USA truck experience

My company knows how fast I'm going over the speed limit. They call it a

, I think we get 15 miles over the limit.
They have drive cams that automatically download.
They have Zonar, know every minute of pti, ect...
Hell, at USA I ...had fun saw the country, but no bucks for me.
Made more as a student there at 350/week.

 

Do y'all NOT call about retention after 2 hours? I do. Especially if I had an appt. time. Oversize load, they charge for being tardy. I want to charge them for holding me up. I try to pre-plan loads. Every hour they keep me, costs me money! We are always on time and they have two hours.

I have raised Hell about retention and got it for 5 guys, in the past. If I'm on site, we get retention. I listen, take notes, make phone calls and tell on people. I want out. I have a load scheduled.

We use Google maps to get around. It's not hard and it's free.

Showers? I've washed my hair in receiver's sinks, taken a bath in restrooms, washed dishes in rest areas. Sometimes, you get clean where you can. Everywhere I go, it's cleaner when I leave.

 

I drive a bus, haul people from airport to rental cars. Except for the #### bedbugs people on their luggage have from Vietnam, China, India, it's a good job.
$7.00 bottle of Diatomaceous earth kills them.
Got chiggers in the woods at Little Rock, AR back then, that was worse. Ankles had huge open sores.

 

Technology is not making anything safer today. Large mega-carriers put drivers on the road that are even more unskilled and unqualified than ever before just to keep the revenue pouring in from their revolving door schools.

I am all for embracing technology, as long as you don't let technology do all the thinking for you. I agree with embracing technology as a tool, but when it is used a s necessity that's when I have a problem with it. I have seen too many truck drivers and 4-wheeler drivers alike turn into robots that cant learn to think or make rational choices without that little talking screen. It frankly disgusts me.

GPS has taught people to throw their sense of direction out the window, and soon electronic logs will teach the new generation that they don't even need to learn, understand or remember log book rules.

Would I want to spend a week without my cell phone? Of course not. But I could survive without it if i had to.

I am not intimidated by change, I am saddened and troubled by this stuff people labeled as convenient and safe. It is only convenient for large mega-carriers and carriers with 200+ trucks, it is too costly and unnecessary for smaller outfits and owner operators/independents.

You want real-time tracking of your freight with me? Call my cell phone. I will tell you when and where it will get there and whether or not it will be on time. Whether I break down in a truck with Quallcomm Spyware or a truck from an outfit that still has the courage to stand up to that garbage makes no difference. If its gonna be late I will let someone know.

Elogs are not going to make anything safer, and will drive the prices on shelves through the roof due to a HOS system that sets the driver up for failure.

 

I did have a lobotomy earlier this year. That is why I started driving a truck. I use my GPS exclusivley on about 90 percent of my runs. I am also lazy and dont want to take the time to research the maps. I don't see the need to follow a route through six states, triangulate my way to the customer, check the canned qualcom directions, and double check everything by breaking out me sectant when my gps says the walmart distribution center i am going to is a quarter mile off the interstate.

Before you tell me I am going to deliver a bridge I am using a Rand Mcnally 710. It has all the same bridges that are in the atlas programed into it. That being said I do watch the height of every bridge I am going under when im not on the interstate. I also do not follow it blindly and occaisionally turn it off and rely on the archaic methods you preffer. You will see in my other posts that I do use the other tools when needed.

 

I am curious to know what small companies have to offer. Are they better to work for then the mega carriers like usa? I don't know a lot about that area of the business and I would like to know were you end up and what types of comapanies you are looking at.

 

I have never gotten detention. What procedure do you use with dispatch. Do you send them a messaeg on qualcom saying you are going past 2 hrs ?

 

AppolyonGabriel- What companies are you looking to go to. I wouldn't be supprised if you end up getting paid at a higher rate when you find one.