Central Refrigerated Truck Stop II

No worries; I'm not offended. here and Bethlehem, PA are the only problems I have trouble getting to a ts. If you have to go 25 miles west when your next stop is east you're going 50 extra miles. You're taking an hour off your 70 and burning 7 gallons of fuel ($25) so I always avoid it. It's even worse in this case because it made the difference between getting a 34 or not. The last thing I want to do is fight my 70 after this fiasco.

If you can't find a trl tell dispatch to find you one, and make sure they know if you can't make your load. Make it someone else's fault and you dont get a service failure.

 

The Trexler truckstop opened back up over a year ago. Not far from Allentown or Bethlehem. North on 100 to next light. Take a right. On left about a mile up. Has a cat scale. Fills early, but it is there. Also can park off Industrial. Go south on 100 to Industrial. Take a right. Go thru a few lights to top of hill. There is a grocery warehouse at top, Wakefern. Park at end of lot near entrance and they will not bother you. Just not near the guardshack end, they use that end for staging. Also wawa has parking, but very limited off 100 south.

In Chicago. There is one just south of downtown. Small, only maybe 8 parking spaces, but if you get there during the day it has parking and no charge. Cannot remember actual address though. I am not in my truck at the moment. Also, if they still have the Chicago drop lot at Central Freight you can park there.

 

There's a couple spots in Allentown, but I'm always getting there at 0200. I thought about the drop lot in romeoville, but I really wanted a shower.

 

So I arrived in line at WM DC Cheyenne 25 minutes before my appointment, (I stopped at Walmart in Sidney) and took 20-25 min before I actually got to the front of the line. I went and docked, walked over to the office, found out I was now 19 minutes late. I wasn't aware that my arrival in the gate wasn't the time they use. Sitting here going on 4 hours now because of it, actually cost me a preset I didn't want so I'm not Horribley upset even though I won't get detention.

I know the on time bonus is 97%. I've had 17 runs in my two months solo so does that mean one late will be worth -5.8% and cost me my bonus for the quarter?

 

tell tthem that's chicken sheet.

you were at the gate and on there property 19 minutes early. what happens between gate time and dock time isn't your problem. you didn't cause the 45 minute travel from gate to dock.

 

When you get your paperwork back also document on it the time you received it... There has been some D/Cs that have put fraudulent times on ours, to make it look like they were done on time, but we didn't pick up the paperwork for hours...

 

ChromeDome wrote:

The FMS had listening sessions this weekend at the trucking show on a new proposal for driver training standards. This was put forward by Congress years ago as being a priority, but the ATA company's IE Big trucking got it held off till now. The biggest comments raised by drivers kept being the quality of company trainers. The issue I have with this is that the FMCSA cannot really put a rule out to cover company trainers. Since by the time a driver gets to a company trainer they already have their license. So according to the FMCSA they are fully trained. BTW. For those that do not know FMCSA stands for "Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

I, too, watched much of the FMCSA conference on my computer. They even read a comment I made via Twitter. Basically, I commented that CRST requires an extended training period. I wondered if their safety record was better than the companies that only require 28 days. There was lots of talk about the amount of time drivers should be with trainers. FMCSA seemed to be pushing for 6 months. !!! What do you think?

 

6 months with a trainer will never happen, the big carriers will fight that till the end they'll lose way to much money. It may pay off in the long run from fewer accidents but the here and now is what most CFOs look at. 6 months graduated license , maybe. I agree that students need more and better training but this ain't rocket science but it is tougher than a lot of folks think.

 

I think quality of training is more important than quantity. By the end of my month I was basically just a team driver. My trainer had taught me everything I could learn in a team environment. I started learning a lot more once I was solo.

However, my trainer had years of experience; those who get newbie trainers could drive with them for months and not come out as better drivers.

 

I think that the training needs to start from the top not the bottom. A good seasoned trainer has the ability to teach a student far more than a guy that has had his CDL for six to nine months and is still in his career infantcy himself. Some students catch on quick and others never will get it , this has to be something that the trainer can catch on to and base his style of teaching on each different student. I do know that the companies are going to have a hard time finding trainers that will live with a student in a truck for six months. I won't be. LoL.