Comments By Jason E.

I plan on going blue and white collar. Sure, I drive a truck. It also gives me mobility and a good back up salary. In addition to trucking, I work in finance. So what people think about trucking or truckers for that matter is usually far from the truth. My old man always told me "Opinions are like *******s, everybody has one." Still one of my favorite quotes to this day.

Hey Folks, So the CDL practice material here at TruckingTruth says the ID Number is supposed to come first (UN1111) or whatever it may be. However, at my school they taught us to remember the acronym SHIP:

-Shipping Name -Hazard Class -Identification Number -Packaging Group

Any HAZMAT guys or recent testers that can clear this up for me? I'd hate to fail the endorsement because I use the wrong order!

Thanks, Jason E.

See if this pic helps ya some. This is a pic taken from one of my Hazmat loads

Interesting. Is it just me or is the packaging group missing?

Nevermind, it's a gas! Makes sense. You must be team driving then, right?

Hey Folks, So the CDL practice material here at TruckingTruth says the ID Number is supposed to come first (UN1111) or whatever it may be. However, at my school they taught us to remember the acronym SHIP:

-Shipping Name -Hazard Class -Identification Number -Packaging Group

Any HAZMAT guys or recent testers that can clear this up for me? I'd hate to fail the endorsement because I use the wrong order!

Thanks, Jason E.

See if this pic helps ya some. This is a pic taken from one of my Hazmat loads

Interesting. Is it just me or is the packaging group missing?

Hey Folks, So the CDL practice material here at TruckingTruth says the ID Number is supposed to come first (UN1111) or whatever it may be. However, at my school they taught us to remember the acronym SHIP:

-Shipping Name -Hazard Class -Identification Number -Packaging Group

Any HAZMAT guys or recent testers that can clear this up for me? I'd hate to fail the endorsement because I use the wrong order!

Thanks, Jason E.

Hey Folks, In this post I will be posting a weekly update on my status, thoughts, and experiences at the AIT school. First, let me extend a huge thank you to all the folks here at TruckingTruth, especially Brett and those who help maintain it. I could go on all day about the training program alone!

After going through hell and high water, taking out loans with stupid interest, and getting qualified by Uncle Sam, I got school paid for last minute on 11/1/2014 with class starting 11/3/2014! Being proactive, I had spent a lot of time already on TruckingTruth, and went in with 5 pre-hires, my DOT Physical completed, and ready to take my CDL A permit as well as all endorsements.

Unfortunately, the first week consisted of listening to the teacher go through the driving manual line by line, asking us to highlight and memorize! That is for the birds! I didn't need to do any of that because I had already studied on TruckingTruth and was ready to go! I spent my days this week daydreaming, coloring, answering e-mails, and attending other personal business matters, which was nice! As long as I didn't sleep, the teacher had said she didn't care what we did, because it was up to us if we passed or failed! Although, she did think I fell asleep on her twice, I was really just watching the floor to avoid watching the clock! When we took our practice tests, that's when everyone was confused. We did General Knowledge of 100 questions, and 50 questions on all the other endorsements. To everyones' surprise, I scored 100% on every single test! Thank you, TruckingTruth! The teacher basically left me alone after that, and everyone was asking me how on Earth I pulled this off because I hadn't been doing anything all class. Que up 11 personal referrals to TruckingTruth.com!

Friday afternoon we were sent to the DMV to take all of our written exams, and again I blew the mind of the DMV employee as I finished each endorsement with an average time of 2.5 minutes and 80% on all of them (the computer stops you once you cannot fail, in Nevada), and just 7 minutes on the general knowledge. So, needless to say, thanks to TruckingTruth.com and this forum especially, I am way ahead of where I should be for class and am basically just sitting around waiting for range/road time.

Next week is all class time as well, and our last week in the class (2/4). I'm not sure what there could possibly be left to go over that we haven't drilled over already, except the insanely repetitive homework, but time will tell. I get the feeling I'll still be watching the flies and waiting for time to pass! In the meantime, everything is going great and I'm studying for the pre-trip. That's the only test I'm worried about. I'm not sure if I should study through my schools acronym stuff or just go with what's here on TruckingTruth. I'll probably do a 90/10 mixture and call it a day. Thanks again everyone, looking forward to reporting back next week with more positive results!

Best Regards, Jason E.

Hey Folks, I'm back with another question about physicals. I've got my pre-hires that I'd like to go with (swift & werner) but again, as always, I'm worried about the physical. Because of my Crohn's disease I have this weird side effect with my wrist that causes it to swell. I can still drive and everything with it just fine, I'm just worried that if they ask me to lift some weights, or rotate my wrists around, that I won't be able to pull it off with this hand. I got past my DOT Physical just fine, but they didn't make me bend or lift anything with this hand.

All that said, does anyone have any insight on the physical portion for Swift or Werner? I've pretty much eliminated Knight because of this reason, but heard that you just breeze through these two. Any accuracy or information on this? Also, am I required to re-take the DOT Physical if I already had it done in October? Thanks much!

-Jason E.

Hey Folks, I've been reading about truck stop showers and how they work. I'm seeing an average of $9-$12 for a shower! That's insane. However, it seems if you purchase 50 gallons or more of diesel, you get to shower free, or you get a credit that is good for 5 days. This leaves me with a few questions, as I'm trying to create software or an excel sheet that will help truckers keep track of shower credits and how to take most advantage of this system.

1) Do you have to take 50 gallons at once, or just a free shower every 50 gallons? 2) Do they expire? a. If yes, how long? 3) Do they have to be used at the location where it was earned? 4) Do companies tell you when/where to stop for fuel, or can you get fuel whenever? a. My thinking is: You might as well buy 50 gallons every time you want to fuel/shower. You're going to need/burn that fuel at some point in the future anyways, so you might as well get it now and get the free shower!

Thanks ya'll! Jason E.

Hey Jason. Welcome to Trucking Truth. To answer your questions about why this site is against company leasing is probably because these companies that hire rookies tend to make the deal seem so sweet to these new guys and if you know the numbers, it's a very risky proposition for new drivers. That's at least in part why we discourage it. Many, many here are new to trucking and learning the profession and being a business owner at the same time is, as you know, not a risk worth taking.

You ask ...

...why does nobody talk about leasing through a dealership, or...here's an idea, PAY CASH FOR THE TRUCK!

-Jason

Paying cash would probably be the only way I'd get into tractor ownership and for me, that would take a few years of savings. However, even if I had the cash today, I still wouldn't want the burden of business management right now. I just want to get good at driving.

Since you're interested in the idea, it would be great if you shared what you've learned. It sounds like you have valuable information from which the rest of us could learn. Please, do tell!

-mountain girl

I'm definitely planning on doing some deep analysis into the subject, but I'll have to setup some sort of survey and collect data from a lot of truckers. Probably about 5,000. So, when/if I ever have the time to figure out this hurdle, I can start to think about the analysis and what we can compare between company/lease/purchase.

Jason,

Do you really think the ability to crunch numbers is the one thing that makes a person successful in any business? If so, you and your wife need to sue whatever college handed out a "dual degree" because they failed to add real world economics to the program. There are so many factors that go into this business model that I would scream run from any idea of becoming an owner operator, even if you bought the truck out right.

I drive for a company, however, I do so with a business mentality. I actually tracked fuel costs, tolls, scales and whatever else I could put numbers to. Let me tell you, the average profit margin is 3%. My tally at the end of my year of tracking, without the burden of a truck and insurance payment, didn`t even get me to that number.

I would look at the regulatory picture of the trucking industry as a model for what is yet to come as it pertains to investments before asking why now and future truckers who come to this site are discouraged from becoming an owner operator straight out of the gate. A little common and business sense.

The truth may sting, but it saves one from a lot of pain later.

First off, I'll pretend you aren't arrogant enough to actually insult my intelligence with what little you know about me. Nobody said anything about "crunching numbers". A calculator can do that, so don't put words in my mouth. Would you care to share this analysis with us? I'm going to assume you have this all mapped out in a detailed excel sheet or something of the sort? I'm also going to HOPE that you did this for longer than a year, because as you know there are many micro/macro economic (real world) factors that can influence these numbers with such a short time-span (i.e. Fuel). Yes, I do believe being able to work with numbers is essential in any business. If you can't so much as count change, you can't run a business.

Hey Everyone, It seems this website is dedicated to slamming the idea of being an owner/operator or leasing. Everybody talks about leasing through the company, but why does nobody talk about leasing through a dealership, or...here's an idea, PAY CASH FOR THE TRUCK! That would reduce a lot of your monthly expenses right there, and all of my investing has always been focused on cash flow: Home rental, automated trading strategies, etc.

Has anyone done a detailed breakdown of these methods? I'm an equity trader, so I'd like to think I'm financially educated, especially with risk:reward, budgeting, etc. Leasing or even purchasing is an option I'd like to consider in the future. My fiancee has a dual degree in business and finance, and I myself in quant and stat modeling, so suffice to say, we are good with numbers. I'm not trying to brag, just inform anyone who may read this post that I'm not a (OH! MY OWN TRUCK WITH NO DOWN PAYMENT OR CREDIT CHECK!?) Thanks in advance for your help.

Best Regards, Jason E.