5 months, 50k miles, things I have learned

Cool post. I plan on doing something similar once I hit 90 days solo. I was going to talk about what to expect out of school, orientation, training, and then going solo.

Have you gotten any points on your csa?

 

This is very beneficial... Before I get to a destination, I get on google earth to check out the area. It's helped prevent many pain in the ### situations.

 

Thanks for the reply,ya I get what ya mean about the deductions from your check, I shouldn't have to much other than my own med Ins. My wife has good benifits at her job and I paid for my CDL school out of my pocket about a year ago and will pay for a refresher course when the time comes.

I did drive for a couple years back in the mid 80s when getting your ClassA was a piece of cake and cheap,drove truck & pup,end dump and some transfer but let my CDL expire like a idiot when I stopped driving.

It looks like this time around the best way to get back into this is just going OTR for awhile plus I always wanted to see how its like and if its a good fit for me. I was used to hourly wage or paid by the loads so this paid by the mileage kind of scares me plus I never had to run log books before.

I just got to make sure I can pay my mortgage starting off doing this, sounds like I need to bank alittle bit of money first to supplement the lower checks starting out to be safe.

 

I had a level one inspection last week in VA. Got caught in a situation that I wasn't expecting. Last Friday, I was a couple of days early on my delivery, so I decided to go to the house for a couple of days, then head to the receiver on Monday. I live about 15 miles north of Atlanta, and by the time I hit Atlanta I had 30 minutes of drive time left. Due to traffic on 285, I went over on my clock by about 20 minutes (electronic logs). I sent dispatch a message that I was going to go over, in order to have a safe place to park the truck (without me in it). It was either park about 30 minutes from the house for 10 hours, or go to the house. I made the decision to go home.

Well, five days later I go into a VA scale house, and was inspected. The DOT officer asked for my logs, saw where I went over, and notated it on the inspection report. I didn't get a ticket, but it's on the report. I'm assuming that it's going to affect my CSA score.

I know hindsight is 20/20, but I probably should have sat for 10 hours rather than driving to the house.

 

It was an option. I already have to get someone to drive about 10-15 minutes to pick me up where I park the truck, and didn't want to make them drive even farther in rush hour traffic. I've been told at least 50 times in the past 3 months that once a DOT officer finds out you have electronic logs, that they don't even bother checking them out. Boy is that wrong.Plus, I didn't realize that they'd go back in my logs, to before my 34 hour reset.

Also, I remember hearing in CDL school that if you were so close to your destination, and you were traffic, or whatever scenario, you could go ahead to your destination. If it hadn't been for traffic I would have made it. From what the DOT officer said, if you go over one minute on your 14 hour clock, it's the same as 3 hours. There is no grey area. Live and learn. I know I'll park this truck before going over again.

 

There is an exception for unforseen circumstances but traffic will rarely get you out of it. If it's from the usual rush hour traffic it won't fly.

 

I would have done exactly what you did. Park 30 minutes from home for 10 hours!? Not a chance, lol.

 

Going past the 11 hours is one thing,

but never go past the 14 !!