Comments By Matt M.

Prime's went down and were back up around 0600. I'd just pay for fuel and get reimbursed. Would suck for the company losing their discount though.

Probably easiest on folks to run in the same twelve hour period all the time, so their body is accustomed to being awake at the same hours every day. That's not how my wife and I ran though.

Generally she would run during the day and I would be the vampire, but we would get off kilter all the time.

If we ever got loads that had time to do rolling resets we would do that (I drive a full shift, take a ten hour break, I drive another full shift, now my wife has been in the sleeper berth for 34 hours).

Also if we were slow for whatever reason, our sleep schedules would start to synchronize and it would turn in to whoever was less tired would drive.

Also managing hours so that you keep your hours somewhat even. You may run loads that require more day or night driving for a few days, you don't want one driver with ten hours and the other with forty hours on their seventy hour clocks.

It's chaotic, and one of the main reasons teaming is much harder on people than solo driving. I don't sleep well on a moving truck, and I've been teaming for several years. There are times where I'd be driving and have only slept maybe four hours in the last two or three days. My wife sleeps better when the truck is moving, so she's always well rested at least, lol.

But any team wanting top miles is going to have to do some of those things where they get off their "set" hours, outside of a dedicated route.

Fairchild and Lynden are two that I know of that run Alaska. If given a chance I would probably run up there once just to do it but not something I would want to deal with on the reg.

Four different hours of service to mess with (maybe elds simplify all that), and some pretty treacherous weather up that way.

Air dryer on my cascadia. It's near the passenger side steer. I have two tanks, one behind the cab and one under the cab. If I flip down the def cap cover or battery cover there's cords I can pull to drain that one.

That's a tough situation, if I saw somewhere safe to chain up I would (a regular interstate shoulder would not be safe enough) so I could limp off at the first exit. Would try to make it to the exit very carefully if I was in that situation. Ice is tricky though, if you go too slow you are going to be stuck in short order.

If you have a cb and see a salt shaker, holler at em and they'll help you get off. Most of them run radios.

I think it might be freight. Due to the ways the holidays fell, the wife and I ran wild Christmas week and New Year's week and we got several (rolling) 34s in.

Between the blizzards in Nebraska and West Virginia I'm glad to be back on our dedicated route.

We averaged just under 4k miles per week which is no bueno for an experienced team. We did have to stop through Springfield to route home back to our normal route, but other than that I drove through the bad weather and there was nothing else to slow us down. They did give us some equalization pay to make it a bit more palatable.

You can feel the fifth wheel hitting the trailer apron when backing under a trailer. If you don't feel it, you better get out and look as is mentioned above.

Not a bad idea to just look everytime, I have seen someone punch their fifth wheel through the front of a trailer that was too low. Personally, I just watch my tires going under when I back under a trailer. If I have any misgivings I'll pop the brakes and take a look.

I wouldn't trust a t/a tech to air up a tire. Watch them any time they are working on your truck.

There are some good ones out there, but there is a lot of terrible ones.

Gary is a great road advisor btw, I wish he was still mine lol.

Technically, on duty.

If it is dead stopped, I turn off the truck and go in the sleeper berth, and log it as sleeper. Keep the curtains open so you can see when it starts moving again.

If you want to be a legal eagle, log on duty and if you run out of hours you are okay to drive to the nearest location to shut down for your break, just be sure to notate on your logs why.

Same thing if you are broke down on the side of the road.

"On duty time means all time from the time a driver begins to work or is required to be in readiness to work until the time the driver is relieved from work and all responsibility for performing work. On duty time shall include: (1) All time at a plant, terminal, facility, or other property of a motor carrier or shipper, or on any public property, waiting to be dispatched, unless the driver has been relieved from duty by the motor carrier; (2) All time inspecting, servicing, or conditioning any commercial motor vehicle at any time; (3) All driving time as defined in the term driving time; (4) All time, other than driving time, in or upon any commercial motor vehicle except time spent resting in a sleeper berth; (5) All time loading or unloading a commercial motor vehicle, supervising, or assisting in the loading or unloading, attending a commercial motor vehicle being loaded or unloaded, remaining in readiness to operate the commercial motor vehicle, or in giving or receiving receipts for shipments loaded or unloaded; (6) All time repairing, obtaining assistance, or remaining in attendance upon a disabled commercial motor vehicle; (7) All time spent providing a breath sample or urine specimen, including travel time to and from the collection site, in order to comply with the random, reasonable suspicion, post-accident, or follow-up testing required by part 382 of this subchapter when directed by a motor carrier; (8) Performing any other work in the capacity, employ, or service of a motor carrier; and (9) Performing any compensated work for a person who is not a motor carrier.'

That OTR Mobile isn't a terrible price for the many companies that offer that service. They have old zte mobley sims or corporate accounts that only pay $20/mo for unlimited.

Everything you pay per month over that is straight profit to them. Surprised at&t hasn't killed those plans yet.

Might still be possible to get an old zte mobley off eBay or whatever and get it activated through at&t, then swap the SIM to a newer device that works better. Think it activated through some car service department as these were intended for vehicles.

Still by far the cheapest and best plan for internet on the road assuming at&t doesn't cancel it.