Location:
Sturgis, MI
Driving Status:
Experienced Driver
Social Link:
FR8 M4N On The Web
Married my high school sweetheart and have 8 children, currently 3 at home. Wife and I became Catholic in 1990 and now attend Traditional Latin Mass.
Retired from Abbott Nutrition after 22 yrs. most time spent in the energy center where we provided high pressure steam (up to ~460#), variety of cooling waters, HVAC, soft water, compressed air (~90#) and nitrogen. We did maintenance to our equipment, boilers, air compressors, chillers, cooling towers, water softeners, and whatever else.
Drove 20-25 yard garbage trucks, hence my rumble.com/trshm4n channel, starting April of '22 to Oct of '22.
Went to a sponsored school with Keller Trucking located in Defiance, OH. Keller has been great every step of the way; awesome company. They've been on the "Best Fleet to Work For" list for 7 years! Now they have "Hall of Fame" status. Be sure to tell them John Steele, (the driver), referred you!
Recently changed my personal truck plate to reflect the new career, hence the nickname.
If you're interested in beginning a new career, continue to look around Trucking Truth! There is a ton of education materials here and a ton of posts with excellent advice. A very mature site with professional drivers with many years of driving and trucking business experience. Go to the menu for a list of categories to get you started. Any questions, jump in and post; many new drivers here, too, that can benefit from the question.
Posted: 1 week, 6 days ago
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Semi-Retired ;-) CDL B to CDL A, Lord willing!
A new chapter in truck driving is set to kick-off in a couple of weeks as I start a job with Simon's Trucking out of Farley, IA. Keller had been a good starter company, but the pay is just not enough to get ahead of our commitments.
Until later...
Posted: 1 month ago
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Semi-Retired ;-) CDL B to CDL A, Lord willing!
Thanks for the reply, RB! I've had the thought that being number one isn't the most important thing, but just by being focused on fuel economy and safety will keep me in the high ranks knowing that I'm doing good for myself, others around me, and for the company. By working on the metrics, I naturally climb up and maintain a good ranking. Like you said, they're tied at the hip; neat observation. Have a great week!
Still working on those safety and fuel efficiency metrics. I managed to get to the number 8 spot, so my goal of breaking into the top ten has been achieved. Now headed for the number 1 spot.
It must be fierce competition in the top ten because the names move in and out fairly quickly. I dropped back to the middle teens from number 10 then back down into number 8, in the same day.
This week I was in the 20's. Weird. But on the whole, fuel efficiency has been going up.
I'll keep working at it. Probably gonna be one of those things where you get it dialed in then just keep it consistent and try to improve all the time.
Plenty of miles this last week. I let my FM know I'd be available for Saturdays, if needed, so he was able to accommodate and I put in around 3k, finishing up at home Saturday morning around 8:30.
A bit of a tough week, though, as my start times were in the early morning hours; which isn't too bad since I enjoy the lesser amount of traffic on the roads at those times. But the sleep schedule got a little skewed to accommodate the delivery times. It's all good. It's one of those challenges of driving.
I may have finished up my 6 month contract, as my safety bonus has increased as of this last week. Maybe a week early? I have recorded going into my 24th week this next Monday, the 17th. Yeah!
Pet peeve that has crept in is traffic merging into the highway. Seems they don't know how to press on the go pedal.
Another pet peeve is the auto brakes on the truck as they seem to have a mind of their own from time to time. I've picked up on that the radar tracks a vehicle further into an adjacent lane than my old truck, and if they're slowing down, my brakes may be activated. So I've adapted to that occurrence pretty good and keep a good eye on the tracking. It can be defeated by pressing on the go pedal.
Another time is those hard shadows from bridges that come out of nowhere and scare the crap out of you.
And if I'm too close to the vehicle ahead of me, and they start braking too quickly, those brakes may activate, which is annoying and makes my blood boil as I'm in complete control of the situation when this occurs. But I do have the radar looking as far ahead as possible, which is about a 10th of a mile. The fix is for me to react sooner to the following distance, and in most cases is just what I do, but occasionally you have some motorist jump in front of you and jam things up. Still, in the big picture, I need to adjust the following distance and all will be good. So I'm working on that so it doesn't happen that the brakes apply automatically.
Until later...
One trip into hilly/mountainous terrain can cause a significant dip in fuel economy. Do your best to hit that top spot, but know that where you rank may have more to do with who had longer stretches of straight/flat highway with no traffic delays. No matter where you fall in that ranking, you are a great asset to your company because you are focused on the right things. Fuel economy and safety are tied at the hip because the drivers who most frequently have the best fuel economy are the drivers who have the best safety record.
Posted: 1 month ago
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Semi-Retired ;-) CDL B to CDL A, Lord willing!
"License and registration..." "Yes sir." "Do you know why I pulled you over?"
Well, it happened; I received a citation for being in the third lane. Thought I had a valid reason for being there, but he wasn't swayed at all. No problem. I'm definitely not going to argue; just be as polite and courteous as possible.
Called my company to let the Safety Dept. know of the incident and I'm left with the knowledge of losing the safety bonus for four weeks. Big bummer! But, that's life and I own up to it and will do better going forward.
Had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day at a shippers soon after that. Waited 11 hours and 15 minutes before I got out of there. That was a big example of how a little communication could've saved me a bunch of headache and time.
Another day, going down the interstate, I get pulled into the scale. There the officer found there was a weight distribution problem between the trailer tandems. One was over the legal limit and the other hardly carrying any of the load. So with that, he had me swing around the building where he informed my of that condition with the axles and happily announced that he would do a full inspection.
There! I had my first Level 1 full inspection! Actually really liked the experience. The officer was really nice to interact with and I was glad to be helpful in any way I could.
Essentially everything else checked out good with the exception of one trailer light being in-op (that I had informed him about prior to his inspection) and stated that I had already reported in the DVIR to be fixed during pre-trip this morning.
The officer informed me right away that I'm not leaving until it fixed. No problem. I'll call my work place and get the ball rolling. Well, that ball rolled for a very long ways as it took over 5 hours to get back on the road! Doh! The joys of trucking!
Until later...
Posted: 1 month, 2 weeks ago
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I only take it off when backing, as well. If moving in the yard or truck stop, I have it on. Just not at all comfortable without it on otherwise.
Posted: 2 months ago
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Just a funny trucking picture to brighten your day
Or to raise/lower a tag axle?
Posted: 2 months, 1 week ago
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An observation about TT members.
It's the professionalism and honesty that kept me around. I, too, closed a few tabs when researching this career path.
Keep up the good work, everyone!
Posted: 2 months, 1 week ago
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Chuck Norris Jokes You've Heard
Chuck Norris counted to infinity... twice.
Posted: 2 months, 2 weeks ago
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Hi ya! Still have the same rig, too? That's a nice looking one in your bio info.
Posted: 1 week, 4 days ago
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Semi-Retired ;-) CDL B to CDL A, Lord willing!
Hi ya, Sandman!
I'll be sticking with dry van. There are others options available going forward, like hazmat, flat bed, refer, tanker, etc... but I'm thinking of just dry van for now.