Profile For Auggie69

Friends. I miss my friends.

But, I cherish watching Andy Griffith with my 11 year-old Daughter when I’m home.

Don’t dwell on what you’ll miss. Family time seems to be better quality than it used to. And the blessings that have come with this job are too numerous to count.

Write your own story with incredible chapters on overcoming obstacles and pushing new horizons. Make it exciting in a positive way. Be the person you want to see in others. You may be the only positive truck driver they see. 😎

You guys that have done your year need to look local or regional. Tons of opportunities with big names AND it doesn't mean shuffling huge cases of soda and food in and out :)

I've done 4 years local with few dings as a newbee. I get home every night, make good money and even get the occasional road run to stretch my legs.

Take your time, investigate your options and be methodical. If you go local and have a bump or two go back OTR. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

You guys that have done OTR have my admiration. I couldn't do it which is why I defaulted to local to begin with.

Thanks I appreciate it . I would say most of the advice I got on here was really good. Strange how people I personally know gave some strange/bad advice. I will move on and do my best. Big lesson for me these last few weeks.

I am also taking my company to small claims court now

And there we have it.

Let us know the next small carrier you sue.

Does Georgie get a kickback?

Is the trucking industry in a recession?

No. Is there a slowdown due to uncertainty? Yes.

Who is getting decimated are the undercapitalized small trucking firms (read as owner/operators) who are forced to take lower and lower amounts for their services. Classic Supply and Demand.

The good thing is that once this works its way through the industry and trade agreements are signed trucking will come roaring back.

FWIW - my location with FedEx Freight has been going gangbusters only slowing down the past week or two. We normally slow down this time of year until late Winter/early Spring. We pare back overtime but management tries to make sure we get our 40 each week. In 5 years with the company I've never seen a layoff.,

its alright man, ill take what input i can get at this point lol. AS for watching others back and such at the test site, that is a no go, Oregon does not allow us to watch others testing at the test site. We have to stay in our cars turn AWAY from the test area. Kind of stupid I know , but it is what it is.

Not an experienced driver take it or leave it. When I was getting ready to test 2 weeks ago my trainer and I were doing a reset. Went 2 days without backing or driving before test. Was very nervous about not practicing immediately before. I stood out on the lot and watched others practicing and testing for 2 days and watched every point they made. And also noted every mistake. Those are just as important because to know how to correct can save a potential fail. Also helpful in real world backing situations. Best of luck I know the pressures you are under was just there. Relax alot. Maybe just a valuable ask those who just passed.

How can they stop you from going on your own time to watch people test? Try it.

With a pup, setup is easier but backing is HARDER than with a 53. You end up chasing a pup but guiding a 53.

Do very small corrections with a pup. It's EASY to overcorrect.

I would not rent a UHaul and trailer. It will screw with your muscle memory. The suggestion of getting a model tractor trailer and watching how that works is good.

I made a costly mistake this morning. I moved my truck before I had completed my 8 hours in sleeper birth. So now I have to wait and complete another 10 hours reset. Since it's Monday I didn't expect to get into a door earlier than my scheduled appointment. But I checked in and they had an open door. I tried to move and keep my speed under 3 mph when I moved but the truck speed poped over 5mph and my ELD put me into drive mode and I was flagged for a HOS violation Dohhh. So now I'm sitting outside the distributor in northern Philadelphia not being able to to move until my clock resets again. My company just upgraded to the new EDL system and it's not as forgiving as the old one. I talked to our compliance manager and my fleet manager about it and they both told me that I'm not the first one to screw up. But lesson learned I'll make sure I plan better so I don't run into this problem again.

Welcome to my world.

Had a long run that pushed my 14. Got a call the next morning to go on a shorter run but my gate time was close to my 10hrs.

I was on autopilot when I got to the yard. 30 minutes to pretrip and out the gate. Hopped in the cab and logged in - 3 minutes before my 10hrs was good.

Bossman said, "Adios, have a nice day off".

argh

They should be able to give you a drive extension

Whys that? In order to get the extra 2 hours of drive time something UNEXPECTED must have been the cause. Without the construction he'd probably make it back. It's possible to say the accidents is what caused it but DOT could make the arguement road construction did, which would have been known prior to departing therefore making you ineligible for that extra 2 hours.

I'm all for using the HOS rules to my benefit, but you gotta do it in a way that leaves no questions. I think Bobcat did the right thing in this situation. Hopefully you don't need to have someone "rescue" you as a regular occurrence.

He mentioned "construction" and "accidents".

I suggest you enlighten your Dispatch on drive hour extensions. You can argue all you want on what caused the delay but if dispatch has authorized the driver to continue due to an unforeseen circumstance, the driver, at least in the company's eyes, is covered. If in the same circumstances you wish to tell your dispatch to **** off and you won't continue, that is your prerogative as the captain of your ship.

https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/regulations/title49/section/395.1

I'm currently sitting about 20 minutes from my terminal with 15 minutes left of drive time waiting for someone to come get me. Unfortunately most of the rest of the way is a 1 lane road through town so I will not really have a place to stop out of the way.

Today is my first day on this new run which is a meet when we have extra Indy freight which makes this a 612 mile run and with the construction on I 65 and accidents I will come up about 5 minutes short of making it home.

But at least it is a nice day.

They should be able to give you a drive extension

Sorry, missed the first part you guys are on the ELD now.

Login with your phone too at pfmlogin.com and choose ELD Driver Portal to check your logs.

You should see that the YM option will not decrease your drive time. I left the yard the other day with 7:59 left on my Drive line.

We use the peoplenet Logs. I don't see an option for yard moves. It's it under something else?

You guys may not be on the ELD yet. Maybe the older AOBRD. Just a guess.

Sorry, missed the first part you guys are on the ELD now.

Login with your phone too at pfmlogin.com and choose ELD Driver Portal to check your logs.

You should see that the YM option will not decrease your drive time. I left the yard the other day with 7:59 left on my Drive line.

We use the peoplenet Logs. I don't see an option for yard moves. It's it under something else?

At this screen here, select Status and then YM

Sorry, missed the first part you guys are on the ELD now.

Login with your phone too at pfmlogin.com and choose ELD Driver Portal to check your logs.

You should see that the YM option will not decrease your drive time. I left the yard the other day with 7:59 left on my Drive line.

We use the peoplenet Logs. I don't see an option for yard moves. It's it under something else?

At this screen here select "Status" and then YM

I'm assuming the small blips of "off duty" are your yard moves? How is that legal as you're moving around the yard for work purposes I'm assuming?

This was a very weird, as in "not normal" day.

The "Yard Moves" are the purple shaded entries.

I was originally tasked to run rails to the railyard. That's the first "Yard Moves" you see. Found my tractor then my rail van. Placarded the van, hooked, ready to run .... oh no! Joe Snuffy who was supposed to do a road run had a medical emergency! You need to go on a 600 mile road run!!

Huh?

Not only that but Snuffy had put his set in the shop to get an airleak fixed. While waiting for that, I put myself in "off duty" and ran to the store for provisions.

Get back and on the road. Not 45 minutes into my trip ... Oh no! Some dumbass flipped his pickup in the median. Barely make it to the rest area. Put myself "off duty" in hopes of the deadlocked traffic making it long enough for a 30 minute break for lunch.

Almost, but not quite.

The other "off duty" you see are pulling into rest areas and grabbing a snack and hitting the head.

Finally get to the meet point. Do my 30 minute break and my "yard moves" swapping trailers. That's about 1730 or so.

Again, coming back, hit the rest areas for relieving myself. Hey, that's off duty too :) Though, odd enough, I can hold it longer on the return trip.

Finally logged out about 2245 and waited for what most would call a "repower". 60 miles short of my terminal. No more duty hours.

Now, what's stupid is that had I been allowed to PC home, I could have saved my company money, I could have been home at a semi-decent hour and the customers who were waiting on the freight I was hauling could have gotten it on-time.

But because of the way these ridiculous rules are setup, I CANNOT ADVANCE THE FREIGHT! So because of Fed Law, I had to sit for ALMOST FIVE HOURS. Never mind that "advancing the freight" would have meant I could get to my home base early and my bed early.

I understand this could be abused so but a mileage/number of times per week limit on it.

We got ours last month, we used to be able to start hooking a set before going "on duty" can not do that any more as soon as you move at all it records it. We have "yard move" when we are in one of our yards so it doesn't waste drive time. We can not use yard move at a meet point since it isn't fenced in with a guard shack or gate.

Interesting. I use Yard Move at Meet Points and it seems to work just fine. I'm swapping trailers so what else can DOT call it?

How do you do that? My yard time drained a lot of my clock

Uploading my last log from a very long day. If you look closely you can see I ran out of Duty Time and not Drive Time. Heck, I still had an hour of Drive Time left!!

Yard Moves at Meet Point

Sorry, missed the first part you guys are on the ELD now.

Login with your phone too at pfmlogin.com and choose ELD Driver Portal to check your logs.

You should see that the YM option will not decrease your drive time. I left the yard the other day with 7:59 left on my Drive line.

We got ours last month, we used to be able to start hooking a set before going "on duty" can not do that any more as soon as you move at all it records it. We have "yard move" when we are in one of our yards so it doesn't waste drive time. We can not use yard move at a meet point since it isn't fenced in with a guard shack or gate.

Interesting. I use Yard Move at Meet Points and it seems to work just fine. I'm swapping trailers so what else can DOT call it?

How do you do that? My yard time drained a lot of my clock

Yard Time will drain your duty clock but will not count against your Drive Time. Good for those long distance runs. Are you guys on the ELD or still on the AOBRD?

If in town, when coming up on a traffic light, watch the display that counts down the seconds for pedestrians to cross. MOST of the time, when that display gets to zero, the light will turn yellow. This helps in anticipating traffic lights.

I’ve lurked here for a little bit. I just got my CLP and looking to be paid while I train cause you know.... bills. I have narrowed or maybe not narrowed down my choices to the three above. I have my email full of info from their recruiters any insight or experiences about them. My background, greenhouse grower/ farm market chick for 20yrs. Use to drive. 14 and then 24’ strait box for deliveries. Big box stores did me in, been working retail for four years. Everyday I die a lil more inside. Lol. I need to get back out there.

Thanks

Where are you at?

Not trying to start a pity party but I had a great paying "local" cabinet delivery gig that was absolutely horrible. I've been driving a little over ten years but after my last run I got back, cleaned out my truck and turned in my keys etc.

It was a dedicated job that was just absolutely chaotic. The customer we hauled for would sometimes let us sit at the dock for 5 hrs. Their customers hated us and them so we'd get punished "6 hr unload time with about 10 hr drive times". We were always late even though it wasn't our fault. They were constantly loading stuff incorrectly and stuff missing, damaged. My dispatch was constantly pushing our hrs. I'd usually get back with 5 min to spare with a ten hr turn around with a hr commute. We the drivers were constantly being stuck in the middle, taking up all the slack from 3 sides.

They would constantly send us to major North East cities on streets that were a nightmare to get in and out of. Drivers were constantly getting in accidents or damaging equipment. I always planned my runs pretty thoroughly to have them switch everything when I came in the morning. Like "oh you have an easy VA run tomorrow" come in " sorry you now have 3 stops in bronx/brooklyn"

I hung in there for 2 years but the last run was my breaking point. Delivered to a job site in brooklyn, was a ***** to back into, then they took their sweet ass time unloading, kept telling them my clock was running, they of course didn't care. I did everything i could to expedite the delivery. sorted all the cabinets, labeled everything even hopped on and off the truck to cart them in, all things that weren't required of me. Still no cooperation. They had me move my truck a bunch of times and I finally snapped . The super of the job site told me to move my truck after I refused unless they got me unloaded. We got into a heated debate. He accused me of delivering the load a day late, which wasn't my fault, shipper delayed the load by 7 hrs the day before. Shipper blamed it on us, saying we had a truck broke down, which was BS. I told the job supervisor to F off he told me to F off and leave so I left. My supervisor called said I had to go back, I did then they finally got their ass to move a tad quicker.

This sort of situation was happening on and off the whole time I was with the carrier. Concerns that were brought up about safety, hrs of service etc. were constantly ignored. Yeah, I know a lot of what I stated is just things that are "well that's trucking" but I had had enough. After 10 years of different BS from different carriers, idiots on the road, impossible dead lines, ever changing BS rules and regs etc etc etc etc. I think I'm ready to hang it up for good. Even the high amount of pay that carrier paid us we still had about 4 or 5 of 20 drivers leave.

Only bills I have are a modest mortgage and your basic utilities. Not married, no kids, no gf. Just me. So I'm gonna find something that pays the bills and walk away from trucking for awhile, maybe indefinitely.

What's the worst, best paying, job you've had to walk away from?

This'll be good :)

From Harrisburg - you should look into doing Intermodal. Decent money and all you do is move trailers to and from the rail yards.

HUB Group, Schneider, JB Hunt, I believe all are hiring there.

We got ours last month, we used to be able to start hooking a set before going "on duty" can not do that any more as soon as you move at all it records it. We have "yard move" when we are in one of our yards so it doesn't waste drive time. We can not use yard move at a meet point since it isn't fenced in with a guard shack or gate.

Interesting. I use Yard Move at Meet Points and it seems to work just fine. I'm swapping trailers so what else can DOT call it?

Safety cited my "2 months" driving for other companies.

Messaged Recruiter. Not expecting it to change.

FXF has nothing there. Try this:

https://www.jobs-ups.com/search-jobs/driver/Wisconsin%2C%20US/1187/1/3/6252001-5279468/44x50024/-90x00041/15/2

I am a 57 yr old female with a class B and am ready for a driving job, doesn't matter the long hours, do care about Health Insurance. I am seeing some Ready Mix driver jobs needing drivers around my home state. I don't have any experience, but I am a fast learner, not afraid of driving a big truck. I want to land this job that wants experience drivers but also said they will train. I have had to self teach myself online to get my class b and it took me less than a month and received my class b with air-brake and passenger endorsement. I have my medical card that is still valid. What can I say to this company to give me a shot?? I have driven a dump truck for about a month, but that was about a decade ago. I drove for UPS as a package car driver for over 10 yrs that required airbrake and medical card (DOT) I owned a 40 ft bus and drove it for my business for 3 yrs. I have driven a 27ft straight truck from Omaha Ne to Elpaso Tx and pick up a load of outdoor items and drive the load back too

Go back to being a UPS PCD for another 10 years.

On the anniversary of 9/11, I'd like to share this with everyone...

On this day 18 years ago, 246 people went to sleep for their morning flights. 2,606 people went to sleep for work tomorrow. 25 flight attendants packed their bags for their early reports. 343 firefighters, 60 police officers and 8 paramedics went to sleep for their morning shifts. 125 government employees prepared for meetings at the Pentagon. None of them got to see past 10:00 AM on Tuesday, September 11th 2001. Life can change so drastically in one single moment. As you live and enjoy the breaths you take today, and tonight before you go to sleep in preparation for your life tomorrow, kiss the ones you love, snuggle a little tighter, and never ever take one second for granted. Remember and honor all these brave Heroes on 9/11... Never forget.

It's hard to believe but many of the younger drivers on the forum do not remember this attack. I will never forget it, as I was boarding a flight in Heathrow (UK) Airport, bound for Newark NJ airport. Returning from a long business trip, I learned of the news as I observed a woman rolling a cigar. Obviously I did not take-off that day as all flights into the US were cancelled indefinitely. Communication and information was sketchy, all I knew was that an additional plan crashed in rural PA. At the time of 9/11, I lived in a rural section of Chester County, near Downingtown. 2 days passed before I was able to connect with family. And this was crudely achieved by rigging up my laptop through the hotel TV, with an ancient 9600 baud modem. Better than nothing...

3 very long weeks later I returned to a very different environment, one void of the twin-towers; my last visual memory of them was when I took off at Newark. Little did I know at the time, they would fall 10 days later. Upon return, entering my car in the parking lot, the smoke I saw is all that remained. Surreal. I cried, because I knew there were associates who perished in the attack and that their families were forever broken. After that occurred...nothing was the same, and never will be.

God Bless the families who suffered loss resulting from that attack. Never forget...take nothing for granted, cherish every moment. Peace my friends.

In October 2001, I flew from Orlando to Boston. Smoke was still coming up from the hole in the ground.

Our office building in Orlando was right next to MCO. For a week after the attack no planes flew in or out. It was eerie.