I sense a steep learning curve ahead - new job

I've never pulled refer before. I can fill you in on automatic's there easy and they'll make you lazy and they won't touch a standard when it comes to pulling a hill. Your first couple of weeks you'll probably be grabbing imaginary gears and kicking a hole in the floor trying to find that clutch that isn't there when stopping lol. I honestly prefer standards myself but it seems most fleets are going to automatic shift. I like e logs because you really don't have to mess with them (I was the world's worst about catching up on paper logs) the only downside to e logs is you can't really bend them to help you out like you could a paper log. You have to put a little more time into trip planning and make sure your not going to run out of hours.

 

Reefer is easy, fill it up every time you fuel the truck and follow dispatch notes on what temperature and setting to run it on. There’s like 4 buttons on it, pretty simple.

 

The e log is actually pretty cool once you get used to it.

Just remember to log on duty for ur pre trip, post trip, just a few minutes.

When you pull into the fuel island, log on duty fueling before you get out of the truck. Or you'll space it off.
Let the log click over 1 minute when ur finished, then go off duty or whatever.
It'll throw you on drive at 5mph. So if you move, make sure you go off duty if you get out, or it's going to leave you on duty.

Hopefully you don't roll the truck with that auto lol.

 

I would be most worried about the Craigslist source of the job.

The hardest lesson you might learn here will be the scum that many (not all) trucking industry employers are.

 

Cleanlines is more important with reefer. Have a tool or two for prying the pallet chunks out of the floor channels and drain holes, because they need to be clear. ELD is fairly easy - you should be able to edit most mistakes except driving. It won't keep you on drive when you're not driving, but if you're trying to creep off duty during a 34 and you accidentally make it kick over to drive, then your 34 just got ruined. Also, DOT will look for on-duty time sprinkled throughout each day, so make sure you don't go straight from driving to sleeper or sleeper to driving when you're at shippers and receivers. There should always be at least a few minutes of on duty in those transitions. Nice thing is they don't need to be in 15 minute blocks. Often 3-5 minutes is enough.

 

Every shipper/receiver will have a variation of how they do things. Ask at the guard shack to get instructions. Sometimes you break the seal and back in, others you wait for the lumper to come out, the guards do it at some places. Sometimes you go into receiving office, others you leave paperwork in the trailer, or the guard may take care of it. If unsure, always leave the reefer running until fully unloaded. Get ready to sit hours at times. Welcome to the reefer world.

 

I parked one time and didn't manually switch it to off-duty. Went inside the terminal for an hour or two and went back out to the truck and found it still on drive time. The logs department wouldn't edit it. Needless to say, I wasn't happy. The best thing to do is get in the habit of changing it to off-duty. Don't rely on the Qualcomm to do it.

 

Ouch, that must've sucked. I've been on elogs for years and that's not happened to me yet. Could be a different model unit, or a malfunction. Heck, could be both, lol. Anyway, I guess the moral of the story is for him to learn the quirks of whatever unit he gets assigned. Mine will usually sit in driving for five minutes of not moving, then switch to on duty with a five minute backtrack. And then the on duty can be edited if needed.

 

Yes I remember the good old days where some warehouses would not allow you to load unless you either washed or swept out your reefer. No ones mentioned getting used to sleeping with the reefer running in the back ground that could take some getting used to also. As far as leaving it running while there unloading its just a total waste of energy as unless you can kept the temp set most of the cold storage ware houses have those large rubber seals that go around your reefer and the cold air from the warehouse should be sufficient.