Comments By Jeff L.

So I get up start at seven a.m. on duty then start driving at seven-thirty a.m. go off duty for lunch at twelve p.m. for one hour and go on duty at one p.m. start driving at one- thirty p.m only to get to tired in traffic and find a stop and get in the sleeper birth three p.m.. I then spend eight consecutive hours in the sleeper birth. Would I have six hours of drive time left in a time frame of six hours of what was left of the full fourteen hour period? I know I did not say anything about inspecting after the sleep birth time so I understand I would not be able to squeeze an exact six hours of driving in. To get another 14/11 there would have to be a full 10 hour break?

So which is it? I was using the log book study here today and I also understood it as saying the only way you can reset the 14 is by ten hours in total. That the eight only allows you to stop the 14 hour period and pick back up on it after the eight. If you do eight and then finish your 11 hours driving then take two hours off duty does that constitute for a ten hour reset ?

Going to orientation for a dry van company in a few days, packing my lightest, and preparing my bags, laptop ect. for when I am assigned a truck and I can come by and get them. It is really settling in that I will be out at least three weeks at a time and in my case hopefully more. I can not even imagine if I had a wife or children to answer to, there would be no way I would even try to balance that. For me it is the perfect set up, so I hope I can accomplish my goal and be in a steady pace here in a few months. I am about to go full time truck driver in order to stay focused so that I can make my company and myself money. No regular beds, showers and tables to eat at. I will be living out of a bag , showering at truck stops and eating without a table in front of me(not a restaurant type). What is crazy is that I love the Idea, I cannot wait. I want this more than I have wanted anything in a long time. This is not just going out and getting a job, this is a life change. Over the road is for me. I get to do something for me.

I have to apologize guys, I am sorry! I just read what I wrote and that was a real live rant. I dont ever rant. I probably wont have to do anything but take a **** test, only my first DOT for the permit came back a dilute and had to go back the next day and retest. Then I am a walking Nair commercial right in front of the same instructors and I got in trouble for weed many years ago. I wish I never puffed and just passed. Hope I did not offend any of you who do and I believe you should have the right even though I would suggest skipping the future dementia down the road with age. Brett was good enough to look into this and if you read his book ,the jacket incident when he was young, he is very forthcoming. Again I apologize for my earlier rant.

Hmm. I've shaved my head (clippers with no guard) for almost 16 years ever since I joined the Marine Corp. My wife makes me shave my chest and I manscape keeping everything nice and trim. I still have arm and leg hair but, none of that is 1.5 inches long. Not that I'm worried about failing a hair test because I haven't used anything since I was a teenager but, The inability to even take the test counts as a failure... ugh guess I need to let my hair grow out.

Yes sir that would be the best idea. A failure is a failure no matter the reason for it. Best just to let the hair grow for a few weeks just to be safe

I cant believe all of this , it is insane. I shave myself back across the board every year after winter. I was in driving school when I clipped what I could reach and see so the little sweat makers would not catch this years pollen. First thing one of the staff told me was to find a company that only does urinalysis. If I tell someone this they automatically think I am trying to beat the test. That morning was thinking how much cooler and comfortable I was with the multiple sponges removed from my body. I was wearing nylon hiking shorts wearing my new prescription glasses feeling reborn while an instructor from another class is looking at my legs real hard and when I look at him like whats up, he says to the guy next to him " we need to talk to Stevens about letting our side wear shorts".

I have done drugs before or I should say pot, but not in the last three or so years. I like being sober for one and hate that I supported some of the worst thugs on the planet. I am hoping they will pick some of the thin hairs that two or three inches that are on the inside of my arm around my bicep near my underarm. They are thin. There are some stragglers on my back also. All my other body hair is at three quarters to an inch. They can have my eyebrows if they wish to.

Are they that picky as to what hairs they get? will they take the ones that are over 1.5 in combined effort from multiple places? I think they could get enough from one bicep though they are like really thin and curl up. Will they pluck em? Hell I might have some growing in my ears as we speak.

Are they going to look at me and call me a doper, no offense to dopers or every once in a while users. Anyone have a situation where the testers had to search a little? and where did they snip or pluck?

I want to thank everyone for their advice, it was very helpful. I got online with Verizon and ordered a i5 since it was .99 cents and went in to pick it up and ended up leaving with the 6 with an otter case clip after the salesman showed me all the gadgets and durability. I spent most of the night trying to figure it out and program it . The 6+ was just a little large for me and I just got progressive glasses so everything should work out right. Wow, felt like I left the cave. Anyone who does not have a smart phone , eat beans for a while if need and buy one.

Jeff. I went to orientation with PTL the week before Thanksgiving. I believe that I made a good choice.

PTL operates primarily east of the Mississippi. There are two phases of training. The first phase is with a trainer and you are supposed to do five thousand miles. The second phase is with another trainee. As a phase two trainee, you will run as a team and you will see lots of California. Phase two lasts for forty thousand miles.

If you have specific questions, I will try to get you the answers.

Thank You , TxsGent

Just getting the pre-orientation butterflies.

Has or is anyone here working for them?

Sorry, Had one of those moments like I did when I started this gig looking for CDL training where I was reading all of the worst comments and wondering is everything a scam. Who can I trust? and all those bad vibes you can get from the wonderful world of the internet. I might as well been looking at comments at Yahoo news. I know a company is not going to ship me by bus seven hundred miles in order to just send me home, and that it is up to me this first year to prove myself. Since I have been here I have received good advice, had and still have learning tools to access. I have been to school, received certificate, gotten CDL with tankers, doubles-triples and am waiting for the FBI or whoever to stamp my HazMat and send me my Twic Card. I picked up the flyer for the company I have decided to work for when I was in school and decided if I was not going flatbed , I would try them because they looked like they where a smaller outfit and their flyer looked basic like what you see is what you get , I dont know , like country folks and manuals and old buildings etc. I have gone through a Knowthineself stage in my life where though I lived and benefited from society, I secluded mentally and reflected on self, circumstances, my place within society and how to be a positive force within society. Philosophy mumbo jumbo, transformation of attitude thing. It is very important to me the wheel in which I am a cog.

Has or is anyone here working for them?

Thanks, Rolling Thunder, Robert B, Mr. Smith, Errol V and Brett Aquila for all of your advice. I had not a clue which ones to get since I have not been using my cell phone for the past couple of years more than once or twice a month, if that. It seems it is the apps that are the plus with these phones. I do have an Acer Aspire M i5 laptop with 8.1 I do not think I can live without and a Kindle 6 wich is pretty nifty, I just have never gotten into the phone craze yet. Again thanks to all of you for your comments and advice with this important decision.