FCC--Fremont Contract Carriers

Heartless messed things up big time . They called me up a few years about coming back to work and I said sure…… as soon as you pay me the approximate 4 thousand dollars you con artist owe me yet . Never heard back from them . Small world. My daughter grandma used to live in Port Orchard Washington and I would drop my daughter off at the interesting Love’s truck stop in Tacoma Washington where her grandma would meet me and I would go back in a few months to pick her up

 

You too… and I’m looking forward to meeting up one day as well.

 

Small world indeed. My Mom was born in Manchester, and raised in Port Orchard. Gordon Trucking was my first OTR job back in 1994. I think they had the best company going until they sold. Oh well. Stay safe.

 

Yup … but let’s keep doing more of it. Maybe it will finally work. {roll eyes}

 

I dropped early this morning in Redlands, CA, with my next pick up near Anaheim, but can't pick up until Monday. There are a LOT of places I would like to hang out other than the Pilot in Hesperia, so I rented a car and I plan on disappearing for at least 34 hours.

 

Have a good time. If you get into trouble mention my name, if its an old timer you might get a break....LOL

 

So I don’t run up north or northwest very often. Great weather this time but making mental notes just in case I get the call to run here again at some point.

I’m not seeing any drivers parking on on/off ramps at all like I see in the Midwest or Southeast… is that a huge No No up here or is there just always enough parking in this Region that no one ever needs to use ramps? I get the feeling one can go quite a ways up here between good parking so I’m thinking surely some drivers are getting caught between parking spots when they run out their clocks. Although I saw a Walmart with a lot of trucks so maybe I’m just not seeing all the parking options here.

what happens when they shut down the roads up here? Just everyone parking wherever they can or do they try to close it in sections to spread out the drivers looking to get shut down?

always appreciate the flow of knowledge here.

 

When you say you don't run up north, are you talking about the Upper Midwest? Because if you were just talking about the Northwest then I don't think you would've put in the "north" part, so I'm assuming you're talking about the Upper Midwest in the Dakotas/Minnesota/Wisconsin and the Northwest, correct?

Parking is 10000 times better in the Upper Midwest and in the Northwest. The Northeast sucks the most and the Southeast is honestly getting just as bad because of everybody moving here.

I'm assuming you are using the Truckers Path App for parking, right Midwest?

Here's what I've found. In the Upper Midwest and the Northwest are very truck friendly. Most Walmarts let you park there overnight. Some Walmarts even have truck parking like the one in Bellevue, Nebraska (right outside of Omaha) does, which I'm sure you're aware of working for FCC and going by Fremont all the time. If memory serves me correct the Walmart in Laurel, Montana has truck parking and by truck parking I mean spaces with lines in the pavement that are designated for trucks, just like at the truck stops.

Besides the Walmarts, there's actually a good amount of parking on the I-90 and I-94 corridors. You just have to know how much time you have on your clock and whether or not you can get to the places or not.

On I-90 you have that big rest area by Chamberlain, South Dakota. It's huge, I would wager there's probably 50-100 truck spots there. On the eastside of South Dakota about 10 minutes south of Sioux Falls you have the Coffee Cup stop that never really fills up. The Love's in Sioux Falls proper does fill up but honestly you can make a spot somewhat easy as that used to be a Pilot (I think) so the parking lot is bigger than most loves. Halfway between Sioux Falls and Chamberlain you have Mitchell, SD and a big Walmart where you can park overnight. I always see campers and RV's there too. Pro tip - If by a RARE (and I do mean RARE) chance the Walmart in Mitchell, SD is full park at the Menards right next to the Walmart. I've delivered to that Menards and parked there overnight, they don't care. They're not going to say anything to you if you park there and don't have a delivery. It's small town South Dakota man, they're laid back.

On I-29 in between Sioux Falls SD and Fargo ND you have the TA in Summit that never fills up. If it's full just make a spot, the parking lot is huge. But usually there are always at least a couple spots that stay open all night and the parking is free. The showers are really clean there too. I can't comment north of Fargo as I've never been north of Fargo on I-29.

Then on I-94 they just opened up a new Loves about half an hour West of Fargo, which no doubt frees up a lot of spaces in Fargo proper. Speaking of Fargo proper the Petro in Fargo never fills up 100%. If it's marked full go check it out anyways, chances are there's a spot open. The rest of the I-94 corridor through North Dakota is pretty good, you got a TA and a Cenex close to Bismark. In Dickinson you have that Tiger Truck Stop that never gets full. Even if it says full stop there. You should be able to find a spot.

Then once you cross into Montana and I-94 turns into I-90 Montana is great about having rest areas pretty frequently. In fact Montana reminds me of Iowa, Iowa's another state that does great with how many rest areas they have. Montana is the same way. Halfway through Montana in between Butte and Bozeman you have that Pilot off highway 287/I-94 in Three Forks that I was always able to find a spot at. Like I said I-90 through Montana is pretty good for parking.

Regarding I-15 from Salt Lake City to Butte, that section is actually not very good for parking in the sense that there's always spots no matter what time a night it is. So if you're going north at least from SLC to Butte, make sure you have enough time to get to Three Forks at that Pilot I was talking about in between Bozeman and Butte and you're golden because you're basically guaranteed a spot there. You're going to screw yourself if you run out of hours on I-15 though in between SLC/Butte. This time a year if you're going West to East it's actually quicker to take highway 287 to I-90 it'll take you straight to Three Forks at that Pilot. Nice views but no bathroom stops so make sure you go before you hit 287.

Other than that you have I-80 through Wyoming, which I always considered part of the Northwest. There's that big ### Love's in Wamsutter then you got Little America. They just built a new Love's outside of Rock Springs which will help with parking too. On the eastside in Laramie there's the Love's but right across the street from Love's (well right next door to Love's actually) is a smaller mom and pops truck stop that will ALWAYS have parking. That parking lot is huge if the lot happens to be full make a spot plenty of room for it. I try not to stop at the truck stops in Rawlin's I don't like them. Oh and the rest areas in Wyoming are worse than the ones in the Dakotas and Montana, in my opinion at least.

That about covers it though man. Like I said, know what you're hours of service are and you pretty much just drive to the places that I mentioned. It's almost dummy proof really. I love it. The Northwest and the Upper Midwest are by far my favorite places in the country to drive, they are so truck friendly.

Now that said, during bad weather yes these places can and will fill up. I just make sure I don't play Super Trucker and find a place to park before it gets bad when the storms hit. Wyoming is probably the worst state for parking in the Northwest, both in good weather and in bad weather. As for as parking on ramps I see it sometimes. I think when the weather is good though and drivers are parking on ramps in the Dakotas it's because they just want to park on the ramp, not because they can't find parking. Same in Montana too I think. And really these states are so rural it probably doesn't matter much if they park on the ramps, nobody cares it's all about whether you as the driver feel comfortable parking on a ramp overnight. You'll still get peace and quiet just because of how quiet these states are. But to be clear I never parked on the ramps overnight as I don't feel comfortable doing so.

You said:

what happens when they shut down the roads up here? Just everyone parking wherever they can or do they try to close it in sections to spread out the drivers looking to get shut down?

Nah man they shut the roads down when they need to shut them down they don't space it out or spread it out. And when they shut it down you better park. That's why I said don't play Super Trucker during bad weather because a lot of the places that I just mentioned WILL and CAN fill up when the weather gets bad. So find a place to park because the distances between things are longer in this part of the country. I wouldn't want to be on a ramp in a North Dakota blizzard that's for sure.

Hope this helps. Enjoy your ride, I always loved going through the Upper Midwest and Northwest during the summertime. Very peaceful and relaxing.

 

Wow… WOW!!!

now that’s a few nuggets of knowledge

ya, it’s been a great and beautiful ride this round… NC to NE to SoCal to WA to OR back to WA then to MI tomorrow. Probably back to the Midwest and Southeast routes next week.

Enjoyed the mini vacation.

DM kind of hinted that since they gave me such a cherry run they will likely hit me up to run this winter… he said AFTER I was in OR/WA… lol … didn’t know there were strings attached to this load… LOL

So I’m just soaking in the views and making mental notes this time so to be the Prepared Boy Scout if/when the call comes in the not so nice months of the year.

Yes, I did mean Pacific Northwest and Northern Midwest States… ran 90/94 from WA to Rockford … and yes I use Truckers Path to scout out parking ahead.

I only hit one night where I didn’t get as far as I had hoped and shut down early… I had the clocks to get where I wanted to go but no time available IF it was parked full and I had to find a Plan B… and I didn’t see any creative parking this trip so I didn’t want to risk a ticket or something when I had time to shut down early.

Thanks for the detailed post.

 

Hey FCC Drivers
(and you too @runningman0661 )

What are FCC’s normal lanes in the PNW and northern Midwest States? Any National Drivers here that run this area often?

I mean I see postings here for Broken Bow, Sioux City, Four Oaks, Atlanta, Dallas, and a few other bigger cities along our lanes and I know we have the Midwest and Southwest Regions, but I don’t recall many posts about the PNW.

Maybe we don’t run up that way very often or regular unless we have a load of shelving or something?