Central Refrigerated Truck Stop

Do not ever, ever, ever turn down a load! First off its against policy at most companies. Second off, its a very bad idea! Once you turn down a load it will tarnish you forever. You take every load given to with a "smile" and a "thank you"! Yes you are going to get some crappy loads. Yes you are going to get more than 1 or 2 crappy loads in a row. I tell you what though, the more you take and don't complain you start to realize your loads getting better and better and you getting more and more miles. This is how dispatchers bring you up through the "ranks". This and being on time is pretty much where you get your "rating" as a driver.

So just a re-cap:

1 * NEVER BE LATE TO A SHIPPER/RECEIVER

2 * NEVER REFUSE A LOAD OR GIVE YOUR DISPATCHER A HARD TIME ABOUT IT

Thank you please come again!

 

How much time will be spent in school on trip planning? Is there a website with good info? I admit that part is a bit intimidating to me. I plan to get the Rand McNally Truckers Map, anything else I should pick up?
I start on Jan. 10 and really want to have what I will need but don't want to overwhelm my trainer...or myself with too much too soon.
Thanks!

 

Just remember 575 and 620. Those are the number of miles a company driver and lease op respectively will typically drive in 1 day. To be safe plan with 500 miles/ day. Get all your stuff when you get your own truck. There is not enough room on your trainer's truck for you, him/her, all their stuff and all yours.

 

Thanks! That is much better than me imagining how to plan the entire trip at once. Breaking it down in segments makes more sense.
I figured it would be cramped for space. Even though I have packed, unpacked and discarded a bunch I still have three medium sized bags plus my computer bag! I have 6 sets of clothes plus towel & washcloth and personal hygiene items and prescribed meds. The e-mail I got from my recruiter told me to take a sleeping bag along also. I know there is a shuttle to Walmart, so I could buy one there but will I be able to do it the first day? I have no desire to sleep on a bare mattress.

 

If you are going to salt lake then they have shuttle that goes to Walmart every 2 hours or so.

They will tell you to plan the whole trip out first, but you just can't do that because #### happens. Construction, hills, accidents will cut your mileage down quick. I just take things one day at a time, be where I say, when I say I would be there. It seems to keep them happy.

 

Hey Raincatcher you can start practicing now. Get out your map and do some practice runs. Pick a place in which you will pick up a load, say LA. Delivers in Boston, Ma. Picks up Monday 7:30am. Remember pick up times are given to you in the time zone they are in. So 7:30am LA which is Pacific time zone. Since you are going to be driving for Central Ref. they run all of their times off of mountain time. It can get a little confusing because you will find yourself referring to this as Central time because of the company name. So you are in LA picking up your load right now and it delivers Monday at noon. Keep in mind the delivery time is in relation to where your load delivers. So being in Boston that means noon eastern time. Also keep in mind your log book is Mountain time. To keep from confusing yourself when you send your messages on the qualcomm to your dispatcher let them know the time zone you are referring to. Yes Mr. Dispatcher I will be in Boston Monday morning 9am eastern time 7am Mountain(Central Ref. time) Now I don't mean to really add confusion but your dispatcher may not be in Utah so get that straight from the get go. Now all you have to do is calculate the miles between LA and Boston. One rule of thumb you can use is 600miles is roughly 10 hours. 300 miles = 5hours. So its about 3000 miles from LA to Boston. You can divide 3000 by 600 which is 5. So roughly 5 driving days because 600 miles is 10 hours and that is about what you can drive in a day. When doing long trips like this make sure to take in account your fuel stops, weather, traffic etc... When you have long trip these things add up. As soon as you have calculated your trip let your DM know. If you can be there real early then they might move your appointment or have drop at a drop yard. This is crucial in your getting the maximum amount of miles for your week! As you are in route to Boston your DM will be planning your next load. You always want to stay on top of this and try to have at least one pre-plan ahead of yourself. Now try doing one on your own. After you finish delivering lets pretend that you have a pick-up in Lowell, Ma as soon as you can get there they will load you. It's going to deliver in Boise, ID Sunday at 9pm. Calculate it out, tell me how many miles, hours, what time you will be there and what route you are taking. Tell me what road you are taking from Boston to Lowell and how long that is going to take you.

Raincatcher I don't mean to sound like your instructor. If you have the time and would like to answer the question above, great. You don't have to though.

 

As far as turning down loads, doesn't matter if you are a company driver or lease op. Don't flat turn down a load. Now before you blindly accept the load read the load info, make sure you have enough hours to do the load.

Sometimes they, your DM or the planners don't check the load before they send it to you. Sometimes (read often) they will send you a load to pick up before (sometimes days before) your current load delivers, or you can't take it all the way, or it goes to an area you don't want to go to. So read the load.

Now the secret here is don't tell them what you can't do, but tell them what you can do. I got a load once from Liberal, KS with 5 stops in Brooklyn, and long island. My truck didn't go to NYC, period. I knew that I needed to do a 34 hr restart, so I told my DM I could pick the load up and head east but I needed to do a reset and would not be able to deliver, so within a day he got a repower scheduled within 50 miles of my house, so I took it from Liberal, KS to Orient, Oh

So tell them what you can do. Company drivers can't refuse loads per say, but you can get the loads modified, or different appointments if you can't legally run the load.

Now as a lease op, some reasons for turning down a load too much deadhead ( had a friend who was a lease op, they wanted him to deadhead 400 miles for a 500 mile load, lease ops don't get fuel surcharge on deadhead miles

 

raincatcher do youself a favor, when you get get a map make sure you get the Motor Carrier Road Atlas. Get the large scale edition it's easier to read

And Smurfette, when you got lost sounds like you were not on a truck route, STOP the truck, put your 4 ways on, check your maps, don't panic, access the situation. The worst thing you can do is keep going, you don't know if your going to come up a low clearance, weight restricted bridge, low trees whatever. Figure things out, if you need call someone, dispatch can use google earth to find your truck and see what's up ahead, if you have to call the local police.

There have been a few instances when I have had to do just that.

The first time, the directions on the qualcom sucked, nobody answered the phone at the shipper, I got lost. I was LOST, I stopped the truck called the police, (call 411 ask for the NON-EMERGENCY number don't call 911 because being lost is not an emergency) the police came, stopped traffic and had me back up to turn around then he led me to where I needed to go.

Second time about two months ago, I was following a really crappy marked detour and must have missed a turn because I ended up in a resedential neighborhood, and this town had signs that said trucks must follow state or US routes. I pulled it over, put on the 4 ways, called the police. Now the cop came, he did give me a $48 parking ticket (non moving violation) but he said if I had not of stopped he would have written me a ticket being on a restricted route which would have been a $5000 fine, but he was cool and told me how to get back to where I needed to be.

 

Good advise Chompi. My trainer and I had a 13 mile load with 2 stops in the Fontana area. It took a total of 6 hrs. It's what we had to do to get a empty trailer. Next load was 1800 miles. So I agree take the bad with the good and hope the good wins.

 

Chompi, thank you, this is exactly what I was hoping for and really need. I hope it's okay to use Google...I would select I-80 out of Lowell Ma. and stay away from I-90 since I don't have a passport to go into Canada. The total mileage is 2750-ish divided by 600 = at least 4.5 days. First 600 mi. should put me close to Akron Ohio; second day should be close to Des Moines, Iowa; third day should be around Ft. Collins Wy. and then on into Boise on day four...in ideal conditions with a tailwind and plenty of food in the truck. Allowing for winter conditions and driving mountain passes I would allow another 3-6 hours for weather, 4 wheelers and chaining events. This should put me in Boise close to 7:00pm...??? Maybe?