Comments By Bill M.

Thanks, OS.

That's what I'm afraid of. I'll be getting in there around 2100 and my reserved spot will be taken. My backup plan is that I can stay at the consignee, but they don't have any facilities, and I'm afraid there will be trucks parked that don't belong either. Decisions, decisions.

I've stayed there several times with no issues. There are three or four truck stops in that area. They always fill early - that's a New Jersey thing. The trucks also come and go a lot. Parking is very limited in New Jersey, so you need to have a plan. Even when you reserve a spot, you may find them full. There's always three to five bandits thinking they can get away with stealing a reserved spot without paying the fee.

I forgot to mention, I will reserve a spot ahead of time because I've already talked to the truck stop and they say to make sure I do that because parking is full early in the day!

Hi everyone.

I know this topic has been discussed before, safety at truck stops, but I have to ask about this one. Generally speaking, I feel safe just about anywhere and stay in my truck if things are a bit suspect. Has anyone stayed at the Petro/TA in Bordentown, NJ? Would you consider it safe?

I have an upcoming assignment that requires me to either start driving at about 0100 to get the load delivered by a 0900 appointment time, or leave early and stay at a truck stop in Bordentown, NJ, the night prior and drive about 20 minutes into the receiver.

Thanks in advance!

Hi everyone.

I know this topic has been discussed before, safety at truck stops, but I have to ask about this one. Generally speaking, I feel safe just about anywhere and stay in my truck if things are a bit suspect. Has anyone stayed at the Petro/TA in Bordentown, NJ? Would you consider it safe?

I have an upcoming assignment that requires me to either start driving at about 0100 to get the load delivered by a 0900 appointment time, or leave early and stay at a truck stop in Bordentown, NJ, the night prior and drive about 20 minutes into the receiver.

Thanks in advance!

Amen, brother! Thumbs up emogi!

Driving I-70 in Indiana between Indianapolis and the Ohio state line should be considered cruel and unusual punishment.

I'm a skeptic. If Indiana isn't in the top 10 this list is compromised.

I watched a video about which states have the roughest roads. There is actually an International Roughness Index and states are rated on the basis of this Index known as the IRI.

Here is there list of the 10 states with the roughest roads:

10) New Jersey

9) Michigan

8) Louisiana

7) Massachusetts

6) Hawaii

5) New York

4) Wisconsin

3) Nebraska

2) Rhode Island

1) California

One way - 1327 miles.

Woah. I haven't heard of this. It sounds like they are trying to comply with standard workday rules. Does this apply to anyone traveling through Ill?

We've been told to comply with Illinois labor laws we now have to take a 30 minute break before our 5th hour on duty. Which throws a huge wrench we usually go to our main destination then take the break. Can't do that anymore.

In addition to that if we work more than 12 hours we must take another 20 minute off duty break.

Plus if we want it we have 2 optional paid 15 minute breaks. One can be taken before the 5 hour break and one after.

In theory we can now lose 1.5 hours out of 14 for breaks.

All of this is to comply with Illinois labor laws.

Welcome aboard, Polor Bear, and congratulations.

TWIC - you want to avoid going into the ports anyway.

Good luck on your journey! Try to embrace every experience as an opportunity to learn and grow. And remember to stop by TT and check in often!

Davy, I don't thinkg you're against the gran.

You mentioned the surveillance state: we are long past that. I was a late adopter of FB. Why, because from my military experience, I already knew what we were doing with online imagery. Our smartphones and Facebook have already gotten everything they need from us. The database has been built.

Inward-facing cameras: The cameras don't treat anything, cause or effect. They are there as an unbiased witness to an event or bad behavior. More often than not, it is supporting the driver.

Barrier to entry: yes, it's low. However, using a cell phone is a behavior that cannot be eliminated through teaching. Built into our phones is a technology that can disable a phone if it is traveling at a rate of speed consistent with operating an automobile. This should be automatic in every single smartphone produced and in operation. But, I'm an over-the-top kind of guy on this.

Commercial pilots: Less traffic, lower chance of collision, and the computers are doing most of the flying anyway, not the pilots. Pilots are there in case something goes wrong. I see this like I see the autonomous vehicles; they will always want a human inside to take over if something goes wrong.

Natural selection: yeah, I agree with you here. I just don't want to be on the receiving end of someone who deserves the Darwin Award. By the way; a bicycle helmet kept me from becoming a vegetable when I wrecked at 28 mph. That bubble wrap limited my head injury to a concussion.

I always appreciate reading your side of the argument. Truth be told, if I wasn't married, I would have already retreated to the interior of Alaska, the Carolinas or stayed right here in Pennsylvania and been a homesteader for sure. TRUTH!

Perhaps I'm just against the grain on this, but the harm in them is that they contribute to the survalience state, help establish a database for facial recognition which in turn leads to centralized control of individuals, think 1984.

All despotic regimes basis for control begins with surveillance of its subjects. With millennials and zoomers, we have two generations that openly embrace mass surveillance and control. I refuse to be a part of it to the extent that I can and still live a reasonable daily life.

In terms of the industry, driver facings cameras treat the symptoms not the cause. The cause is that the barrier to entry is very low. We need better training, testing, ongoing testing to keep your CDL and more selective hiring processes.

To the best of my knowledge, commercial airline pilots don't have pilot facing cameras. They do have better training, testing, qualification standards and enforcement of regulations. The problem that were not addressing is cheap labor, you get what you pay for.

One other thing that comes to mind is natural selection. It's a philosophical argument, but given enough time idiots on their phone will eventually wreck enough to be purged from the industry. Yes, people will get hurt in the process, but that's the reality of living. Their behavior doesn't benefit the society as a whole, and by its own nature will take them out. Instead like many other things in society, we want to turn everything into a safe bubble wrapped environment that's nice and safe and happy. The price for that world is individual freedom.

Rtfirefly, I have a weekly conversation about this topic. I see where you're coming from about privacy but I don't understand the problem so many drivers appear to have with inward-facing cameras or microphones.

My take is this: I'm entrusted to maintain and operate a very expensive piece of equipment that belongs to someone else - they have every right to monitor what I'm doing. I don't feel untrusted. The camera is there to record everything that happens, and I'm not doing anything wrong. I drive, I eat, I sleep, I repeat. I don't touch my phone while my truck is moving, so, no problem there.

Just last year I was involved in an incident where a car in front of me at a traffic light put their car in reverse and backed into me while I was stopped. The camera showed everything, including me sitting inside doing nothing but watching them back into the brush guard on my truck. I chose not to use my horn because, in that split second, my thought was I didn't want them to claim I startled them with it. Turns out that was the right thing to do. It was quite comical to watch.

Also, as old school mentioned, those cameras help me earn a lot of extra money on a quarterly basis - thousands of extra dollars just for driving safely. They are so sophisticated that the insurance companies use them to calculate the insurability of a driver, and that can make you more money as well.

On another note, I don't want cameras monitoring anything in my personal life space. I don't trust them. They are too easy to access and hack. My so-called smartphone is quite enough.

Recently, a friend of mine left the company to drive for another company because he hated the camera's inward-facing feature. Well, a month into the new gig, the new company installed new cameras with inward-facing tech, and now don't even allow their drivers to use hand-free headsets while driving. Needless to say, he is not happy but his bridge appears to be burned.

Anyway, good luck in your search for a company that doesn't use them.