Side of street parking

A refrigerator in the tractor is a must. It also helps to supply your own entertainment.

To me, street parking near the shipper or consignee is preferable to staying at a truck stop: there's less danger of some numbnuts hitting your tractor just pulling out of his spot, AND, parking so close to said shipper or consignee allows for them to identify your tractor and pull you in whenever they are ready to load or offload your trailer.

Sometimes, this can happen a couple hours before the scheduled appointment time, thus saving you time, and allowing you to potentially leave the facility with more drive time than if you started your clock from the nearest truck stop.

 

It's landstar. Don't park on the street overnight at the shipper/receiver. Park at a truckstop and drive in before your load/unload time. Show up on time and if the shipper/receiver says leave the property until a door is available, call safety and let them know you're on the street. They make a notation and no violation. If you're at the dock with the tractor out in the street, make the call. They'll sugggest flashers and triangles. Anyone hits you it's your problem.

 

When I was in orientation last week they said what you describe, waiting at a receiver and true emergencies were the "exceptions". We were told in my orientation to call and inform them the shipper or receiver is making us wait outside on the street. I think she (facilitator) said to call safety, if I remember correctly. I worry about that too. Guess I will be parking at a truck stop to take a quick whiz, or a rest area.

 

Just an update on that, exception junk. There are no exceptions. When you call Landstar they read you a disclaimer and basically tell you "make the best decision you feel meets your business needs". I think this is kind of chicken sh** on their part. Ultimately what they want you to know, is that they are going to try to place liability on you should anything happen. But I did see a LS truck, who was not at a receiver or shipper, parked in a pretty seriously bad area to be parked in a week ago in Dallas, Texas. It was near Loop 12 and US-80, a nice W900 truck just parked next to a curb on what once was an exit from Loop 12 to another street, with his trailer bumper even with the curb to his left that split between the actual road and where he was parked on the old exit with his cab curtains closed. Whether he or she was in the cab I do not know, but it seems LS picks and chooses when they enforce their "sitting duck" policy, if ever at all really.

 

I see it often, and I'm not about to take the guys truck or trailer number and call in to safety to Eff up his life.

They pound it pretty hard in orientation, and it's just become a way of life for me, stay out of potential collision situations.

 

Oh by no means would I call in on someone else either. Just something that I noticed while I was out. Apparent they will pick and choose though how or when they enforce it. The lady I spoke to on the phone certainly didn't like it when I said "well, I can't sit on the road, right? I will just leave the load and we can all lose out on some revenue then."

 

The liability is theirs if your under dispatch no matter what the script says……..

 

Oh I do know that too. Not sure why many companies try the "you're responsible" bit. Guess they like the sound of hearing themselves say it.