Thinkin About Truckin Again

Awesome man! Good luck out here.

 

Time to crank up the 'ol GPS, cause this guy is all over the place.

 

In the eyes of the trucking companies and insurance companies you are looked at as someone who hasn’t driven before. It’s a good thing you’ve decided to approach your return as a fresh driver.

 

Time for the 'ol IGNORE button.

 

Um... did you have a question? Like some advice about what's changed?

Yes, there's the CAT scale app, but people still have to go to the pump to fuel. I suppose you might be talking about the Loves/Pilot apps where you get points for fueling, yeah

I've only had my CDL since 2022, but some things I've noticed and figured out from talking to older truckers:

• basic OTR dry van pay is around 50-55 cpm for inexperienced drivers to about 60-65 with 1 year experience. Obviously there is more money to be made in flatbed and (sometimes) reefer, at better carriers, in LTL, on dedicated/private fleets, with endorsements, and for way more experience
• I'm sure you're aware ELDs are required, but if not, well... they are
• newer Macks are made by Volvo now, people dislike the PACCAR engines in the new Petes and KWs
• less companies want you to idle the truck all night for comfort: most common solution is an APU/EPU, but the later model Cascadias have an annoying opti-idle thing that turns the truck on and off throughout the night, which sucks and it can't even really keep up. Lots of the megas have their fleets set up to automatically turn the truck off after 2-5 minutes so trucks can't ever stay idling, really
• DEF is a common thing now, although some drivers have "glider kits" so they don't need to use DEF
• Swift's reputation has improved somewhat, but the new whipping boys are the Amazon Prime trucks and the "white Volvo mafia"
• Conway became XPO, Yellow is gone, Knight/Swift owns one half of carriers and Heartland owns the other half (I'm joking, but only kinda)
• very few lot lizards (at least openly), and there's Truckers Against Trafficking now (and more female drivers too, like myself)
• few drivers still use CBs, and mostly for emergencies/traffic & weather updates/insulting people
• bluetooth headsets are very common now for talking on the phone hands-free, payphones are gone completely
• fast food dominates in most truck stops, not a lot of "TA Iron Skillet" places left; there's a lot of Dennys now I guess (you can get fresh fruits at Kwik Star though, and Sapp Brothers have bidet toilets)
• the trucks beep at you like crazy for everything now because of all the sensors: lane "assist", adaptive cruise control, even some automatic breaking (which seems to only come on when it sees the shadow of a bridge you're passing under)
• driver-facing cameras are commonplace at larger carriers and even some smaller ones; the more annoying ones have AI in them (like Netradyne) that tell you to not yawn or drink coffee or whatever they say now
• manuals are rare except at places with older equipment, flatbed/heavy haul/towing, cement & dump trucks, or places that want to attract the super truckers (Dynamic Transit, Monson and Sons, etc.)
• parking does suck, but it's not all paid. Pilot/Flying J offers paid reserve parking, Loves doesn't. Usually I avoid parking troubles by not parking at truck stops altogether and running when other people are sleeping; I prefer to stay at the shipper/receiver, rest areas, mom and pop truck stops, or even weigh stations in a pinch
• there's weigh station bypass programs now, don't know if they had those in 2007