Location:
TN
Driving Status:
Experienced Driver
Social Link:
Hi I am Chris I became a trucker at 18, been working for UPS for a few years driven a Mack pinnacle at a older company, then a Mack anthem, then a Freightliner Cascadia, then pinnacle, back to a Cascadia.
Update in a anthem again
Posted: 1 year, 5 months ago
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It was just a small local farming truck that pulled around tractors from there few farms around the state that's really all I know about it's history it's very nice.
I don't know much about the strike and can't really say anything on its impact yet not knowing much about it. I also ain't positive I can even say anything regarding it due to my contract. I will check and maybe make a post about it when I know a little more if I can talk about it and maybe do a little more research. I know I haven't been effects much if any.
Sounds like a nice truck. How did you find one with such low mileage?
What do you know about the potential UPS strike? How would that affect you as a UPS driver or as an independent contractor for UPS?
Posted: 1 year, 5 months ago
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I did leave a few things out so thank you PJ, all other expenses other then insurance. My insurance is currently through UPS since my previous contract and about what's been happening late I honestly don't know much about it and it hasn't effected me much. I have been working on a backup plan in case things don't work and my new contract is 3 months so I can see how the company is doing then. The maintenance is still going on the record. I appreciate the good luck :)
Posted: 1 year, 5 months ago
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Sorry haven't been on a while been figuring things out. I have wanted for a really long time to go owner operator but I really didn't want to leave UPS. I had been putting money in a savings account for when I decided to go owner operator. After thinking about it a while I decided to stay with UPS a great company. But I really wanted to feel like I had more to my name so I was talking with my fleet manager and a few other cooperate people and made a deal with them. I was going to buy my own truck and operate it with UPS. What we agreed to is they pay for fuel and maintenance due to it being used for company purposes but I pay for the truck and insurance and any repairs needed. So it was a deal and I been the last couple weeks going around looking for the perfect truck which I have found. It's a Newish Mack pinnacle sleeper and it looks sick I will post photos later. It does seem a lot more unique to drive cause it's more of a long nose then I am used too. Its a 2023 but only has 6k miles on it. Very nice and drives great. I just wanted to update y'all about why I haven't been present.
Posted: 1 year, 7 months ago
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I had this very strange and unusual load story I would like to share.
Most the time when UPS planes land a driver doing LTL comes picked up some pallets and takes them to the local distribution center. They are almost always short trips and I haven't ever done one because I do OTR driving. Anyway I had 6hours left on the clock and I got a load that I could pickup and dropoff right before my reset. I agreed to it and was sent to a airport. The airport was Mc Gee Tyson airport and it's off of Alcoa highway which might I say was really hard to get back onto. I made it there and had to park along the fence till they finished unloading which took like 15 minutes I got a photo of the plane that the cargo was got off of right after it was done. Cool to see such a big flying semi truck
It took 15minutes to finish unloading then 45minutes to load me then 1.5hrs to the distribution center and it was a drop and go then I went to the truck stop with time to spare. I thought it was really unusual for them to send a OTR driver on a LTL load but it was cool and I did enjoy it for the most part. The pallets were heavy metal containers and weighed 9000lbs each and I carried 2 of them.
Anyone here regularly pickup at airports? How much do you prefer or dislike it rather then distribution centers?
Posted: 1 year, 8 months ago
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Before someone ask I went through Atlanta traffic + traffic from a accident and I needed to max a fuel stop mid day and took a 2hr break mid day.
Posted: 1 year, 8 months ago
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So today I started around 6am and stopped at 4pm no pickups or drop offs just driving. Did something I haven't done in over 3 years just because I could.
I used the automatic manual mode on the anthem. My first truck I driven that was a manual was a older mack pinnacle since then I have only ever driven manuals and I personally love a automatic truck but today I decided to mix it up so over the course of about 300miles I used the manual pretty cool don't plan on this being a common.
Don't know really why I felt like posting it but I did.
Opinion question Do you prefer manual or automatic? Manual is fun but automatic comes in handy during traffic so I personally prefer automatic but I want to hear you guys.
Also do you drive a manual or a automatic? And if you drive a automatic do you ever use the automatic manual?
Just out of curiosity anyone else still on here drive a mack, international, or a western star? Haven't seen many on the road today.
Posted: 1 year, 8 months ago
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Getting Back Into Truck Driving
oh I didn't know that thanks for correcting me I appreciate it
Get to learn something new everyday
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....let me ask do you have a CDL that is still valid? If so you might want to try to get into a military trucking job and with your record they might be able to give enough discipline and guide you into a safer way of thinking. I don't know how all it works but when I was a rookie my experienced driver I rode with was a past military trucker and he trained a lot of careless and reckless drivers and made so pretty dang good truckers out of them.
Best wishes
Just as the trucking world is getting picky on hiring drivers, even experienced drivers, the military is picky about who they take in. Her tickets will not allow her to go on active duty.
I have a grandson that had two tickets, one for speeding and one for an incomplete stop at a stop sign. The second one got dropped. The first one was paid for and even after 4 years, the military will not look at him. It was 12 miles over the posted speed limit.
Laura
Posted: 1 year, 9 months ago
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Getting Back Into Truck Driving
A lot of truckers already got straight to the point but to recap you aren't taking responsibility for your actions, you even said speed limit 65 so was goin 75 like that's fine which it's not. Speeding isn't the most forgiving aspect of trucking, going fast in the rain on a curve road makes it your fault for the accident which you mentioned but you were still trying to blame the rain, even if that one major accident "wasn't your fault" unless you didn't look or they were going extremely fast and were far out you shouldn't have pulled out in front of the car wether you thought you could make it or not estimate there speed not just the room you need and the distance. Also that accident could have killed the person in that car why no sympathy and just you trying to say it's not your fault.
This doesn't seem like your in the right line of work but if you still want to try them let me ask do you have a CDL that is still valid? If so you might want to try to get into a military trucking job and with your record they might be able to give enough discipline and guide you into a safer way of thinking. I don't know how all it works but when I was a rookie my experienced driver I rode with was a past military trucker and he trained a lot of careless and reckless drivers and made so pretty dang good truckers out of them.
My primary recommendation is find another job warehouses, restaurant industries, or heck volunteer at a ER and see what your kind of driving does to someone then try again.
Best wishes
Posted: 1 year, 5 months ago
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UPDATE
your right I probably shouldn't have called it a long nose cause it ain't but the way the steering handles in comparison to my old anthem and the cascadia I had prior it feels more like a long nose and probably just the way I sit but it looks over the dash more like a long nose. :)