Heading For Little Rock! Maverick

Yeah, the autoshift is no big deal. Just takes a little getting used to. There are two places where it can get really annoying.

1) backing into a parking spot or dock when loaded it will start to "buck" if you get the trailer too jacked around.
2) starting out on a downhill slope. Like pulling out from a light heading downhill. It is as if the tranny won't shift fast enough to keep up so when it does catch a gear it will put you through the windshield. You can't start out in a higher gear like you would with a regular manual transmission and then skip a gear to make up for the downhill.

Gladhesgone,
If it were me I would do all I could to get a restart in over the weekend, but sometimes it just isn't in the cards to happen. Here are Hubby's choices.
Get a restart in and end up leaving really early and being pretty much out of hours by the time he delivers which really makes it hard to get reloaded the same day.
Run on a recap all week. I don't know how experienced Hubby is but it can be an aggravation and really easy to mess up on logs and hours running a recap. I have done it many times and really try to avoid it. You really have to watch your hours doing this.

Good luck,
Dave

 

They usually want you to drop by 10 am on monday unless otherwise told differently.

 

Unless you have an appt.

 

They still want a early drop if possible. Too many guys leave the house too late. Kick off and instead of having 10 hours available they have zero. By loading the next day your mileage is going to hurt for that week. If you read her post it is by 1300. I am guessing that the window is 0800-1300

 

Thanks for the advice I appreciate it.

 

My FM has always told me that if it is a window, then yes as early as possible or at least by 10. But if you have an appt, then stick to the appt time.

In the situation he is in, if he gets there early, no restart. If he gets there at the latest, he gets a restart but is up the creek on hours and hurts his miles for the week. Kind of a crummy situation to be in.
He could leave and drive half of it, then get up and finish it up. It would get him there on time, then leave him enough hours to go do something else.

It's going to be a judgement call on his part.

 

As long as they're not offensive or profane it shouldn't be a problem. Most places where we load require long pants and l/s shirts so as long as you dont have "F" on the back of one hand and "U" on the back of the other, it shouldn't be a problem (even though they too should be covered by gloves at a customer)

I wouldn't get "TMC ROCKS!!!" inked across your forehead before you go.

 

Your tats wouldn't show unless you took your shirt off at a customer which is a definate no no by mavericks standards. T'shirt with sleeves is accepted minimum (no tank tops or wife beaters allowed)

 

Even with a delivery window that closes at 1300, unless he asked his fleet manager to deliver post 1000am, Maverick asks all monday dels be to the consignee by 1000am.

As far as running a recap or getting a restart, the choice is his 70 hours in 8 days, keep a close eye on hours available and when he shuts down at night after doing his log for the day, send a freeform message to his FM letting her/him know exactly how many hours he has available to drive.

Personal example: Two weeks ago, i got home early saturday afternoon and knew i was going to have to run a recap, or wait til 0130cst monday am to get a restart then drive to flint, mi for the monday am delivery. BUT when i added up the hours, because i didn't leave that week til monday am for my monday del (it was less than two hours away) if i ran a recap, i'd of ended up sitting somewhere for a day because based on my hours available one day i wouldn't have gained any hours back on my 70 to drive. So i stayed at home for the restart, and left at 0-dark-thirty to get the delivery to flint, mi rather than run a recap and sit who knows where for a day. Made the monday del, got another load, loaded it and had 30 mins after i finished loading/securing/tarping to drive somewhere and park.

 

I know this is probably a stupid question but I'm going to go ahead and ask. I am going to stay with my driver trainer for at least a month, but after that I will be on my own. There is so much information to take in during load securement training; that I can't remember it all. I am and well some of the other guys are, I wouldn't say scared (not sure what word to use), that when we get out there on our own; that when we get to the shipper we are going to have a brain fart and forget how to secure something down. I know we can call the "oh sh** number but, I for one don't want to hold up an experienced driver because I had a brain fart at a shipper. The gray and shinny bar I'm not to worried about, those are pretty simple. The coils and the slinky's are what I'm worried about the most. Any words of advice? Thanks in advance!