Comments By Auggie69

Hi drivers,

I know this is an awful topic for this forum, but as you may or may not know, the freight market is coming down due to high supply and low demand of trucks. Also, fuel prices are the highest they've ever been. Many carriers will be selling and going out of business soon.

Now, imo, may be a good time to look into jumping into the market to be an o/o, if anyone is interested. You could get equipment once the prices bottom out and ride the rates up when they finally do go up.

If the time is not right for you and you still want to own your own truck, i would suggest you pay attention to what the market does in the next 6-12 months and maybe position yourself in the next downturn.

No hate, if it's not for you. It's definitely not for everyone.

I would say you must have the following if you're thinking about it as a path:

2 yrs experience minimum ( you won't get insured below that, and even at 2 years the rates are high) NO DEBT of any kind. $20-$60k in savings 2 credit cards with no balance driving wise - knowledge of split breaks

Have a nice day folks, and stay safe on the roads!!

My understanding is spot rates are in the toilet

I’ve been experiencing edema in my left leg. Right leg is normal. It’s not a seat height issue, it’s just from sitting so long. Any suggestions to help with this issue?

Drink water Use compression socks Less salt

Are you on BP meds? They have them that helps flush out the excess fluid. They also have them where it is a side effect!

You should be on ibuprofen. Tylenol doesn't do squat for inflammation. Start with 400mg every 4hrs then increase to 600 then 800 which is the prescription strength. Stop at whichever helps your pain.

And don't exceed 2400mg in 24 hours.

I’ve been experiencing edema in my left leg. Right leg is normal. It’s not a seat height issue, it’s just from sitting so long. Any suggestions to help with this issue?

Drink water
Use compression socks
Less salt

Are you on BP meds? They have them that helps flush out the excess fluid. They also have them where it is a side effect!

You should be on ibuprofen. Tylenol doesn't do squat for inflammation. Start with 400mg every 4hrs then increase to 600 then 800 which is the prescription strength. Stop at whichever helps your pain.

So even if one box the size of a bowling ball on a pallet, still has to be strapped in?

Yes, any Hazmat has to be.

I had a rail van once I had to take to the rail yard. My dispatch said I had poison onboard but the only hazmat I had was one little canister on the tail.

I had no idea the rail yard would not take poison.

I entered and was forced to leave that place three times! They would never tell me why I couldn't enter. My Central Dispatch had no clue. I'm making double time so I didn't care other than the frustration.

Finally somebody somewhere realized that little container of poison was screwing me up. Went to a nearby FXF terminal, offloaded it and went back and we were good to go.

But, yes! Strap the hazmat and don't stack or put on bars!

Rumble strip and heavy braking caused a lot of friction burning my tires and some had to be replaced for safety

That's a new one for me and my father with over 30 years experience in truck maintenance....

Had to swap my local for a twin-screw one day to pick up some heavy rail trailers.

I pretrip the tractor and it looked fine. I'm driving around the yard at about 15mph and the tractor is feeling this wham .... wham....wham...wham...wham like I'm going over little humps in the yard.

I was like wtf? Got out and looked around the tractor again and what I saw was what I didn't catch the first time: whoever had this tractor before me hit the brakes SO HARD that two of the tires developed flat spots! Like someone had taken a giant iron and just laid it down on top of them.

Darndest thing I've ever seen.

For the amount of "Chit" you'll be dealing with, $25 ain't enough haha double that

Wow you think they’ll give me that with no experience? The said they do raises. We didn’t agree on a set pay other than at least $25/hr

I think he's making a joke :) If you are really going to suck ****, you may as well ask for as much as you can. My question would be If I run the **** sucker trucker, who cleans the hoses and truck when I get back! That's the deal breaker :)

Hey everyone. In the scheme of things......this was minor, I got lost, ended up in a residential and a tight turn where I curbed the truck. I ahd a 47K coil sitting on the center of the trailer. You can all Monday morning QB all you want. Yes,........I shouldn't have been back there and yes I was anyhow. When flatbedding and with the different delivery sites, you WILL find yourself in confusing situations. Hard to explain fully without a few paragraphs. Just take my word for it please. It was bad decision making with fatigue and a road closure involved. Beginning and end of that story.

I stopped once I curbed the truck. I had a heavy coil, It was tipped a little and when I went to back out with the thought of calling the local PD to get me out of there, I had the tractor bucking and the load starting to oscillate. With a high center of gravity and that instability I just pulled the brakes, called the company for help and figured I'd take the beating. They had to get a wrecker out there to pull the trailer off the curb, flatten out the load and get me going again.

I did get some finger wagging from safety. That is to be expected. The best thing was I quit digging myself into a hole and recognized the potential for real trouble. It was frustrating the night I made my initial post.

Don't get me wrong. Not taking it lightly. But still appreciating that I was in a tough situation I made the right decision to shut things down and call for help. It could have cost me my job, it could have been worse than that. I didn't damage an expensive tractor, a trailer or the load. All those things are important. I could have walked away with my head held high knowing I did the right thing after making a big mistake had I been let go. I guess these are rookie mistakes that are forgivable?

Other than that, things are going well with the job. I am making delivery times. Customer service is excellent. I am following company policy.

I would say as a newbie you did just fine. You got yourself into a pickle and asked for help before it became much worse.

I would just suggest that when you get your plan to look at your GPS and plot your route AND beyond your route. Plot a way out and a way around. You'll never know until you get there what to expect. Sounds simplistic, I know, but having done City Driving right out of the blocks 7 years ago I still plot every delivery on my Google Maps to include what to do if I miss a turn or if I'm not sure of the ingress or egress into the shipper.

Well, they don't pay much more than that.

Found a few other links. You can just cut and paste them into a browser

https://careers-ferrellgas.icims.com/jobs/19446/truck-driver/job

https://secure3.entertimeonline.com/ta/PPC8096.careers?CareersSearch

https://www.dot.ny.gov/jobs/perm_positions/highway-maintenance-worker

https://www.approvedmedwaste.com/careers/

https://www.county-wastemontgomery.com/employment/#openings

Thanks I appreciate it, I applied to some. If you thought $25/hr starting was bad, why did you send me jobs that pays less?🤣

Mainly just to show you what else was out there. Also some were state jobs or union jobs or maybe just better benefits. Unions are big in NY.

A small aircraft has apparently crashed into a General Mills DC near Covington, GA this evening.

Ok, this is getting a bit weird.

Food shortages magnified by string of destroyed food processing facilities

Well, they don't pay much more than that.

Found a few other links. You can just cut and paste them into a browser

https://careers-ferrellgas.icims.com/jobs/19446/truck-driver/job

https://secure3.entertimeonline.com/ta/PPC8096.careers?CareersSearch

https://www.dot.ny.gov/jobs/perm_positions/highway-maintenance-worker

https://www.approvedmedwaste.com/careers/

https://www.county-wastemontgomery.com/employment/#openings