Profile For Davy A.

I can't say if it works the same at Schnieder, but at both Knight and Hummer, while yes, the load planners work standard hours, they had difficulty finding drivers willing to work nights. Its become a mainstay niche market for me that proved to be a gold mine.

The concept is simple, dropping my loads early in the morning, setting up the next nights loads with planners, picking up, then sleeping. You're almost always guaranteed Rockstar parking, you'll get the loads in early and in the event its a late night drop, you're a perfect shoe in for it.

More importantly though, I have found is to avoid the feeding frenzy all together by building a relationship with my DM, who is the intermediary for the planners through consistent performance. I then try to get tomorrow's loads today and avoid it all together.

Both Knight and Hummer are performance based load selection most of the time rather than first in first out. In other words, a high performing trust worthy driver will get the freight before a mediocre driver even if he gets to the area after the mediocre driver.

Hummer is specifically geared towards early work with more than half of the loads being live unloads early morning at stores and small shops with finite business hours. The way around that I found was to get there a day early, or right at opening. I'd tell my dm that I'd be available at a certain time the next day for pick up. After a time he could bank on my pta, and setup multiple pre plans.

I cant stress accurate and early communication enough. Im assuming it works there too.

To add, its something that will take time to develop a feel for what happens when you use it. That comes over time. Not only does it only slow the tractor, it only applys breaking force to the drive axel(s) that are recieving power. So the trailer axles are free to spin, at a faster rate than the drive axels, causing a trailer jackknife or causing the trailer to effectively turn around the 5th wheel.

Weight makes a huge difference in how the truck reacts.

I routinely use the break in rain, but I use it with weight. If I'm hauling empty, I generally don't use it past level 1. Ive used it in snow and slippery conditions, but weight, speed and feel all go into that decision process. Ive also had the trailer start to come around on me, and I'm comfortable with how to correct it. That came over time from introducing its use in small amounts in an area where I could control it and get a feel for it.

Ive also played around a lot with applying light service breaks in conjunction with the jake to ensure relatively even breaking force to all tires, again though, I've done this where it was easy to recover at slow speeds.

Ive most western passes in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, CA and such in snow with jakes, provided I was heavy and was slow on all of them while I was doing it. I don't recommend it as a new driver. Its risky.

I drove for Hummer for the last year. They're a great company to drive for if you want the miles and no nonsense trucking. They pay well, have very accurate scheduling and dispatching. No cameras of any sorts in the trucks, no pay gimmicks.

As long as you have good work history, clean records, they will take you. If you're a driver that keeps the left door closed, communicates well and can run with little or no supervision, you're a good fit there. If I was still company driving and in their hiring area, I'd go back there. Great company.

Can't agree enough with what OS said. Definitely research the cdl diaries section, and this community in general. This can be a very rewarding career path, many of us found later in life, but it is still a job, nit a vacation. That said, it can allow you opportunities that other fields don't.

I'd recommend reading our diaries in CDL Diaries here, start one of your own. Get active in the forum here and ask us. Long term members here are top tier drivers. Many of us came up through this very community and it shows in our performance.

If you haven't already gotten into it,

• Truck Driver's Career Guide
• Brett's Book: The Raw Truth About Trucking (free online version)
• High Road CDL Training Program
• CDL Practice Tests

Paid CDL Training ProgramsTruck Driver's Career GuideBecoming A Truck Driver: The Raw Truth About Truck Driving

Also I'd ask Old School about his book as well. Having am open minded, and soaking up the knowledge in this community saved my career and helped me thrive many times over.

That bike looks awesome. I'm glad you remembered to get out and ride it!

I rode dirt bikes many years ago, and street bikes more recently but still many years ago. My favorite dirt bike was a Yamaha 400 thumper, yellow and black, heavy too, over 400 lbs I think. I used to ride some trails that had a half mile stretch of gravel road on one of the boundaries. Sometimes guys would come out with their newer, lighter dirt bikes and kick my butt on the twisties and jumps, but then when we got back to the gravel road I'd fly past them at 85 only to have them pass me soon again. I bent a few brake and clutch levers on saplings trying to keep up lol.

I haven't ridden now for over 30 years, but sometimes I have these awesome dreams where I open my garage and there are three or four different motorcycles sitting there and I can ride whichever one I want. I go riding for a while, then pick a different one. Then I wake up haha.

I hope you keep riding!

That's a yamaha dt400. Legendary two stroke. I had a dt100 and a dt250 when I was a kid

If you're using it to practice, a good basis is Weight and Weather, they determine your route which then determines your rate of travel which then determines your stopping point.

For example, a 44k lb load, 79k gross) going from Cheyenne wy to Cedar Rapids IA, no thunder storms but winds gusting to 38 mph. Meaning you'll be ok to take I80 inspite of the winds.

Trip is 750 miles, mostly flat interstate. You might average 55 mph with stops, etc. Set your target at 550 miles, or 10 hours of driving/on duty as you have full clocks. The second day will be 250 miles to reciever.

That means you need to have 3 or 4 places to shutdown around Omaha NE, being 500 miles from Cheyenne. If need be, you can push it a little bit, but safely shut down for the night around the 500 miles mark.

Correct, its not an immigration issue, its a national security issue and a wages issue and a safety issue.

You came here seeking truth. You got truth, and you didn't like it.

None of us are making a judgement on the drug itself. It, and any other drugs that cause impairment are prohibited and for good reasons. We're just as vehemently opposed to alcohol as well in regards to its use by cdl holders. And for the same reasons. The laws are much stricter for a cdl holder about alcohol use.

You dont have a valid argument for use of narcotics by commercial drivers. Peroid. In fact, supposing for a minute that thc was prescribed in the same manner that opiates were and were mainstream used similarly, a driver wouldn't be able to return to work until he tested clean. You fail to grasp that even some over the counter medication can be grounds for out of service and loss of career.

You're barking up the wrong tree, in the wrong neighborhood.

OS put it well. A lot of times with the ABS lights, its just a simple connection issue with the pigtail. For sure always make sure a trailer is safe to run, but in time, you'll learn to prioritize issues to address and that a lot of simple issues on a trailer you can take care of or fix to at least complete the load and then get fixed.

I blew a trailer tire 2 miles from the reciever on a load the other day. I asked the reciever if I could drop it there and have our repair guy fix it on-site after its unloaded. They agreed. I called my dispatcher and breakdown and let them know.

You'll get comfortable making decisions that carry weight, but for sure, it can be confusing in the beginning.