If You Could Give Only One Tip...

Pay attention.

Don't let anyone intimidate you. They won't do it deliberately, I'm just saying.

Ask questions.................

 

Work flow has them hammered.

It's pissin me off too. I voiced my opinion about it. They're promising to get it together. But how long will that take?

 

Yep, people will make you feel rushed from time to time. Don't let that bother you and take your time when necessary. When you first start it will take you much longer to do everything else. You'll have a drop and hook, and you'll see other drivers in and out while your fiddling around for a longer time than them. Don't worry about it, you'll find your stride after repeating the process many times.

 

mickey......

a little piece of advise, don't feel like you are being bothersome!!!

If I have a question or need something done, I send a message via qualcomm......if I don't hear back that it was taken care of within a reasonable time.....I call....."hey ###, did you get my message about xxx???"

works every time, try it, just kill em with kindness(let me know how it goes, I think you will be surprised) LOL

 

Regardless of who's name is on the side of the truck. I treat it like it's my business, and my employees.

If they fail to communicate, it most certainly affects MY bottom line. And I don't have time for slackers.

I'll call them in a heartbeat. Although, I'm having second thoughts about ever calling again. Or, until they can actually answer the phone.

 

I thought long and hard for a couple of weeks before I decided to respond. You see I drove OTR for a very short time before I screwed up royally and got myself fired for my own stupidity. Please learn from my mistakes. Okay, let me start my rambling thoughts.
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When in doubt, you should read the Mighty Fine manual. And by all means, follow the proceedure. Let us assume that you are assigned a load that is 900 miles.
.The minimum miles is the listed trip miles of 900.
.Multiply 900 by 1.1 is the maximum miles of 990.
.You can take any route; however anything over 990 miles is out of route.
.Divide your maximum miles 990 by 50mph means exactly 19.8 hours of driving time. BUT, you always round driving time up to the nearest whole mile. Therefore, your driving time is 20 hours.
.If you are traveling East, add 1 hour to your (20)hours of driving time for each time zone that you cross.
.If you are traveling West, subtract 1 hour from your 20 hours of driving time for each time zone that you cross.
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To calculate your Dot required rest periods, you need to know 2 things. Your driving time [including time zone adjustments] and how many hours you have been on duty since your last Dot break.
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.EXAMPLE - Your driving time is 20 hours you are traveling East across 2 time zones. You have been on duty for 3 hours and just picked up your load. 20 + 2 + 3 = 25 hours divided by 11 hours is 2 Dot 10 hour breaks are mandatory. Therefore, you can drive 11 hours take 10 off for a Dot break then drive 11 hours take a second 10 hour Dot break and finally drive 3 hours and deliver. This is the fastest possible way you can run this example load. You need at an absolute minimum 45 hours and that is not really practical. You need time to eat and maybe fuel etc. Do you have the necessary time available to complete this trip? If not, call your company because they need to adjust the delivery time or assign the load to someone else.
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.Do not just take a load and run with it. That would be a bad mistake. Follow the proceedure you were taught in school and calculate the time requirements BEFORE YOU ACCEPT THE LOAD. Do not assume that the company employees calculated the time requirements correctly. If you give them incorrect information [ie. your alreadly used on-duty hours] they will get the time requirements wrong.
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Some thoughts about Gross vehicle weight. If the gross vehicle weight [GVW] is more than 80,000 pounds, you are overweight. There is nothing you can adjust that will change the GVW. Use the Qualcomm and inform your company and ask for instructions. Do not use the phone. Make the company send a Qualcomm message so that there is a record of what was said. If the company is responsible they will send you back to the shipper to have them take stuff off the trailer.
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.If the GVW is under 80000 pounds and the steer axle weight is 12000 pounds or less then try the following: take the trailer tandem weight and subtract the drive tandem weight. That is the difference. Divide the difference by 500. The answer is how many holes you should increase the trailer wheelbase. If the answer is a negative number shorten the trailer wheelbase.
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General advice on route planning. The best road for a large truck is the interstate highways. I use the US highways as the glue to connect the interstates together to get to my destination. I avoid local roads as much as possible. Should you be unlucky and break down, you are easier to find on interstate xx traveling East at mile marker nnn.n Good luck on a local two lane black top somewhere between State College Pa and Scranton Pa.
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When it comes to parking the truck while on the road, the truckstops start to fill around 3 pm and by 5 pm you will not likely find a parking spot. Shortly thereafter the rest areas will be full. Then your options are Walmart, scale houses if they allow parking after hours and vacant businesses. If you are really desperate a wide shoulder of the interstate. Do not be afraid to ask the local police for assistance. They would much rather deal with you trying to find a parking spot than fill out paper work when you have an accident because you are driving tired. I have had good luck parking behind the scale house. No, they do not make you re-scale in order to leave.
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Finally, GOAL means get out and look. A philosipher once said something like: It is better to remain silent and people think that you are a fool. Than to speak and remove all doubt.
.To translate that to truck driving, it is better to get out and look before backing up and have people think that you are an idiot than to hit something and prove to everyone that you are, infact, an idiot and get fired. Trust me on that one. Unfortunately, I speak from experience. Hope this gives you some things to think about.

 

Going through time zones DO NOT add or subtract to your drive time! Drive time depends on miles and type of route taken (mountainous, flat, towns). Time zones are only the difference in local time (if your currently ahead 3 hours then you have an extra 3 hours to play with, if your behind 2 hours then leave 2 hours early.)

Time zones do not make a difference in the amount of drive time it takes to get from point a to point b.

 

Along that line....keep one clock set on your home terminal time. I'm with Crete, and everyone logs based on Central time (home terminal in Nebraska). I had never done that before. My clock on the radio in the truck stays on CT and I log by it exclusively. Though you being on e-logs, it shouldn't be a problem. Unless WF is messing those up too!