has parking always been this bad?

You can't know if a truck stop is going to have parking at 22:00 or not on a given day. I've seen truck stops half full at 19:00 then go by two days later at the exact same time and the same truck stop and they are spilling over.

Trucks run in cycles it seems and it is difficult to know with any degree of certainty what the capacity is going to be for any day for any given region. So spare us the "you gotta plan better" speech, especially when you need to run your hours out to near max for several days to make delivery appointment 1,800 miles away.

Never mind the things you can't plan for or don't have time to allow for.

 

Parking is hit and miss, until you learn an area... certain regions of the country, forget finding parking after sunset... not going to happen... unless you know of out of the way places.

Paying to park for $10-15 is so much cheaper than $130.00 or more...And many companies will reimburse that to the driver... and if the company does not, it is a tax deduction. A fine is never tax deductible.

 

I disagree. You can plan. You're not the only truck driver running around til the last minute. Everyone is doing it. Everyone is running 17-1800 mile loads also. PLAN BETTER!

 

Ok. One day I hope to be as good as you. Or at least drive in the easy driving world you drive in where everything magically falls into place, every time.









SMH

 

All plans look good on paper, but those who are great adapt those plans to the ever changing conditions, and KNOWS that even the best laid out plans fail more often than not.

 

It ain't that hard. We're just moving a box from one place to another. Not much brain power required.

 

In the good old northeast you want to be parked before dark....

 

See ^

Common sense.

 

Common sense is not common at all, but the accumulation of many years of failures.

 

Read the texan in post #6 that is the truth and then consider this:

That is the way it is at all mega-crap companies; the largest customer at all mega-crap customers is retail businesses. Most all of the runs are in the 300-400 mile range, most are a retail businesses, most do not offer truck parking, most unload on a schedule, most cannot deviate from that schedule, and your trucking dispatch will wait to the last moment to plan that load on you. That just the way it is in mega-crap trucking. The mega-crap is earning good coin on these short run dedicated accounts and making their cpm drivers suck up the problems associated with such business.

While there is some truth in the occasional 'filthy driver' causing problems, it hate truck drivers being framed in that light. It by far, not all of us. The fact is, if you were manager of that Lowe's with 15 trucks out front you would have signs up too. How are you going to open a home improvement store when it looks like a truck stop? Imagine how many more trucks would be out there if no signs were even there?

Some just have to get over the fact that the shipping and business model is not what it was years ago. We don't make things in this country anymore. We shop at big-box stores. Cities are more congested. More and more the trucking runs are lower average miles as more things are run on the rails at a cheaper price. The cpm model of trucking just does not work out like these trucking companies portray. These box-store business need the truck driver to deliver the chinese crap on time, so their minimum wage workers can unload the trucks on a set schedule. Then they expect you to hustle out of town so you don't suck up valuable retail space. That is just the way it is.