OTR Drivers...how do you stay up?

Caffeine, loud music, and try to keep your mind occupied. If you get too sleepy, STOP!!! Take a power nap and try again. No load is worth your life or anyone else's.

 

There were some radio shows that were basic hellfire and brimstone sermons. Its easy in the odark 30 to be awake when considering some of the scary stuff over it.

I remember 9-11 and approx 4 weeks after as day night no sleep time. That TV was going constantly. When we finally put marines into Afghanistan approx first week of October one evening things settled down quite a bit. Now we take fight to the enemy. There were an awful lot of medicines bound to NYC and surrounding areas in that time period. We were dedicated out of Memphis at that time.

 

The G.D. 4-wheelers seldom avoid doing something very stupid & dangerous long enough to get sleepy. It is very important to get sleep. ELDs are doing away with the 20+ hour drives across the midwest pool table.

 

Driving sleepy is worst than driving drunk if you ask me.

I should know. I had a horrible time on Route 9 from central Jersey into NY state one bad day. What I should have done was absolutely quit for the day and grab a hotel for the both of us. Spouse was gone, Im not much better off blowing lights. We actually had a encounter where we almost crushed someone. What we had to do to that tractor triggered a alert to the shop manager to call us direct and also QC message WTF is going on with MY TRACTOR?? What is all this braking? WHAT YOU DOING?!

That was a wakeup call. If only he knew.

 

Try getting some sleep upgrade. Next thing you wake up because everything slid downgrade against the glass and now the RPM's and Speed needles are being rather unreasonable. Bordering on fantasy with some of those numbers....

 

I have had actual shippers that far back into the woods. I can probably direct you to one of the nurseries near Fallston Maryland. Just follow this big divided road, then this 4 lane, then the state two lane then the unpainted paved one turn here into the woods don't stop until you see someone yelling at you from a bush. I'll take a stab at google earth this week someone remind me if I forget. It's worth a trip down memory lane.. er dirt path..

 

Fun!!!

 

I find the concept of "sleep debt" to be true for me. If you want to stay up long you will need to gain hours of sleep. No substitute for that actual sleep. If I find myself dangerously sleepy I pull over for 1 hour and set an alarm. That 1 hour can revive you a lot.

 

For me, a good audiobook can make time fly faster than anything and helps with the more desolate sections or during night hauls. Download them with wifi so you don't have to rely on cellular data or streaming.