What is EXCELLENT pay for experienced company hands?

Back in my wild years I would drive Cannonball back and forth between Michigan and Florida in my personal vehicle

1450 in 21 hours was the best back in the day.

The killer 35 years ago was the fuel stops far and few between when your barely pulling 8 mpg with a 33 gallon tank running 90 plus most of the time

Escort radar detector and running 100 plus through Georgia Tennessee Kentucky before the sun came up and you hit Cincinnati .

This was way back when and driving through Atlanta was a Maze of hell and the speed limit was 55 in Michigan yet


I used to drag this behind me sometimes running 110 plus down the mountains so I could maintain 70 up the otherside. I built the trailer in my garage when I was 18 because nobody built something for a deep vee boat.

Pulled it with my 78 Chevrolet van with a built 400 in it.

I welded up the 4 inch drop axles and put radial tires on it.

First trip after building it I nervously headed for Florida and crawled my was through a ice storm in Ohio.

Once I hit Kentucky hills and the weather cleared up I started pushing it and before long it was like it was never back there.

My buddy the broker still has it to this day and says the trailer handles better through the tight curves than his truck

Young and Dumb and Lucky 1983.

Sitting at my buddy house last year with the original Imron on the trailer and boat I painted it with in 1983

 

Almost forgot.





HiJack



Just Incase any body missed 1Heavy

 

My truck is not governed but my time at speed limit has never gone under 98%, no APU but I haven’t heard one word about idling or fuel mileage If you want to ##### about idling put an apu in there I’ll decide if it’s too hot. However if it’s nice out I’ll turn it off out of respect for them. Freedom is the most important thing to me and I would sacrifice a bigger paycheck for that, every single company pays in dollars but no one offers freedom. IMO if you can’t trust your driver to follow the speed limit or a safe speed you need to send them home.

 

The key is 24 hr period. They’re assuming, for simplicity sake, starting at midnight, driving 11 hrs. In 11.5 hrs. 10 hr. break, then driving 2.5 hrs.till midnight. Total, driving time, 13.5 hrs. You’ll never see me trying to explain that to a DOT Officer. Lol.

 

. Lol, I don’t do it everyday, but I could. My average runs are around 1100 miles. About 17 hrs. No need to log over 64 or 65. I usually run about 65 anyways.
Yes I do use paper, but often, I’m on a tight schedule. In those cases, I have to stay with it, and actually have to take a few minutes extra on a break, because I averaged 66 or 67 mph. I log off of Mile markers, actual miles ran. Without any Traffic delays, I can easily average whatever MPHs I’m running. I watch actual miles very close. I prefer, 699, over 703. Looks better, sometimes it’s 728, in a pinch, for 11 hrs. Either way, the higher the miles, the closer the look you’re going to get, during a DOT inspection. My books always Legal. Always, even to just bounce up an exit, Im not giving them that chance. They’ll get you if they can.

 

That's the a gimmick or what ever drivers want to call is. They give you that example to show what's possible if everything is perfect and on paper logs. It's used to show driver how to cheat on paper logs. I suppose it's possible on ELD if you can actually drive like that. Would you and any driver what to drive like that ? It's not going to work if your running the Midwest or almost anyplace but out west. It's not practical to tell people we can drive 810 or 900 miles day. It takes about 24 hours to drive 550 miles maybe someone can do 650 if no traffic jams. It's not a set number or something we can just makeup as needed to get load delivered.

I'm not giving up bathroom breaks or food because some shipper can't load the truck on time or the trucking company can't figure out we need a little more time. Making drivers think we have to speed in construction zones because we have to average 65 mph or load will be late. I would not want to work for a company like that. They should just plan in advance and set appointments with a more time on the trip. That's what the ELDs shows everyone when you drive the speed limits. We are not robots the ELD give drivers the power to take control. My company dispatchers plan at 50 mph. That should be 550 miles in 24 hours but they even try and push 650 in 24 hours and many time that when load start to be late. Because they are guessing to fast vs real traffic and hills and fuel stops.

 

I normally average 70 mph in 11 hrs. Believe it or not it is the truth. One of the days in the last 3 I did a 71 mph average.

 

I never said it was in an 11 hr shift, I said a day.

 

The following is the settlement for a 7 day 4254 mile run... Highlighted in green is the day I left, highlighted in blue is the day I was paid which is 2 business days after I return, highlighted in yellow is total miles (left number is empty miles, right number is loaded miles) These mileages are what I'm paid for which is slightly short of what the odometer actually rolled, due to being paid based on routing software routes. I will be honest and say about 4 hours of driving on day 1 were Ag. Exempt and I had 1 HOS violation, I went over my 70 by 7 mins inorder to get back to the yard at the end of day 7.

 

Your opinion.

I have one route where the driver hits 850 on Wednesday every week. Again on Friday. It gives him another night at home with the kids.