Profile For Paul J.

Got a question regarding natural disasters and trucking.

With the USA being such a large nation, it's goes without saying there's always some natural disaster going on somewhere haha.

But I understand how that can effect someone's route as a trucker.

So is there a thing that truckers do to check to see if there's natural disasters going on like floods before driving through a disaster area?

For example:

Let's say I'm hauling a load that I pickup in somewhere in Arizona and I'm delivering it to somewhere in West Virginia. I got to drive through several states obviously to get there, but one of the states has an avalanche blocking part of the route, and another state has massive floods blocking another part of the route.

Obviously I would just rearrange the route to avoid those areas...but I can't do that if I don't know that these two natural disasters are going on.

And let's say in this scenario, these disasters don't even happen until after I'm just about to enter said states.

How do I "pay attention" and/or know "what to look out for" and "where to look" for this kind of info so I'm not stranded on a highway somewhere for a couple days, looking at a mountain of snow in front of me covering the highway, or a road that collapsed due to a landslide, flood etc?

Just curious how experienced truckers approach this issue.

Awesome, thanks all!

Looking forward to getting the ball rolling on all of this.

I'm about a week away from doing my 2nd sleep apnea sleep study (october 9th) and will be getting my CPAP machine shortly after. Also just got my Class-A permit card in the mail and no longer need my temporary printout I got at the DMV

My Wilson Logistics recruiter is all set paperwork-wise to get me rolling with training, etc once I'm using my CPAP.

I know I talked about both the "lease purchase operator" and "company driver" options I have with Wilson but I will most likely go with being a company driver now.

That being said, since my plan is to only be in the trucking trade 2 years, 3 years tops, (and if I use my brain, stay with the same company the whole time haha) and then get out and immigrate to another country, I obviously will be using the trucking trade to build up as much savings as possible, while at the same time minimizing personal expenses as much as possible.

I'm not married, don't have kids, don't have a lot of bills and recently paid off all my debts. So I'm going to be doing OTR and I hope to be home as little as possible. However, I don't exactly have a "home" to go to on my off days as the 2020 pandemic turned my life upside down as well as several other members of my family. Due to the pandemic, we went from being scattered across a few states to all living under one roof where I rent a room.

I'm still in the beginning stages of learning how OTR trucking even works, lol so I was wondering:

As an OTR company driver who will be driving a truck that has a camper in it that I already know has a bed, a microwave and even a small fridge, what would happen if I just put all my stuff in storage (like "Self Storage Plus" that's a few blocks from where I live) and just attempt to live in the company truck?

Like, let's say I'm out for a couple weeks and instead of using whatever days I have off to drive back to rent a room with my family, I just sleep in my truck and just shower at whatever truckstop I can find that has showers, instead of wasting money on hotel rooms.

I don't plan on really obtaining "my own home" to go to until after I immigrate and then buy a house in the country I want to move to. So why waste money on an apartment, house or hotel/motel rooms until then?

Can an OTR company driver do that? Can I really just sleep in my company truck on my days off, or am I completely misunderstanding how an OTR company driver career works?

Hello this is my official training Diary. I'm also started a vlog my journey in trying to become a trucker.

Everything that I would say in my first training diary entry is in this vlog episode of mine:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbcCPWIpuk0

only thing to add to that is something really funny I had to do today.

There are two things my Wilson Transportation recruiter is requiring of me before he scoops me up since I have a 6 month DOT certification and a class-A permit.

1. Get a CPAP and start using it (Can't get my CPAP until after October 9th's second sleep study) 2. I need to provide proof of employment from September 2021-September 2024. (36 months)

The second one would seem simple but I've been doing mostly DoorDash since 2020 thanks to the pandemic. Apparently a beuracratic nightmare exists between DoorDash and 3rd party companies that makes it impossible for me to get my 1099 forms but I did recently discover how to find/download monthly income statements.

My recruiter told me that he would accept them as proof of employment but I have to send them to him. So I literally downloaded all 36 PDFs and emailed it to him today, haha.

I'm looking forward to not having to deliver for Amazon and DoorDash anymore and start driving those biga$$ semi trucks. WOOT

No.. automatics are indeed unsafe. When you turn the jakes on, a warning on the dash gives you 10 seconds until implosion. Eject or die.

ROFL

LMAO!!!! wow I can't unsee it now. I literally got that question right on the test for all the wrong reasons. That's funny AF.

Maybe you're right and I do need to take a break. I am probably overdosing on all information that I've been soaking up.

Well, I guess the whole automatic vs manual transmission thing must be the equivalent to the whole "lincoln VS miller" debate I heard throughout the 13 years I was a welder. I equally used both and they're both equally good. Both have their quirks but you can weld anything with either brand with enough practice. The proof is in the fact that whenever you see any product fabricated by Caterpillar, those bulldozers and excavators are fabricated using lincoln machines and whenever you see pictures of the sections of the SpaceX starships in the news in their shipyard in Texas, the welders there are using millers (long story on how i know that)

Most welders I worked with who reach that '20yrs in experience mark' are the ones I usually worked under the table when I was a welder, because they become so confident in their abilities that they stop learning...and the quality of their work starts to decline as a result. I guess it's the same in any trade you get into.

Oh and here are pictures of the weird thing I mentioned about what to do when someone pulls in front of me:

[url=https://ibb.co/1scvQRc][img]https://i.ibb.co/6vQnwDQ/111111.jpg[/img][/url]

[url=https://ibb.co/t3YyywR][img]https://i.ibb.co/6ND66cQ/222222.jpg[/img][/url]

I am probably misunderstanding something. The multiple choice thing you see is a screenshot of a CDL prep app that a trucker introduced me to that greatly helped me prepare for the written test. I actually encountered that exact same question and list of multiple choice answers when I did my CDL Permit test at the DMV. You'd think that "slow down and prevent a crash" would be the right answer but it isn't. Not on the CDL prep app and not on the actual CDL test I took at the DMV.

if those links don't work here is another attempt for me to share the images:

Oh and here are pictures of the weird thing I mentioned about what to do when someone pulls in front of me:

[url=https://ibb.co/1scvQRc][img]https://i.ibb.co/6vQnwDQ/111111.jpg[/img][/url]

[url=https://ibb.co/t3YyywR][img]https://i.ibb.co/6ND66cQ/222222.jpg[/img][/url]

I am probably misunderstanding something. The multiple choice thing you see is a screenshot of a CDL prep app that a trucker introduced me to that greatly helped me prepare for the written test. I actually encountered that exact same question and list of multiple choice answers when I did my CDL Permit test at the DMV. You'd think that "slow down and prevent a crash" would be the right answer but it isn't. Not on the CDL prep app and not on the actual CDL test I took at the DMV.

About the magnetic braking thing I guess I should have worded it more precisely. My exact words to the recruiter and driving instructor who was both interviewing me was, "As someone who's just starting to learn about semi trucks, do you think it is safer to do mountain driving with a stick shift or automatic?" Those were my exact words to them. They told me it doesn't really matter, and told me about how magnets are now being used in trucks.

I worded the question that way because I've been told by multiple truckers I met at truck stops that they feel safer going down a mountain fully loaded with a stick shift than with an automatic. This came from multiple truckers from multiple states, as I deliver amazon packages in 4 different states (Penn, WV, VA and MD) They would never elaborate on why. But when you have small talk with strangers you never know if someone is talking out of their rear end or if there is some actual logic behind what they are saying. Since I have no experience in their trade, I cannot tell. So I felt it was a good question to ask.

Here is a link to what the instructor at DOT foods transportation may have been talking to me about. I actually found this about an hour ago googling "magnetic breaking in semi trucks". This lines up with what he told me: https://www.apexmagnets.com/news-how-tos/magnets-brakes-bringing-18-wheelers-stop/?srsltid=AfmBOorD2xH_qLVIDjfks8ulxJxQ6eWhk1H1cBAVkmJ-JPH6yNjY1BLi

So he wasn't pulling a 'blinker fluid' type of sarcastic joke with me. In fact the driving instructor was very professional and repeatedly encouraged me to ask him questions througout the interview and told me he wants students who asks a lot of questions. He even pointed out that he likes the questions I asked him.

It was in the interview that they told me that I am required to have a class-A permit before getting hired, and that they ONLY help me get a CDL. So I apologized to them about my unpreparedness and told them the ONLY reason I bothered applying in the first place was because of what the recruiter from Illinois told me. When I told them this, they understood and said that when I get my class-A I can re-apply in 90 days and that was the end of the interview.

That was the moment that I as a 'wanabe' trucker learned to not trust trucking recruiters haha.

Literally the reason they didn't hire me was because I didn't have a permit...and they thought I wouldn't be able to get my permit quickly enough before their trucking class started because I have to mail in paperwork to a DMV in Charelston, WV, and wait up to 2 weeks for a test card to come in the mail...and their trucking class was scheduled to start 3 weeks from the interview...plus the two other people they interviewed had their permits before the interview.

As far as "where I'm finding all these truckers that I 'claim' to be talking to", as an Amazon delivery driver who's distribution center is in Hagerstown, MD, I deliver packages to four different states and average 300'ish miles in one day. As part of my job, I'm required to fill up my delivery van at a gas station on the way back to the shop after my last delivery.

There are three different truck stops that I stop at depending on which way I'm coming back to Hagerstown, MD. I typically use one of my two 15 minute breaks after I gas up my delivery van to smoke a couple cigarettes and to stretch my legs. That's where/when I end up always meeting a trucker who is also taking a break from driving. One truck stop is a Sheets, the second is a Rutters and the third one is a Flying-J truck stop. It's because of interacting with those truckers I even developed an interest in the trucking trade to begin with...well, that and occasionally being a helper with a DOT amazon boxtruck driver who is paying his way through trucking school to eventually get into the trucking trade as my job hires both van drivers and DOT box truck drivers.

Hope that clears things up. :)

Hey brett, need to ask you something.

It's going to be a month or two before I begin trucking school, but I noticed that the company I'm going to train for will provide trucks with small refrigerators in them. If I boil like a dozen eggs, put them in a ziplock bag, and get a package of plain jerky sticks along with some cheese sticks and basically have that as my diet, along with mostly gatorade zero and only coffee in the morning, would that be a good diet to have if I want to do OTR work and lose weight?

Would there be anything I should add or subtract to that if I want to have the kind of energy level where I'm alert and awake while driving for 12+ hours at a time?