K&B Transportation. The real deal!

I moved to central Kansas and it just didn’t work with their freight network. I still believe they’re a great company, but needed to find one closer or at least one with regular lanes by the house.

As for trucks, I’ve been interested in them since I was very little and played a lot of truck simulators growing up. I know almost as much about trucks as I do airplanes, even though I’ve never ridden on one. But I can sure tell you the max takeoff weight of a 747 or tell you what airlines fly where and with which aircraft usually. My dream job is an airline pilot but I wasn’t able to do that due to lack of money.

I’m a total nerd when it comes to planes, trains, and automobiles/trucks

 

I wasn’t talking to you Davis. The cat dude from Florida. Calculated risk

 

He’s applied to dozens of companies but has no experience and a blemished driving record.

 

It was Bakari 742

 

You're right. There are certain things you'll find out about companies from previous drivers, but you're not on here dogging out the company or dogging out drivers who choose to work there. If a driver happens to like CRE, you aren't going to rain on his parade and try to influence his thinking and take away his happiness. I think sometimes that's the reason many drivers are constantly looking for new jobs, they listen to too may drivers, or the wrong drivers. Most of the time, you'll hear more folks complain about a company than you'll hear them praise it. It's a lot easier to complain than it is to compliment.

 

We're all at pretty fair companies at the end of the day. The truly shady and conning companies are on a Craigslist page somewhere lol. Not all of them are, but it's the best place to find one. As a former job hopper myself, it's all the same thing at every carrier. My favorite carrier was the one I heard the most complaints about (funnily enough, very similar to K&B) and one of my least favorite was one that had high praises. It's all personal preference. If it wasn't, we'd all be at the same company.

Flatbedders can't imagine swinging doors at a grocery warehouse, door swingers can't imagine throwing a tarp, and LTL guys couldn't imagine sleeping in a truck.

 

I distinctly remember the first time I had to swap my sleep schedule in the truck. I came up I-39 hoping to make Beloit, but bailed out at exit 72 due to fatigue and weather at about 1800. I was naturally awake by 0700ish, so I moved up to the Beloit Pilot where I could both shower and have wifi while getting a second 10 hour in before my 2300 appointment to unload at Roundys in Oconomowoc, then a reload out of Miller heading to West By God Virginia.. Farted around a little bit, showered and tried to lay down at 1300. I wasn't tired, not even enough for a nap. After tossing and turning a bit, I sat up and tried to read a bit, then laid back down and failed to fall asleep again. Now I was hyperfocused on getting to sleep, which means I won't get any sleep at all.

Thankfully, it was a short hop and then a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG unload. As soon as I was in the dock, I hit the bunk and PASSED THE FRICK OUT. After getting off loaded it didn't make sense to try and pick up the Miller load and then shut down in Oak Creek, so I snuck back into the staging area and finished 3rd ten hour break in 36 hours. The next day was RUFF, I had to stop for a nap in Lowell, IN and again at the IN/OH border at one of the TA/Petros while using all the "keep your focus" tricks I knew. If Roundy's hadn't taken so long, or if the guards had caught me sneaking back to transient, there's no way I would have been able to make the Miller run with the same trip plan.

Over my first year of driving I learned a lot about fatigue management and my own sleep cycles and rhythms . I know that if I'm driving through dawn, about two hours after the sun is fully up I'm going to need a break. If I'm going to be driving through dusk, I need to stop BEFORE the sun starts setting for any 'comfort breaks'. I know the better/best ways to flip my sleep cycle, and how to use diet and cognitive tricks to maintain focus. Those are skills that need to be developed over time.

Had I been Abe's dispatcher, as soon as he called in I would have said "take a nap, but leave your phone on so I can repower this if I can". It's going to take at least an hour to get another driver moving to the location, so why argue with the driver about their fatigue level - tell him to grab his teddy, and while he gets some rest try and make a plan to deal with it. The poop was already heading towards the fan, you can either argue about it or turn the fan off so the poop doesn't splatter the walls.

 

Talking about CRE, one of their trucks passed me at 70 earlier today, and I’m governed at 68. 99.9% of the time I’m passing them. Not sure if it was a lease truck or what was going on, and no it wasn’t on a downgrade.

 

When I was running my own truck I've booked stuff like that because it was either paying well or the best thing I could find under the circumstances. It sucked but I would have to do it from time to time. And I dont care who you are staying up 17+ hours then having to run another 6 or 7 hours. It aint no fun and yeah you can sure get drowsy after a few hours.

That said, it's one thing for me to walk right into that and book that freight knowing full well what the schedule is. That's how it goes when you're just 1 truck.

On the other hand a big company with hundreds of trucks and contracts to drop trailers at customers or the ability to reschedule, or look for another truck with HOS that meshes better? Maybe that's too much extra work for dispatch? Just seems a little mismanaged to me.

I know it's trucking and #### sometimes happens. Like Emma's already said tho, driver is the captain of his ship and should have said something before accepting it..

 

Now Chris... don't limit yourself like that my boy!... your not a nerd ONLY when it comes to trains, planes & automobiles!!!..