Parking the truck while on home time

Remember, even if you don't have to pay for any damage you cause, you will pay mightily later because you either lose this job or you can't use them as a good reference. So, don't get comfortable or minimize the harm of a small incident. Avoid it like it is the biggest thing on earth, even though it's not. But letting your guard down because a small incident is less than the end of the world is exactly how you have several small incidents that get you fired. Getting fired will not help you get a better job, it ALMOST locks you into a worse job immediately after and then you have to start a slow climb back up to the quality of job you had before you were fired. This job is hard on a good day. Don't allow anything to lock you into a worse situation for years.

I was lucky, when I started lost of this stuff wasn't always documented and always punished unless you had a reputation. If you always looked eager and willing to keep working things could be overlooked. It's less like that now. Cameras are everywhere and people are sue happy. So that means you need to pay more attention and be more careful, not accept you'll do your best but it's going to happen so whatever. That's the attitude that kills a career or leaves you in the more difficult jobs for a long time.

 

Man you’re one smart cookie, I’d be real interested to see what your investment portfolio looks like!

 

I am interested in everything, EVERYTHING. I learn things in many different areas and I find out in this other field they have this rule of thumb or that standard procedure and then I see how it applies in the next field I go to. I try it and it does work. Things about my background made me learn financial things early from a distance & then not make the common mistakes almost everyone makes when they get money. The stock market boomed & I saved & invested so I did pretty well. It's mostly Dave Ramsey & grandparents type of obvious stuff. Index funds & consistent saving by 401k. I'm not good at investing in the next great idea. But I am great at letting the whole market guarantee me at least average returns all of the time. I'm.more cautious with money than I am with my own neck. I listen to people who have to be right or they don't eat. For everything there are armies of people like that. I steal their ideas & habits. It's why the idea "just do something it might workout well" is just the worst idea I can imagine. Many people have no safety net. They can't afford to have a bad outcome but they risk so much trouble like it's nothing. I can't understand that way of thinking about money, career stuff.

 

Truck stops can work for sometime but it depends on the truck stop itself. The Pilot in Colby, KS for example, is ok. It never fills up and it's a big lot. Flying J in Aurora, CO is another thing. I'd never park there. The spaces are tight, it's always full, and your truck may be torn up.

 

Maybe if they have to pay for it? I would imagine that if they had to call the tow truck and pay the expense it would be reported to the insurance company.?

 

Don't forget to look UP, too. Branches, power lines, building overhangs, etc.

 

That was an old myth like if you have trouble at a shipper call the federal marshals.The tow is only if you were involved in a crash simply getting stuck or breaking down that involves a tow doesn’t count as a crash no police report no accident

 

Was at a delivery with a stretch RGN. Delivered my load, closed the stretch, and was finishing up when the site rep drove up and asked me to help another stretch that got high centered and blocked the entrance. Manual RGN.

Driver had unlocked the 5th wheel slide and going back and forth banging the 5th wheel against the stops. He tells me that something is broken. I realized that there are “experienced” that know nothing about the 5th wheel slide, tractor and trailer air leveling valves, and the power divider.

I know what you are saying and I agree, but if your driver doesn’t know the equipment, in this case a stretch RGN, there’s going to be lots of towing.

 

One of the reasons I took a job with my company six years ago was because they have a terminal three miles from my home. Well, we’re in the process of moving 300 miles away to be close to my elderly mother in law who’s not in great health. My company has agreed to pay for secure parking relatively closer to my new home (across the street from one of our biggest customers). I’m still going to have an hour and a half commute to go home for my weekends, but that’s no big deal.

 

Take a weekend drive into the countryside.
You might find a farmer with a big shop with room to park in his lot.
That’s what I did.