What is something that can make it easier?

I prefer to do my own thinking and planning, rather than having some stupid gadget do it for me. No more trucks parked on the side of the road than there ever was that I am seeing, even back in the 90s when I was out there before. Night time can be a bit of a challenge for parking . . . so much for the alleged driver shortage . . . but there are areas where parking is and always has been a problem. It really should NOT be that difficult to figure out when the heck you need to take your little break. People just seem to want to make more of something that needs to happen.

 

Jeff Christie is Rush Limbaugh's real name. Yup, plenty has changed since I first drove which is why I went to school instead of just grabbing the CDL and jumping in. Wanted to be safe and have a sound grasp on the regs. Once in the driver seat it was like riding a bike. It all came back in no time. It's the new regs and rules that made me feel like a newbie ... that and the amount of low-paying gigs.

 

I see them on a regular basis here in Flori-DUH, practically daily especially on certain service roads and on-ramps. Was in SC last week and saw it again the same way trucks park in overcrowded rest areas ... along the approach and departure ramps. I've been seeing trucks taking their 30 in places where previously I wouldn't see trucks parked. You know they're taking their 30 'cause they wouldn't dream of parking overnight in most of these places. In addition, rest areas are way more jammed now since the mandatory break was instituted this past summer, giving up less parking for trucks. When a driver makes a plan to stop at a rest area for his 30, for example, a rest area he/she has hit on a regular basis for years, and now all of a sudden it's jammed and so is the approach and departure lanes and shoulders, they usually have to pull over very soon somewhere else and another exit isn't always in reach. Granted, most sane drivers won't make this mistake repeatedly but it's happening. Like I indicated in a previous post, there's threads on this very forum talking about this exact predicament.

 

I'm gonna grab some pics for ya' of what I'm seeing here in the sand pile.

 

It seems to be the opposite up here, the rest area's are not bad it's the truck stops that are jammed, but i'm talking WI,MN, in IL,IN the area's that I was running, the Service Plaza's on the 294 Toll were full at times, and at the TA in Gary In. was not even close to being full, but that is in mid morning, with the short haul that I was doing I took my 30 min. break at the shippers or receivers and it worked out but you had to think ahead and plan it out......

 

Something did not seem right with the name Jeff Christie so I googled and got his bio, his real name is Rush Hudson Limbaugh the third, I got some link that said Jeff Christie and it was some democratic underground party link or something, but it was liberal slander at best, I guess there are 100 Jeff Christie's being used today.......

 

http://user.pa.net/~ejjeff/christie.html This is where I remember him from.

 

Considering I'm all over the midwest and south from WI to Georgia to Texas and in between, I see enough to know not a #### thing has changed since the late 90s when I first started. There were plenty that couldn't plan a trip back then and ended up sitting on a ramp then, just like now. Don't see any more now than I did then.

 

Oh I could disagree. All what you look at.
We now get fuel surcharge which was hard to get 10 years ago.
Log books now mean alot to the DOT. and less renagades running illigal.
Air ride cabs which we didn't have in the early 90's. Now almost standard air trailers too.
How about more fuel stops and more larger travel centers. No longer a real need for 2-300 gal fuel tanks except to save on cost.
And how about larger engines. In the 90's, the largest stock engine was 425-500hp. I have one of the first 550 cat which is a 99'.
Now most trucking companies get drivers home in 7-15 days when in the 90's, the normal was 30 days.

 

LOL, been there done that. But don't tell today's crop that 30 days used to be typical. They'll think you're exaggerating or pulling their chain. Today, many seem to feel they are being abused and mis-treated if they are kept out past 10 days. Today's truckers don't know how good they have it if they have nothing more then 5-10 years of a frame of reference. Yes, a few things are "worse" and we deal with things today we didn't deal with 25-25 years ago, but on balance, we have it pretty good today and there really are a lot of "whiners" when you think about it and spend much time in forums such as this where it's mostly the newer crop posting.

Remember when a 290 cummins with almost non-existent torque was a pretty common engine?