A few more general questions if you please...

Your company...

Yes, but you get a free one when you fuel up on most occasions...I've never had to pay for a shower on the road...

If you can get into town, sure, but it's very convenient at a truck stop or your terminal(if they have them)...

On some trucks, yes...

This is a company specific question...The hiring areas, in many cases, are based on terminal locations...If you live in Washington state and want to work in Illinois using a POB, well, you can see the problem....

 

FM...I have a Fleet Manager.

I take out shirts/jeans ect.ect.. to cover 3 weeks...I only stay out 2 but things happen and I'm ready for it.

 

Again, it's company specific, when you find one you're interested in, call them! Good luck!

 

walstib gave you some good answers.....

FM is generally fleet manager
DM is driver manager

essentially the same thing the way i understand it to be.....at my company we have DM's

where we fuel the general policy is a free shower for each 100 gallons you fuel if you have the loyalty card but there is a time limit if you don't use them they drop off.....

see a few bikes from time to time strapped to trucks in one way or the other....hell i saw a dirt bike on a rack the guy had put on the front of his truck this past week coming home lol.....

I rarely ever stay out more than a week at a time but take 2 week's clothes just in case.....and if you're doing your pretrip properly you're going to get dirty so never hurts to have a few extra pairs......all of our terminals have laundry facilities that you can use if you get through there as well

 

What is it with newbies and GPS's? Doesn't anyone learn to read a map and trip planning anymore?

 

yeah that's the general term for dispatch....your dm or fm is your primary contact and (speaking for my company only i don't know about other's policies) he/she is who all questions go through first in the chain of command.....

our setup is that the dm give you the loads, which come from a planner.....the dm provides info to the planner who is in what area whith how many hours available and the planner shoots them a load which they send to you.

routing is different with each company.....some are real sticklers for using the route they give you.....ours is just a route "suggestion" and after trying to be a good little soldier and following thier 'suggestion' alot of times i pick my own route....sometimes they are pretty close, sometimes they aren't....as long as the out of route miles aren't over 5-7% they don't say anything......they tried to route me up US50 in eastern WV once and after that, I pick my own route based on the 'suggestion' they give......and if their routing is anything on a US route through mountainous terrian, well, i won't do that again lol if it looks like a coiled up snake on the map and the gps concurs and says 'don't go there' lol well, i'll never do it again lol.....would have been fun on my bike, in a big truck, not so much

they get thier routing from some computer program that doesn't have a clue....it just picks the "best" routing based on milage between two points......which may not actually be the best (or quickest) routes.....you will have to discuss this with your dm/fm and see what the policy is on how closely they expect you to follow the route......45k in the box through the mountains on their routing may not be the fastest or least stressful on the equipment as going the slightly longer way around on the interstates.....but, again, it's going to depend on the company policy. i have never had one word said to me about picking my own route. i'm old school and a pilot as well and the first and last authority is the good old pages of a map.....the gps is a tool only, and NEVER to be relyed upon, othe rthan providing a realsitic expectation of eta......always always always rely on the route suggestion, then the map, keep one eye on the gps, and the map is the last word. always.

we have to contact maintenance directly in the event of any mechanical issues and they direct what happens next. there is a seperate message on the messaging system in the truck that directs these issues to the maintenance department.....then i usually send a seperate message to the dm and advise him as well....