Indian River

How are the runs is it mostly short haul, or do they do any of the coast to coast like IRT?

 

The runs are shorter and they don't really do coast to coast at all but they do have 1000+ mile loads. I've had a few already from Minnesota out to California and back, Minnesota to upstate NY and back, and I believe they have runs from Minnesota/the Midwest out to Idaho and back too. I'm currently running a load from Perham, MN to Woodridge, NY.

Let's keep this thread about IRT though. I'll make a dedicated thread for Caledonia with all the details I can give, but I'm waiting until after 90 days so I can give a more thorough review.

 

Cool, what's your advice on how to approach learning manual, last time I tried leaning it was when I was in CDL school and man... That was one of the hardest thing I've ever tried, especially since I've never drove a manual car before. I still think the reason I didn't stick to it was because they didn't give us enough time, plus everyday, we had a different instructor where they each do things differently, so yeah... I switched to automatic after the third day lol, and I feel like not knowing manual is limiting my options a little bit.

 

Well, they always say practice makes perfect, but I don't know how you'd ever practice now without going back to CDL school lol but it's all about getting the rhythm right and once you do it enough it'll become muscle memory. Some people like to shift based on RPM, but I've found that most tachometers are a bit delayed so I just go by feel and sound. When you're downshifting and you get the shift just right, make a note how it sounded and try to make it sound the same on the next one. But you also have to consider every truck is different, different engines have different throttle response and different transmissions have a different amount of time between shifts.

 

You see, that's what makes it so hard, you have to time it at the right RPM and do it fast enough so it doesn't stall on you. Yeah, I had the chance in school to learn it but in my opinion there wasn't enough time for me to do it. My brother-in-law have a manual truck I think that's sitting around on the yard, I could ask him if he can teach me on home time but he's a busy man so I don't know, maybe it wasn't meant to be lol.

 

Honestly you’re overthinking it. It just takes practice and time. Its just shifting gears.

 

I agree. For many years everyone who learned to drive a truck had to learn how to shift. I don't remember anybody who didn't eventually learn.
Practice, practice, and more practice....and one day it just kinda falls into place and you'll wonder why you made such a monster out of it.

 

Yeah, you guys might be right.

 

We almost always are.

 

Can anyone give me any insight into southeastern milk inc? Are we affiliated, did we acquire them? A lot of SMI trailers on the Cordele yard and also an option in mobile manifest?