OTR and SLEEP?

Sleeping on the shoulders is not a wise thing to do......If a drunk 4-wheeler slams into you....You are at fault....because DOT will ultimately say...."Driver...you ain't supposed to be here..."......

 

Isn't it legal tho on a on or off ramp?

 

Most if not all states are cracking down on that Wiseguy. My order of stopping for the night is T/S's,rest areas,shippers/recievers, and scales. The reason I prefer T/S's is if the truck needs service I have access to food and something to drink.

 

Shucks you can get killed in your own bed at home by some moron doing a drive by thinking some Dude live there! It's no different in a truck. There was a driver shot through his windshield about a year or so ago and a big webpage got started and a new law I think.

I drove for 32 years and only had 1 time then the trailer was broken into and that was in the daylight going into Hunts Point! My last 2 years driving I was on a dedicated run to NYC that took 2 days to unload and if lucky got to spend a 3rd night there waiting for a certain load. I slept all over that town and never had a problem! I have parking places even the local drivers don't know about or will not sleep at!

I've slept in Truck Stops all over America and I guess the "worst" truck Stop was in Laredo, TX.. It was the old truck stop down town. I woke up one morning and got out of the truck and was doing my PTI and as I got to the back of the truck and couldn't believe my eyes. Every trailer on the row had a door opened! Locks were all over the ground and I mean there were a LOT of them there! I'm glad I was MT!

I've slept in rest areas, on large vacant lots, in the desert, mountains, plains and anywhere I could park without the police waking me telling me to move! I've even slept at the truck stops in Gary IN the most crime ridden town in America or tops the list almost every year! I was sleeping next to a CRE at the T/A when some moron broke out his drivers door window and stole the drivers pants with his wallet including his money, cell and belt! Now you know why I have a clothes hanging hook on the side of the closet as I never leave my clothes on the seat!

I don't worry about that crapola! If they make it into my cab then they have to contend with me! A coat hanger will not only scare the hello out of someone it can do extreme damage to a face not only sting like fire it leaves these beautiful lines in the face! Then there is the bike chain that in close quarters will break noses, chins and cheeks it also leaves a pretty pattern! Or the tire billy in the head works pretty good too but I rather mark a thief so the cops can find them easier! I don't carry a gun anymore as I was the victim BUT the cops didn't see it that way and I was the one who got to go to jail and now my most favorite gun the SW 13-7 is part of a man hole cover somewhere! And No I don't worry about a gun as it's hard for some gomer to try to use one climbing in through a window as he'll never get the door open anyway due to one simple little moron stopper!

At Wally World or for 5 times the money at a truck stop get a motorcycle tie down strap that's at least 10' long. run one end through the arm rest on one door and the other through the other door and pull it nice and tight! If you have the seats that swivel around then swivel them so the back is in front of the door making it even harder for a low life to get in! Some drivers use the seat belts but thats to much trouble.

I've heard stories of theives using either in your vents to knock a driver out and said driver wakes up in a parking lot in his skivies. I've heard of gomers shooting through the wall of a truck to hit the driver as he's asleep and other stories of the road.

I DID meet a driver at the TA in Duncan SC way back in I guess 89 or so that had this ugly arsed scar that was still healing with stitches running from above his eye across his face to the jaw and when I saw him he told me he had just gotten out of the hospital in Norfork, VA. He had parked outside of the Naval Base and he got out of his truck and walked to the passenfger side to take a piss when some gomer hit him in the face witrh a pipe and knocked him out! These guys stole everything in the truck from dirty clothes to the seats and the gauges out of the dash! They almost took the dirt off the floor!

He spent a week in the hospital while the truck was in the shop getting everything put back in except for his clothes and CB! BUT, the good thing out of that whole deal was he worked for one of a few of a dying breed. The owner took him to the department store and bought him all his clothes and then to the truck stop and got him a new Cobra 29! Me after seeing this guy I never just walked to the side of the truck without looking before I went around the corner of the hood and I always look under trailers as I walk by in the stops for the one idiot waiting for me to come strolling by like a walk in the park! I keep aware of my surroundings like my Drill Sargent taught us in basic!

But all in all I never worried about sleeping anywhere. Now, here at the house about a month ago some fool tried to break into MY HOUSE in the wee hours of the mourning but got foiled by the security chain on the door! We didn't hear him as he knew we were home and was being quiet so he's still walking around as if I had heard him I'd become a poster boy for the NRA!

If you worry about things like that you'll have ulsers in no time! Be aware of your surroundings, park under a street lamp, if you park on a ramp be aware of parking laws and the outcome of someone driving under your truck and suing the crapola out of you and the company even if they are drunk! Listen to the weather before you hit Zland, as waking up in the middle of BFE with 3 feet of snow around you is not a fun way to wake up or to be sunk up to the axles because it rained and that dirt patch you parked on became a field of mud! Another way to wake and spend money in fun ways! Look for that NO Parking Sign or the one that says No Trucks or No Overnight Parking!

And don't fall for the "Wake up driver, we need you to back up a few feet so we can get that 6 wheeler out of the dock!" and you back up so nicely for them onto a few boards and when you wake up in the morning you're missing the outside wheels and tires off of the trailer! You backed up onto risers for them so they could help themselves to those round things you're now missing!

These are just a few little things from over the years and places I've slept. As I said it can happen at home just as easly as on the road!

Oh Motels? Not unless the company or owner of the truck is paying! Thats whatthe sleeper is for! There has been a few times when the truck was in the shop I'd be at the motel and a knock at the door turned out to be a coin operated female! These motels were more in the shall we say more "depressed" areas of town! Nah I'll sleep in the sleeper and keep that money in my pocket! I can get every thing I need at a shopping center, mall, truck stop over a motel!

Good Luck
Rollover

 

I would like to know more about this also, I know I have read not to park in the back and do not walk between trucks but how do you feel safe while sleeping or delivering in areas that law enforcement may even avoid?

 

Thanks Rollover I think! lol

 

The question is how do you know the law enforcement avoids the area? And if the only place to park is the back are you going to get back on the road and keep driving when out of hours and tired? And if you park in one of these monster parking lots are you actually going to walk to the end of the row and the around the outside of the lot to not walk between trailers?

No you're not! Even at night as you "walk betwen trailers" you'll be looking under the trailers for legs or someone laying on the ground which I would NEVER do no matter how much I needed money as your nose will tell you why! Who knows how sick the last guy was that peed on that spot! The same as you would do walking down a city street on the side walk. You'll be looking for some gomer to be standing between the cars waiting for some unspecting person to stumble by. If it's a big worry for you then stop on the fuel island and go inside to do your business then go park. Just don't sit there while you eat and shower! You'll have more problems from the guy you blocked in than some gomer wanting to steal your cell in the lot!

As I said above, Be aware of your surroundings! There are not that may "happenings" at truck stops. If you're female be aware of that good Samaritan that volunteers to walk you to the building could be the guy you were worried about to begin with! Again if you're that worried of "things" that "could" happen this job is not for you!
Me I fear no evil as I'm the meanest SOB on the lot when it comes to being attacked! Or I used to be! I have to get my health back from that other SOB called the Reaper! LOL I might not look like much in my profile picture but I look worse now!

 

Very good points and I can tell you know what your talking about and tell it as it is....I appreciate that.

Hope your health returns and thanks for your reply.