First Load Help

You have plenty of time.Drive until 4 or 5 take your brake and you'll have less then 200 miles and won't have to rush getting there.I'm going by the time you made the thread.Say you start rolling at 10 am stop at 4 pm that gets you around 350 miles.One thing you don't wanna do is make all the miles in one day and rush getting there if you don't have you.

 

While I agree with you, and like the way that you think, I don't think that's what was being suggested at all. I like the idea, and I use it myself when investigating an area that I know i'll have trouble getting a place to park.

Look up your area, find a truck that's on its lonesome, and you got yourself a potential parking space. At that point, throw that phone into the sleeper and don't look at it again.

I just recently talk one of my younger cousins how to read an atlas, I Took him on a trip with me and at one point snatched his phone away, turned my phone and his phone off, tossed the GPS in the backseat of the car and handed him an Atlas. Told him we were lost, our phone batteries are dead, and our GPS can't find us. He learned really quick after I told him that we weren't moving until he plotted a course home.

know full well in my age group I'm a minority. I'm in my late 20s and it scares me to see how many of my peers have no clue how to read a basic map much less an Atlas.

 

Who's telling him to navigate with a GPS or Google? All I heard was he was concerned about finding a place nearby to park and await the receiver opening. All I said was look at satellite view near the receiver and see if you can spot any wide streets where a truck may be parked.

I'm saying learn how to be a "smart trucker" and use the tools that are freely available. No sense in making the job any harder just to "be a trucker" and prove some sort of goofy point. What good is an atlas going to do in Haltom City, TX?

 

I like the PattyPlan on this one. If you realized all of a sudden that you are not one of the Brethren of the Night, you would be in trouble. The PattyPlan will get you there on time at an easy pace.

 

Thank you,just makes things less stressful all around.

 

Even though I've had faster trks then whats on our roads now I always went by 55mph that way you have the traffic in busy cities covered and still make ontime delivery easy breezy.

 

Another vote for the PattyPlan. It's good to have hours left to make another pickup and escape DFW before you need to park.

It's nice to start your clock early and drive some to get to where you need to be as the clock will also run out early when there is lots of parking left.

Looks like you might be sleeping which is good if your going to run tonight.

 

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, I would have called to see if the receiver would take the load early so I could start tomorrow with fresh hours. At minimum, I would be parked somewhere close for the night. I tend to not like technology, but I if I had internet access I would use google earth to scope out parking. If it is an industrial park, often they have a dead end for extending the road for future expansion, back the truck up to the dead end. Another thing I would do is shower at the last available truck stop in case I don't have an opportunity tomorrow. Yes Night time running is my favorite, but I will run any hours of the 24 if I am legal to do so and it gets me ahead of the game. Take every opportunity to make the wheels turn. You don't know what the next few days will bring.

 

It really depends when you get loaded,how far the receiver is and how many available hrs you have that determines if you can get to the customer the same day or not.Like say you get loaded early and have 700 miles to go.Drive around 300 miles take your brk and drive the rest early in the morning like midnight.You'll get to the cust about when they open.More times then not you wont have to worry if they have parking or not if you get there early like 2 hrs or less.When you start driving more you know what customers will take you early and what cust only go by appt only.You also need to tell your dispatch ASAP how many hours you have left the next day before they find you a load if youll be short on hrs because you drove all night to get the previous load delivered.

 

There are a lot of variables for sure. The point is get ahead wherever you can, if you are out to make$$$.I like to get ahead at every opportunity. The next few days, the opportunity may or may not be there.Patty, have you watched the TruckerDeesiree youtube videos? I am still fixated on her!