Biggest Problem I'm having as a new driver.

Lots of places to park once your 30 miles off of the interstate.

 

You can actually give yourself a pay raise running nights.
Less traffic and more miles means more actual driving hours on your 70.
Sitting in traffic pays 0.

 

True true but my eyelids snap shut at 21:00...uh oh...just dozed off. Nite all.

 

Most TA and Petro have BIG parking lots and parking at night. Love's and Pilots and Flying J are small and don't have parking later at night.

 

If you have a cb, learn to ignore the wiseguys, there will be at least one every truckstop, but keeping it on so the trucks next to where you are backing in can warn you is good.

 

Schneider,will turn into a pumpkin.

 

at least they get them ruby red slippers then so they can click the heels together and wish.

 

Those of us in trucking have heard the same thing said about EVERY change in regulations. The 14 hour clock and adding, changing the 34 hour reset was ALWAYS going to cause trucking to stop or force customers to add vast truck parking areas or move all freight to railroads.

 

It get easier with time. You will start to notice a pattern during the week when there is likely to be more parking. But you won't get to see it much if you're not out running late. Sundays are the worst because everyone wants to be ready for Monday delivery.

Having more confidence in your backing helps too. Try to back as much as possible and avoid pull through spots so you can hone the skill faster. I thought I could back really well at my 2nd year, on my 5th year I realised how much I didn't know about backing in that second year.

Running after midnight isn't too bad, almost better than coming in at 21:00. There are a few early birds that start to roll out around 23:00+. I'll usually plan ahead 3 places stop when running late. It's still a crappy situation but it gets a lil easier over time.

 

I try to run through the night when I can... Time it so I get into a truck stop about 0800 and there are plenty of easy spots. There will be time you simply can't run at night because of shipper/receiver scheduling or weather. If you know what you are doing you can shift your day a few hours with a split reset, you may loose and hour to do it but if done right you make that up by running at night cause less traffic. If at all possible I run at night to go into Detroit, Chicago, or any other cities with bad rush hours... Saves me HOURS! I also like to run across states like Nebraska, Wyoming, or other such desolate states at night cause then I can run all 11 hours and still find parking in the morning. I came across IA, NE, and WY like that the other day, my truck is governed at 66 and locked in "economy" mode (so its kinda gutless on the hills) and I was able to average 64.4 mph one day... Altoona, IA (Flying J, I-80 exit 142) to Laramie, WY (Petro, I-80 exit 310), That's like 698 miles and it only took about 20 seconds to find a place to park in Laramie.