Profile For Maestro

Hey trucking friends,

I just want to give an update... My God's grace I have one safety driver the week again this is my third time!

Also I am curious can I put my CDL education as tax write off? It was a career change and $4,000 of schooling is nothing to sneeze at.

Thoughts?

Check out my video on winter driving

Kearseys Winter Driving Tips

Thank you, Kearsey, that was excellent!

Thus far with the winter weather, I have experienced:

[*] While moving a trailer to the company lot, I heard a screeching noise and didn't pay it no mind. I drove down the road and looked in my mirrors. I saw what I thought was snow coming off the trailer then I heard a loud POP. Suddenly, the trailer started to move faster. I thought the brakes were frozen and that the friction finally unlocked them. Nope...when I backed the trailer, I heard a loud thunk. I did a GOAL and heard air leaking out. I kicked the rear right tires and the second tire was flat. :(

[*] While traveling from Indiana, I was about a stone throw away from approaching Georgetown, KY exit. Suddenly, my primary air line started to drop and the truck was losing air. I pulled over and heard air leaking. I kicked all the tires. They were all firm. I aired up as much as I could and drove to the company lot with the load. I called Dispatch to tell what happened. Later I found out the air line popped off due to the cold.

Speaking of cold...What heavy duty gloves do y'all recommend for cold weather?

I had to double up my gloves and my hands still get cold especially when pumping fuel! 🥶

Plus one on prep and Intel. Become a weather nut. Make sure your clothing, food and water is prepped. Make sure your equipment is and make sure not to pull your trailer brakes.

Regarding the trailer brakes, do you recommend not to pull the trailer brakes if docked?

I was almost going to start another post on this, but it seems to fit into this topic.

I ended up at the terminal for a while today, for a couple of minor things, not related to the cold, one was a code the truck was throwing that turned out to be nothing, the other was the power steering pump filter had backed out again, causing it to leak and loose fluid. Both easilly addressed.

The inspection lane had a steady stream of trucks all day though, almost all cold related issues. Also quite a few tows into and out of the yard.

The common issues were.

1. Freezing and frozen windshield washer lines and pumps 2. Brakes frozen, even on the tractors. 3. Frozen DEF lines and tanks, No DEF 4. Gelled fuel.

For what its worth, the mechanics told me that most of the cold weather issues they see are from drivers not keeping the trucks running. Our dispatch regularly sends out reminders to continuously idle during cold weather events.

I wonder if keeping the trucks running would apply to day cabs too?

Excellent idea, Brett!

I have two ideas:

1. Made the app open source so others can look at the code and contribute.

2. Offer a donation option to help support the app and development. You could go with a support model or subscription model too. I would still offer the donation option though for those who want to contribute.

Hi Trucking Friends!

This week is Kentucky we will be experiencing artic cold 🥶 weather.

As a rookie driver, what are your best winter driving tips or advice that you have learned and willing to pass on?

Hey Trucking Friends,

It has been a while...3 months to be exact.

By the grace of God, I'm happy to report that I am still with the trucking company.

I have consistently taken the safest routes to avoid incidents.

In the later part of December, I had one minor incident where I did a hard braking at a yellow light when I was bobtailing and hit a pothole. The computer relayed to Safety that I was in a "crash." After the Safety Manager reviewed the footage with the Head Mechanic, they dismissed it because I hit the pothole which caused the "crash trigger."

Last week, I almost took out my driver-side mirror because I was too close to the glad hands of another trailer. The glad hands caused a hairline scratch on the back of the mirror. No major damage. The Night Supervisor dismissed it after I showed him the picture.

I just take one day at a time and focus on being the safest driver I can.

What is funny and ironic is that I won Safety Driver of the Week after Thanksgiving.

Overall, I am still striving to be safe every day.

Thank you again to those who advised me to do my best and stay with the company.

I appreciate you all.

Thank you @Davy A @Old_School @Pianoman for your sage advice and wisdom.

I will prayerfully consider what each of you said and thank you for weighing in on my situation.

I appreciate y'all.

Well, it looks like the trucking gods heard me *****ing and moaning because I received a call today from Maverick Transportation with a tentative offer! I’ll start sometime in January and I’m really looking forward to it. I preferred flatbed to keep me in shape and get home on weekends. We have two grandkids. Refer just didn’t appeal to me from the research I have done. I won’t rule it out in the future.

I did keep my medical card up to date because somehow I knew I would get back in a truck.

I looked into Prime but their website didn’t mention refresher courses, unless I missed something. As far as going back to Veriha, they were good to me but it really would be my last option.

Thank you all for the replies/advice. I really appreciate it. I’ll keep you updated as the new job progresses.

Randy

Onward and upward!

Hey Trucker Friends!

It has been a while.

Currently at the company I work for, the time has been an emotional roller coaster as a new driver.

I accumulated safety points and had them reduced, then two incidents happened that boosted me back to where if I have one more incident, I'm terminated.

The points will not come off until one year has passed. Safety will not allow me to make any more videos to reduce the points.

They will suspend me for 6 days (3 days each week starting this week) which is more than we can bear as a family.

Even my wife said this was too harsh for a company to do this to a trucker.

I am learning that with trucking companies, they live and die by insurance.

I own up to the incidents...no excuses, only adjustments.

Thus with only four months of experience, I am forced to look for another trucking job.

This is discouraging yet this is all part of learning to be the best trucker I can be.