s refrigerator in the bay. Grab a cheap styrofoam ice chest somewhere. One of the regular dairy haulers on here might have a better idea.

nextgentrucker · May 17, 2025

Tanker_82 said: ↑

As long as you told them you were doing a 34 on the way and they didn’t say anything negative about it, you should be fine.

I rarely haul dairy, but when I do, I put my samples in the fridge then walk them in to the customer’s refrigerator in the bay. Grab a cheap styrofoam ice chest somewhere. One of the regular dairy haulers on here might have a better idea.
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Cool, thanks.

JForce28 · May 17, 2025

Tanker_82 said: ↑

A large majority of it is drop and hook now, even the tank washes. The customers that I go to that are live loads and / or live unloads are pretty quick in and outs. They definitely don’t slow me down enough to hinder my ability to average 2,500+ miles per week. A drop and hook is usually involved on at least one of the ends, whether that be the shipping end or the consignee end.

As an OTR driver, sometimes I assist regional areas with a load or two that originates and terminates under their particular umbrella prior to being dispatched on something outbound that sends me to a different part of the country. Those assignments typically involve a live load or live unload. Whether or not you want to refer to those as “OTR Division” loads is a matter of interpretation. I’m an OTR driver, and since I’m the one hauling the load, one might consider it an “OTR Division load.” On the other hand, someone else might disagree and call it a “Regional load” that I’m just helping them out with. Hopefully that makes sense. It’s really too broad of a question to answer in my opinion since OTR drivers help out where we are needed at times.

Here is an example of OTR at Indian River:

Deadhead to McAllen, TX and pickup a preloaded tank at our Mission terminal. Drive 1,500+ miles and deliver it in Riverside, CA.

From there, deadhead 200+ miles to Tulare, CA and drop that dirty tank at the tank wash. Pickup a pre-washed tank that will be sitting there waiting for you. Now drive 15 minutes over to Tipton, CA and pickup orange juice. Drive 1,000+ miles up the road and drop it in Spokane, WA. Week #1 is over now. You turned in about 2,700 miles.

Latch on to an empty dirty one and deadhead 150+ miles to Prosser, WA. Drop the dirty and pickup another pre-washed tank that is there waiting for you.

Now deadhead 250 miles to Salem, OR and pickup cranberry. Haul it 3,000 miles across the country to Arcadia, FL and drop it. If there isn’t an empty, go ahead and bobtail out of there 75 miles to Winter Haven. Week #2 is now over. You turned in about 3,500 miles.

Once you’re in Winter Haven, go inside and get the paperwork from dispatch for the preloaded tank that you’re picking up on the loaded line. After you get hooked up to it, drive 1,000 miles up I 95 and unhook it at the drop yard in Wilmington, DE.

Now deadhead 45 miles to our terminal in Bensalem, PA. Hook onto the preloaded tank that is there waiting for you and haul it 1,400+ miles to Sulphur Springs, TX.

Once you get empty, deadhead 600 miles back down to McAllen. Week #3 is now over. You turned in about 3,000 miles.

Get ready to leave McAllen, TX with another preloaded tank that might go back to California, possibly Florida, Spokane, or maybe even New Jersey.

That is an example of OTR life at Indian River.
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That’s not a bad gig at all. I’m looking to get out of refrigerated trucking and those runs sound like they would be right up my alley.

When you are empty do the winds toss around the tank like they a reefer trailer?

Tanker_82 · May 17, 2025

JForce28 said: ↑

That’s not a bad gig at all. I’m looking to get out of refrigerated trucking and those runs sound like they would be right up my alley.

When you are empty do the winds toss around the tank like they a reefer trailer?
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That was just a small glimpse of our common lanes. I could have listed several more weekly examples and still not covered them all. Champlain, NY to Walla Walla, WA., Baltimore to the Los Angeles area, Alexandria, MN to Modesto, CA., Washington state to Florida (just like Oregon to Florida) are some other good trips we have that come to mind.

The wind rolls right over and under the tank in my opinion. I think they’re about 7,500 pounds empty. My tare weight is usually 32,000ish with a mid-roof 579 full of fuel.

JForce28 · May 17, 2025

Tanker_82 said: ↑

That was just a small glimpse of our common lanes. I could have listed several more weekly examples and still not covered them all. Champlain, NY to Walla Walla, WA., Baltimore to the Los Angeles area, Alexandria, MN to Modesto, CA., Washington state to Florida (just like Oregon to Florida) are some other good trips we have that come to mind.

The wind rolls right over and under the tank in my opinion. I think they’re about 7,500 pounds empty. My tare weight is usually 32,000ish with a mid-roof 579 full of fuel.
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Not bad at all. So the high wind

Tanker_82 said: ↑

That was just a small glimpse of our common lanes. I could have listed several more weekly examples and still not covered them all. Champlain, NY to Walla Walla, WA., Baltimore to the Los Angeles area, Alexandria, MN to Modesto, CA., Washington state to Florida (just like Oregon to Florida) are some other good trips we have that come to mind.

The wind rolls right over and under the tank in my opinion. I think they’re about 7,500 pounds empty. My tare weight is usually 32,000ish with a mid-roof 579 full of fuel.
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how are the shipper and receiver hours? Better than reefer with 20:00 and 01:00 deliveries?

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