Comments By Harvey C.

He had a 11am appointment at Americold, got there at 10am. Got a door at a little after 2:00pm and they didn't get him unloaded until after 8:30pm. There would have likely been no parking anywhere available at that time and no way to have planned for over 9.5 hours of unloading after appointment time. As a rule, he reserves spots when needed and gets reimbursed for that

would've had a fresh clock had he logged off duty/sleeper. At a minimum he'd have been able to do a split

In which instance are you referring? In the first instance, he was logged off duty while unloading but then slow traffic resulted in him running out of time. In the second instance, the example shows that he wouldn't have been able to plan where he might be parking that night since it took much longer than normal, even for Americold. Finding parking about 8:30pm is tough anywhere and if he would have reserved a spot it wouldn't have been near where he wound up for the night.

I've had that scenario happen many times. Usually I'm able to split my sb if it's two hours there. If not, and you run out of hours in the dock, which I've had happen as well, I called into dispatch, got approval to use PC to get to the closest safe legal parking.

I've had that happen in Miami, got out of the reciever late and they let us park outside their building, but the city didn't. Came out and rousted us out of bed. I found a pay for parking place nearby, submitted the receipt and got reimbursed.

The couple times I came close to using a ramp was simply poor choices on my part. I would have had to shut down a couple hours earlier to get parking. Chose not to, gambled and almost lost. If we park illegally, we'll get dinged on safety scores for it, face punative action and are responsible for the tickets and or tow bill at my company.

Michael was close to running out of hours once and left San Jose in bad traffic and running empty headed to his drop yard. But he ran out of hours and there was no place to park between San Jose and Tracy and safety would not put him on PC so he parked on a ramp. Last night would have been tough for him if it weren't for the fact he was going on home time. He had a 11am appointment at Americold, got there at 10am. Got a door at a little after 2:00pm and they didn't get him unloaded until after 8:30pm. There would have likely been no parking anywhere available at that time and no way to have planned for over 9.5 hours of unloading after appointment time. As a rule, he reserves spots when needed and gets reimbursed for that.

That gave me a better laugh than any of the funny photos posted in a long time.

I think this might also be unsafe and unprofessional and a result of poor planning.

You are obviously passionate about the subject but also being vague about how your dog qualifies as a service animal. I suggest you read up other support or therapy animals or see if your animal and your needs qualifies under the section above.

Google Maps and Google Earth use different map data at least some of the time. I demonstrated this once before when someone wrote about a difficult Dollar General location that had been remodeled and the Google Maps image was out of date while Google Earth showed the post-remodel image. I guess it's best to check multiple sources if going to a location you're uncertain about as well as check Google reviews for the location since drivers sometimes add photos to their reviews.

Sadly there are some docks you can't see with Google street view...I experienced that last week.

You may want to try using Google Earth to see if that offers a solution.

Another helpful thing Michael has used is checking out Google reviews for a location as other drivers will often give tips (including how to set up), a photo of site map they may have seen in the office when checking in, etc. In one instance a location was newer than any of the Google Maps and Google Earth and someone posted a photo of the streets and distribution center layout.

Today he went to 7-Up DC in Vernon, CA which he mentioned yesterday is very tight. I saw he was there this afternoon so I checked out Google reviews and many drivers said that it is very tight with a sleeper and that you'll usually be required to drop the trailer at the dock otherwise you're blocking operations. Oh, and several warnings about the "Spanish" lady at the guard shack being very rude but a little bit of humor also as one driver wrote that she apologized for interrupting her breakfast by asking her where to go. The reviews for this DC do include a photo of the site map with yellow arrows on where to go. At least a couple of times Michael has been able to get the phone number for the place from the reviews when his papers had the wrong phone number.

Congratulations Bruce, well done. I find it hard to believe that it's been 16 months at Helwig already. I remember when you were looking for something new and you were reluctant to drive refer or at night. Glad you didn't let those feelings get in your way on your road to success.

I've had a question for some time and will bring it up now. At Marten, Michael has his truck inspected at the Jurupa terminal monthly. He gets his manager to book him an appointment and he gets routed so that it fits into his schedule. I would imagine that they would have caught a problem like this before the tire got this bad. I don't recall ever reading of anyone mentioning monthly inspections and wonder if it is unique to Marten or to his regional fleet.

Our neighbor's son graduated from a private CDL school last year without intentions of driving but having the additional credentials in hopes he could get into being a heavy equipment operator. That didn't work out and about two months ago he got hired by Schneider and sent to Arizona for training. Have you tried them?

Our son was team driving OTR for a whole 3 months when his driving partner took the truck and went solo when Michael took his first home time in about 2 months. He applied for several openings at CR England but was only offered a Dollar General fresh account. He hated most of went with that job but did okay with it with no mishaps. Having to get police to block traffic so he could back in off the street, lots of other difficult backings, sleeping behind a DG store overnight much of the time with no restroom access, etc. But he survived and after 4 months took a job with Marten where he has done well over 2 years. Not the ideal path but it worked out okay for him.

Good luck.