UPS Freight Diary:

Discussion in 'LTL and Local Delivery Trucking Forum' started by Russian Rabbit, Jan 3, 2016.

  1. Russian Rabbit

    Russian Rabbit Road Train Member

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    Well, a lot has to do with tires; We love Bridgestones here at ups freight, so the ride is not the greatest.........
     
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  3. McUzi

    McUzi Road Train Member

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    All things being equal (FXF runs Michelin across the fleet), the Volvo suspensions seem to run smoother and the iShift isn't as jerky of a transmission as the Eatons I find.

    I don't get hung up on the loss of manuals anymore. If I want to grab a manual out of my yard it has a lot of miles, smells of cigarettes and is disgusting inside, and dispatch won't let me run it more than a day or two ("what's wrong with your bid tractor?").

    I do love my Pete though, best thing I learned in an auto shift was to disable the hill assist prior to backing and it is a lot smoother to do so.
     
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  4. LtlAnonymous

    LtlAnonymous Road Train Member

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    The real key to using automatics is at the end of this post. I could kiss the driver who showed me that.
     
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  5. Bob Dobalina

    Bob Dobalina Road Train Member

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    No doubt. The newest ones with the creep mode are even better. Lift off the brake and the clutch engages and stays put. No feathering of the throttle required, and no lunging and looking like a rookie every other time you back into a dock.
     
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  6. McUzi

    McUzi Road Train Member

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    The hub I'm bidded to has 5 hostlers working all night, 2 of them working the drop line. Doesn't matter what time you get there, it's now practice to drop your kite on the line, put away your lead trailer and go take your break or whatever... just get away from the drop line at all costs lol. At one point last year the backups for people to drop out their sets were so bad that trucks were lined in the street almost to the intersection. The local PD kept squawking at FX and finally the town smacked their peckers so this was FX's solution, in addition to a guy with lighted wands guiding trucks into open spaces.
     
  7. Russian Rabbit

    Russian Rabbit Road Train Member

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  8. Russian Rabbit

    Russian Rabbit Road Train Member

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    [​IMG]

    1) Unintended/ "unexpected" microsleep last thursday.

    BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD
    Admittedly the few times it happened before (both pre upsf and currently), i was VERY tired and struggling to stay awake so it was not so "unexpected." And during those times i would likely find a place to pull over and sleep, or was in the process of doing so.


    However, last thurs morning, i was feeling "just fine," but it still happened; If you could imagine your computer screen just going down, for a sec, then coming right back up, that is what it was like, sort of.

    After thinking about it, i realized that i had only gotten about 5 hours of sleep during the day (thurs) before coming on duty. And, while i got 8 hours the previous day, perhaps that sleep wasn't as high-quality as i thought? (likely so, compared to nightime sleep?)

    So, while i physically felt "just fine," and not sleepy (so i thought), i was really tired without realizing it?

    i feel that the only real way to cure tiredness/sleepiness is to get sleep. So, friday i pulled over(this was AFTER i left the hub) and napped for about 3 hours even though i was not struggling to stay awake. Although apparently i WAS tired if i was able to sleep for 3 hours....... Only waking up due to alarm because if i had slept more, then i would have run out of the 16 hours available.

    We MUST to continue to discuss this very important topic in depth! This was VERY FRIGHTENING because, as i said, i DID NOT feel sleepy at all when it happened!!! This was the first, and hopefully last, time this has ever happened to me.

    2) Have not had to sleep in a hotel for over 2 weeks, but perhaps this is not such a good thing after all (see above)?
     
    Last edited: Sep 1, 2019
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  9. LtlAnonymous

    LtlAnonymous Road Train Member

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    Oh, fatigue can sneak up on you in the blink of an eye. I pulled over and took a nap once, drove about ten minutes and pulled over again. Fooled myself into thinking a #### thing had changed with my fatigue. Lol
     
  10. Russian Rabbit

    Russian Rabbit Road Train Member

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    Notes:
    1) i think anyone who drives during 11pm-7am should be allowed mandatory 20 hours off, if they want. Not the 10.

    2) Microsleep - Wikipedia

    Going BACK to sleep....
     
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  11. McUzi

    McUzi Road Train Member

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    I’ve pulled off into a rest area on my way back from NJ before when I started linehaul at my outfit and still hadn’t gotten in the groove of running at night. Had a flat tire mid trip, which the vendor took forever to arrive and change the tire. Ended up needing to use the 16 exception that day, even without stopping for 30 minutes I needed it.

    Called central to tell them when I was pulling over for a quick nap.

    “Hey, I’m stopping to take a quick nap, I’m exhausted.”
    “Ok, let us know when you’re rolling again, be safe. If you need more rest afterwards we will lay you down in New Haven and power the load with a New Haven Driver.”

    Sure enough, that little nap didn’t help me that day and true to their word, put me in a hotel near New Haven, but ended up sending a Jersey driver with a set of empties up to swap the set and continue on while I did my 10 in a hotel.

    Didn’t even chirp about the 4 or so bills of guaranteed 1030am freight that was going to be free for the customers since it would be late.
     
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