Night driving

if too many at night, I would wear my sunglasses (polarized), to help cut down the glare..

 

I bounce alot between graves and days because of our customer. I prefer nights, but it's getting harder and harder to sleep during the day because of idiots blowing their horns, hitting their makes constantly, and parking next to you and shouting and playing loud music. Seriously, if you park next to a truck with the curtains closed, how about being respectful.

But I find that I still have to take a nap just about everyday, which works out because there is an hour of dead time at my customer because of shift change, but its almost exactly as described earlier. 10 minutes to shut down and get in bed, 5-10 to go sleep and 40 of good rest, then I'm good to go. But I'm lucky as I only have to drive 529 miles day, back and forth and the receiver is open appointment

 

"Distilled water".

 

There was a time the driver behind would’ve just hailed him on the radio

 

When you can feel the muscles moving your eyeballs it's way past time.

Hallucinations, yes.

The black dog, yes, but it's not like the one in the movie.

When you see things like the giant concrete barricades by the fuel island or scale floating or moving across the lot, yea it's time.

I think what some of the OP sees is an absolute direct result of the computer telling the human it's safe to drive as well, even though the human had to stop when he was wide awake, and spin like a F tornado in his bunk taking his 10, because the machine said so.

 

Where the Heck do run, I'm on the road night after night and don't see all this.
I run nothing but nights , can't stand dayshift driving. Seriously 3 or 4 trucks in the ditch?

 

Well done OP.
I have a night run. Fortunately I can leave an hour early. So I go to St Louis, unload, nap for an hour, load, return to Indy. It works for me.
However when I was OTR I drove a lot of nights. I believe you have to learn your personal signs and limits. I was affected by the sky changing color at dawn. So I learned to stop and walk around for 10 minutes and I was fine. I also learned my signs that meant I was done. When I caught myself slowing down unknowingly I knew there was nothing more to be gained without sleep.
In my opinion there are two things to remember about pressing to get that load there on time.
1. The only person at your company that cares when you eat, sleep, shower, or use the restroom is YOU.
2. There is no load so hot that it needs to cool off in the ditch.

 

When this parking jam hits every body will work nights...lol lol lol

 

How about once you find a place to park your wide awake

 

The problem is hard coded within every human alive on this earth.

It's called up time, literally awake time. When we rise from rest in the morning, we have a limited amount of hours for activity, usually 16 or so. At that time in the evening, our bodies generate a situation where we must go to sleep to rest, heal and do literally maintenance, one of which is removal of built up toxins in our system.

If you standing around the shipper all #### day and then have to go drive 600 miles to deliver by next morning forcing a 30 hour time period in which you have not slept at all, you are not going to be doing well.

Driving sleepy is worst than driving drunk. Generally the driver of a 18 wheeler is no choice but to push on because if that load does not make it there on time HOS or not... the driver will be fired and another one put into that truck.

I can expand on this subject, but I choose not to. My life was spent at night almost exclusively and disregarded the need for sleep many times. THAT does NOT happen anymore in myself or the spouse's life now. When we are getting tired and the day is still long, we quit for the day and go to bed tonight. Whatever the problems yet unsolved will wait until tomorrow. Nothing is worth running through the night trying to be somewhere outside of your HOS limitations.

Again, the shippers and recievers bear the blame for causing truckers to be up so much shared by your own company abusive dispatchers who will fire people who are late next morning.

The alternative is to wreck and kill yourself or a family in that mini van... And that is not a alternative at all. Nor is driving sleepy ever acceptable. Until the Industry protects the driver's ability to get rest and not fire same for being tired nothing will ever change for the better. The HOS will continue to be abused.