Profile For Ryan B.

I much prefer winter over summer because I get hot too easily. But, the road conditions...eesh. I have been pretty fortunate to have been able to route around weather issues, or finding myself just ahead/just behind.

When I read that you were the only one on the road in either direction, the very first thing that popped in my head was: "And you probably shouldn't be, either." You got yourself to a safe location to park, so all is good.

I think I saw you over near Allentown the other day. I was picking up a load in Breinigsville, PA going to Crafton, PA.

Dre,

Every one of these experienced drivers is telling you to stick with Western Express, and there is good reason for that. It's because the easy thing to do is quit, and leave trucking behind. Every once in a while the advice these drivers give is "leave trucking because it's not for you." That's not the advice of well over 100 years worth of collective experience is telling YOU. That's because you can do this. The economy is tough right now, but it will recover. You want to be hitting your stride when it does.

From one man to another, your mistakes are puny compared to the mountain of **** that I piled up in my life. It will pass.

Love yourself. Don't do this job for anyone but yourself. What I mean is that if you are doing it for anyone else, it will drain you. Do it for yourself because that's what you want to do.

Lastly, enjoy your precious kid. My first daughter is turning 2 in May. They are what make the struggle worth it.

Hey, been awhile. I’m trying to contact our compliance team to triple check, but want to run this by y’all.

Did a 2/8 yesterday. 2 in afternoon. Did 8 last night (before original 14 was up) to make consignee on time this morning. I would think that I shut down for a 10 now. This morning I had what was leftover from yesterday. Now I have what would be now be an 8/2. I recall seeing this online before but seems counterintuitive…

So, I do these splits all the time. It seems like you are cheating because you are getting time back before completing a 10-hour break, but you are getting on-duty time that's equivalent to 11/14 - the time used between the last two breaks, which in this case would be the 8-hour break and the 2nd 2-hour break. If you had taken a full 10, you would get a full 11/14.

You start your day with a full 11/14. You start driving and drive for 3 hours. Say you reach a shipper, so you are off-duty while being loaded. 2 hours pass, and you are loaded. You pause your clock with the split-sleeper provision. So, you have 8/11 hours available.

Your delivery is 9 hours away, and you have 18 hours to get there. Can't do a full 10 plus be on time, but you have that split in your back pocket. You drive 7 more hours, so you park with 1/3 available (1 hour of on-duty time consumed by pre-trip, fueling, arrival at shipper).

You start your sleeper portion of the split. 8 hours later, you have 4/7 available. You drive 2 hours to your delivery, then go off-duty while being unloaded. 2 hours later, you have 9/12 available.

At your next break, you want to go into sleeper to avoid causing a problem by not having a pair with the last 2-hour break.

I run days at a time on splits without a full 10-hour break. I don't take 30-minute breaks. I swallow up 30-minute breaks by pausing my clock with split breaks. 30-minute breaks eat up your clock. Split breaks preserve your clock. The caveat here: I run reefer, so I have a high percentage of loads where I am sitting in a dock door for 2+ hours.

We have a new customer in Mexico. The way we get their metal to them is to drop it at a Mexican freight forwarding company in Brownsville, TX. Then a Mexican trucking company finishes the run.

Last time I was down there, I saw these wild parrots sitting on the power lines. They were watching me un-strap my load and get it ready for off-loading. I kept expecting one of them to strike up a conversation with me... "Hey driver, do you think they will unload you today?"

This job has never ending surprises to it. I really enjoy the changes in scenery and experiences I go through on a daily basis. As I was leaving, four more parrots joined in the fun. There were six of them sitting there watching me as I left South Texas. Three or four days later I was in Upstate New York delivering metal to an American manufacturer.

Here's an interesting fact:

Those parrots are not native to South Texas nor Northern Mexico. So how did they get there? They started off as domesticated parrots that were let go for various reasons. Having no natural enemies in the area, they began multiplying. Now they are an invasive species in the area that is flourishing.

There's an important distinction between liberals that set policy and those that simply vote liberal.

But both do have and support an effort to eradicate ICE motors. This is well documented. IE, the green new deal, and just about every other peice of woke legislation.

The push to eliminate OHV areas and to regulate, discontinue peoduction of OHVs is primarily liberal driven.

The FIM, governing body of MotoGP is liberal, and they together with the EPA and CARB eliminate two stroke motorcycles, both street and dirt.

The push to regulate and eliminate private ownership of firearms and or certain types of firearms is solely a liberal cause.

The malaise era and the death of the first golden age of muscle cars was liberal policy, as was the oil crisis.

The current push to switch to EVs and the death of the second golden age of muscle cars is liberal policy. My Mustang Mach 1 had a 1000.00 gas guzzler tax, certainly not a conservative policy. Dodge having to pay billions of dollars in Caron credits...liberal.

If a person votes for a liberal, or woke left progressive as they are called. They are supporting a narrative and agenda against the internal combustion engine. Unequivocally.

I appreciate the clarification between liberal voters and liberal lawmakers.

I disagree that the push to legislate firearms is solely a liberal cause. I know people who voted for Reagan, voted for Bush, voted for Bush again, voted for every Republican presidential candidate to include Trump, people who also support gun legislation because they are tired of seeing mass shootings with little kids getting killed. I am apolitical. I stay away from politics, for the most part. Anyway, wanting to find a solution to stop kids going to school and getting killed by firearms isn't a woke agenda. That's pretty sensible, if you ask me. People should be able to own firearms. People should be able to own whatever they want, so long as it can be done responsibly. I don't want to see another mass shooting in this country, but unfortunately it's become a common occurrence. Yes, it's true that people kill people and not firearms, but we aren't seeing people go into schools or shopping malls to kill a bunch of people by mass stabbing. Firearms are dangerous and need to be respected. We have the freedom to move about throughout this country, as we please, but driver licenses are still necessary. Why? Because vehicles operated by just anyone are dangerous. Same thing with firearms. Owned by just anyone, they are dangerous. I don't understand why requiring a license to carry a firearm is a problem. Prove that you can operate a vehicle safely, and you have the freedom to drive wherever you want, whenever. Prove that you can use a firearm safely and you have the freedom to carry one wherever you want, whenever you want.

So, how does that disagree with anything? Your answer was vapid and devoid of any sort of critical thinking.

Davy works hard to support his family.

The insult wasn't necessary.

Disagreement: That people who are liberal have an agenda as Davy described.

I have no reason to doubt that Davy works hard to support his family, as I stated that this is true for most people, whether conservative or liberal. I believe this to be true of people who have no political leanings, like myself.

Not really sure where you got the idea that I was trying to say anything negative about Davy. I can disagree with him while respecting him for being a good driver, and a hard working one. Disagreement doesn't mean anything more than "I don't agree."

I disagree with your stance on the woke agenda.

Which part do you disagree with? I agree with all of it:

Mostly though, the agenda of the progressive woke left is to eradicate anything masculine and mechanical. They hate the internal combustion engine, muscle cars, motorcycles, especially two strokes. The faster and stronger it is, the more fun it is, the more dangerous it is, the more they try to ban it in an effort to control everyone else.

They do it under the church of global climate change and the temple of noise reduction. Resistance is vital.

Most liberals are no different than most conservatives, in that they have political views, but their main focus is on supporting themselves and their families. I have family members who are conservatives going back decades, and they don't have an agenda other than supporting their families. I have family members who are liberal as can be going back decades, and they also don't have an agenda other than supporting their families.

One of my uncles and his wife are extremely conservative. Same with one of my aunts. Same with my sister's ex-husband.

My dad, another one of my uncles, and several cousins are all extremely liberal.

What's common with all of them is that they work hard to support their families.

Everybody has their own level of tolerance for ambient noise, so if noise from adjacent trucks is keeping you from sleeping that will add even more difficulty to finding parking. It’s hard enough to find parking without worrying about the idling truck issue. To be OTR and avoid it on every 10 would be a near impossibility.

Many times in this profession a driver just needs to find a way to adapt to conditions and situations he has no control over. Otherwise the lifestyle and problems that go with driving will end your career.

If using a portable electric heater until the batteries run down, how do you then start the truck if your batteries are dead?

If this issue is a big problem for SCWZ, then I really feel for him. There are so many other irritations to deal with out here on the road.

I think the portable electric heater runs off of a rechargeable battery.

I sleep like a baby with the truck idling. Plus I love to annoy liberals by belching out noise and deisel fumes all night long. Even better is when I'm parked in CA in an area next to residential and she decides to do regens all night.

I'll intentionally park next to refers. White noise is great for sleeping. Sometimes the frequencies of trucks idling can be negated by multiple trucks idling btw, it's called frequency cancelation. Although sometimes they can cascade, making it a pile up of bass frequencies, in which case I'll move or turn it off, not demand someone else to.

There are a ton of viable reasons. 55 degrees with 100 percent humidity can be just as hot or cold as anywhere in summer or winter.

Mostly though, the agenda of the progressive woke left is to eradicate anything masculine and mechanical. They hate the internal combustion engine, muscle cars, motorcycles, especially two strokes. The faster and stronger it is, the more fun it is, the more dangerous it is, the more they try to ban it in an effort to control everyone else.

They do it under the church of global climate change and the temple of noise reduction. Resistance is vital.

I disagree with your stance on the woke agenda.

I-695 Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore collapsed early this AM after being struck by a container ship. Several cars are reported missing.

Baltimore Bridge collapse

Not going to lie; these types of incidents sit in the back of my mind. You never think that it's going to be you, but the people involved never thought it was going to be them, either. All the trip planning and precautions we take can't avoid a disaster that we didn't know was coming.