Comments By Erin Q.

Honestly I just ignore it and go the car speed limit, cops don't seem to care, most drivers seem to go 60-63 and cars are going 70-90.

Six months ago I bent the gate at one of our stores because I was anxious about the traffic and getting out of the way and didn't do the maneuver correctly. Not a lot harm done luckily because it was one of our own stores but it was pretty embarrassing.

Even if it's somewhere you've been to dozens of times you still need to be cautious and have your head in the game.

In regards to training length, I had about a day and half of on the road training and I'm doing just fine a year later and I've seen plenty of solo drivers from companies with long training periods who do all kinds of stupid crap I never would have even conceived of. Some folx have a good head for this job and some just don't and if you're in the latter category, more training probably isn't going to help you that much.

I wouldn't get married to the idea of driving for xyz carrier, the most important part is getting over those initial hurdles of test passing. You can spend weeks researching every company under the sun but if you can't pass a drug test then that was all just wasted time.

A day and a half for a driver with zero experience? I don't believe that for a second.

My boss at my previous job paid for me to get my CDL so I could drive for him. The day I passed the road test was the day his company went belly up. A few days later I called a place that had left flyers at the school I went to, got the job the following day.

Week later I go out with the fleet manager, who was a previous driver of 15 years, after all the paperwork, that'd be the half day. Out with him again the next day. Day 3 he was planning to go out with me but just handed me the keys and went over where I was going for a few minutes and that was that as far as training, besides calling him and other drivers for advice.

It's been trial by fire since day 3 lol, I even had to learn to chain up a coil with YouTube videos.

In regards to training length, I had about a day and half of on the road training and I'm doing just fine a year later and I've seen plenty of solo drivers from companies with long training periods who do all kinds of stupid crap I never would have even conceived of. Some folx have a good head for this job and some just don't and if you're in the latter category, more training probably isn't going to help you that much.

I wouldn't get married to the idea of driving for xyz carrier, the most important part is getting over those initial hurdles of test passing. You can spend weeks researching every company under the sun but if you can't pass a drug test then that was all just wasted time.

I picked up 4 "hot" toilet tanks in Las Vegas and took them to Salt Lake City with a step deck once. Made me a little nervous not being able to see the load.

Also regularly go up to Pendleton or Ontario OR from SLC with half to a dozen stops in Idaho, one time the only thing I had left after Ontario was a single 20' long 2" diameter copper pipe bound for Portland.

If you can't adjust your sleeping schedule, get a different job, there's plenty out there. It ain't too hard to kill someone in a semi and the cops aren't going to care if your dispatcher is a ****. Sleep is very important, I'm on a prescription amphetamine and even that can only get me so far if I don't get my 6 hours.