No where to park

My last sleep in a truck was parked in the almost empty lot shared by a hotel, motorcycle dealership, car dealer, and bowling alley/restaurant. When i got there it was after closing time for a couple of these businesses, and the lot was 80% empty. I parked in the back corner of the lot, googled the name of a Chinese restaurant I drove past about 3 minutes earlier, told them what parking lot I was in, and said its the Kenworth parked in the far corner of the lot. As it was only a day cab truck, I slept in the passengers seat, and in the morning I was awake early and went for my morning walk. Had to wait a bit for the motorcycle dealer to open, as soon as it did I went in and got the parts I wanted for my bike, fired up the truck, and left. Man did I sleep good that night. Left the windows down about 3 inches on each side for airflow, and was out for a solid 7 hours, which is longer than I sleep at home.

 

first of all this is a great question. Learning how to route and plan your day is obviously one of the most important parts of this job. However it is getting harder and harder to find a place to park from what I understand. I have been off the open road Since 2010 but I hear it’s definitely worse. Also ELD’s Seem like they would make things more difficult. So in that case planning and stop an hour and a half short seems crazy to me. How are the companies and dispatchers handling this? I can’t imagine consistently having to stop 75 miles short of my destination.

 

My bad. May have been a tough sensitive this morning

 

wait till probably in the next few years when the speed limiters become mandatory and everybody tries to pass everybody when they're all at 65 mile per hour... talk is not only coming back but it's garnering more and more steam amongst Representatives which is scary. and more and more are in favor

 

Not to get into any thing political.
When the primary driving force of the industry, that would be us, the actual in the seat drivers, decide, that enough is enough, and pull together as One organized group with a single voice and a clear consistent message, otherwise know that your not important, and will be ignored.

You want change, get organized.

 

I thought I heard December of 2019 I could be wrong though.

 

You don't stop 90 minutes early...you think about where you might spend the night 90 minutes early. Not just wait till you have 1 minute left, and wheel into the ditch.
This is really easy stuff....why make it seem a million times harder than it actually is.

 

If you are asking when gliders will no longer be allowed to be sold, that's basically now. I honestly don't know about glider regs.
If you are asking about when the year 2000 exemption for ELD's go away, it likely will not. Like any other date based implication in the regs, FMCSA is content to let the exempted vehicles die a natural death.

 

I own three highway trucks.
I have had one since 99, once since 2000, and one since 2005, none are showing any sign of death yet, pretty sure they will out last me.

I love the answers,
# 1 seems to be plan your trip, lol, sounds like the eld is doing the planning.
# 2 sounds like start looking 1 to 1/2 hour early, wow what a plan, think I will pass

I can see how a guy can have a sort of a plan, no one can plan for every thing they will eventually see on the road, that is just a given.
I can see how a guy or company can plan when they have a regular shipper and reciever list, but that plan goes out the window when you or always going somewhere new.
I am lucky for several reasons.
Main one is no elogs period.
next one is we can basically park anywhere , there is pullouts and gravel pits everywhere, but I'll be ###### if I am going to sit in one for 10 hours, period. I will sleep till I can't sleep anymore and continue down the road at least to a place to get coffee or something to eat, and finish my off time. Just sitting there twiddling thumbs is twice as tiring as driving. Now if there happens to be a nice stream with fish in, or a decent place to play with a gold pan, that changes things. lol
Call it cheating if you want, but sometimes life is just too short to play by some of the rules.

 

I never drove with paper so my experience is none at all other then the occasional story from friends and family.

But I can say this ELogs are to me a blessing. If you learn how to work it right it saves you lots of time on paperwork.

And driving 3500 - 4K a week is easy.