Comments By Craig T.

Hey Robert, how bad do you want to lose weight?

My suggestion is to make it the most important thing you have to do and not forget about it. Everyday. No soda at all. No candy at all. If your only option is a hamburger then don't eat. Drink water instead.

In fact, sleep more than anything and drink water all day. I know you're trucking and you don't want to pee so much but water and sleep are the two main things by far. I'm 162lbs and I drink up to 1/2 gallon of water by the time I've been awake for 90minutes and I don't eat until at least 1 hour after hydrating. Then I'll finish that gallon by the end of the day and preferably drink more.

Easy things to eat without cooking or keeping a fridge in the truck include copious amounts of whatever nuts you can tolerate in abundance. Tuna and salmon are easy to stock up on. I do bread, hummus, cheese, avocado, and whatever else I want to slap on there. Things like sandwich meats, yogurt, and other refrigerated products are typically good for a couple days assuming your truck isn't 80+ degrees inside. Trust me; I know. I used to backpack eggs and not cook em until I was 4 days out in the wilderness just because I could. Speaking of which, nothing wrong with eating the same things over and over with military discipline. Maybe oatmeal (no sugar) for breakfast everyday. People on a serious budget or Spartan diet do nothing but beans and rice which is real easy to cook.

Don't worry about stocking up on protein. I personally don't think you need to count calories and fat either. Just don't let your discipline fail when you get groceries and when you get hungry.

Feel free to message me if you need more ideas

Got a message on Qualcomm yesterday that no Prime trucks were allowed to park overnight in Wal Mart store parking lots effective immediately. Has anyone driving for other carriers heard anything similar? Or did Prime do something so awful that they were singled out...?

It was not for Prime specifically as far as I can tell from one of the messages. Holiday shopping is basically the reason used. As for the Walmart in Springfield, I heard it was because it basically turned into a hobo camp with many truckers tossing their DEFICATIONS and other trash in the lot not even trying to at least hide it in trash cans 5 feet away.

Truckers who drop bags of actual crap, jugs of ****, and garbage bags right out the door when they leave their parking space are why many places stop allowing overnight parking. It's as if they are dedicated to making the world a crappier place.

My trainer was obsessive about circling every place he has picked up and delivered in on his atlas map.

I recently started using an app called Places I Pooped. Whenever I take a dump and have cell phone service, it lets me drop a new pin on a map and write a crappy note about it. I've got quite a potty mouth and the puns just don't stop. If anyone else starts using the app, please let me know so I can follow your, uh, you know... poop

I drive a 2014 prostar. Yeah, it's a rough ride but I'm the one driving so it's not like I'm loosing any sleep because of it.

The odometer just ticked over 250,000 miles. Been driving it for about 4 months now and have only had an external coolant leak that needed to get repaired. No leaks or electrical issues.

Most people prefer the Cascadias over International. Seems like the ones who take an International do so for the compartment space above your head.

I've gotta say that there are times when my sleep is very erratic. There's no such thing as a sleeping schedule when you drive OTR solo and run hard.

In regards to getting knocks on the door, I have to say most of the time when I am getting inconveniently disturbed from me sleep is when I'm at a shipper or receiver. For example say that I'm on a tight schedule and had to drive out my 11 hour clock to make it to a receiver at 1am. At 4am I get woken up by an inconsiderate lumper for my bills when my appnmt time is 9am. On top of that, they need me to move to a door at 5am. Then wait until 8am for the office to open. Then stand in line for awhile. Then when you finally get unloaded, you're not allowed to stay on premises and you need to leave. And since its a tight schedule, yeah, you may want to get going as soon as your hours are back.

In cases like these though, your dispatcher owes you. Just try not to be a grumpy bear about it and your dispatcher will love you.

You don't know what you don't know. Ask every question that you think of and you will still end up scratching your head from time to time when you go OTR. Just keep on trucking. You'll get it if you just don't quit. Or manage to never fall asleep behind the wheel or something.

Sorry, I suck. I just prefer to emphasize mentality over all else.

Spend a few weeks trucking along through Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska, and the like. Get accustomed to the simplicity of following i80 back and forth. Then find yourself in the Northeast. It's just not as simple. The whole entire vibe gets thrown out the window, run over a few times, and maybe set on fire.

It would help to call during the hours recruiters are actually working. Try between 8-5 central time on a weekday.

I'm not sure if it's all kosher to post the number of my recruiter when I was getting started, but you can message me or whoever else drives for prime if you want a specific number to dial.

You're not going to fit two team drivers in a lightweight. There are lightweight Cascadias but, seriously just go with the full size one for teaming. You'll make more team driving anyway. that .03 cpm is the incentive for a solo driver to take a lightweight.

I'm not sure what kind of idea you have for the downtime regarding driving reefer but you can mostly run as hard you can if you really wanted to About 90% of the time if your dispatcher trusts you can/will handle it. If you want to take it easy, I guess you just need to have a good relationship with your dispatcher. But usually a good relationship entails you working really hard and the dispatcher loves sending you the work. Then you just take the time off for yourself by scheduling it or doing excellent Pretrip planning.

As for the hammock, I'm just going to say that's not going to happen. I don't know what kind of hammock you use, but my backpacking one needs a lot more space than what you can spread out in a sleeper cab. It would also be recklessly dangerous while the truck is moving. You can get jostled up pretty good back there. Which, btw, is another really good reason not to team drive in a lightweight. It's a bumpier ride. In theory, I can see why you would think it's safer, but just wait until you feel your codriver hit the brakes brakes hard while you're sleeping back there.

As for the TNT Phase in prime, you're gauranteed 700/week if you're available to drive that week so it's not like you won't be earning something.

Side note: if I remember correctly, there's a 3 heartbeat rule per truck. So you can have maximum of 3 living things per truck if so.

High road will do just fine