Comments By Dave Reid

There is an antenna in the roof of your Freightshaker. Give that a try and see if it meets your needs before adding anything else. I found that the internal antenna is adequate for me

I cant help you but others might if you say what make, model and year your truck is just saying.

2015 Freightliner Cascadia Evolution to be more specific.

Jamie, stop doing that!

I have:

1). Ignition switch key on it's ownkey chain

2). Truck key and lock* key on retractable cord belt attachment thing

3). Truck key and lock key on caribiner clip on opposite side of belt, along with my Leatherman

4). Flat truck key in wallet

5). Truck key and lock key clipped in my shower bag

6). Truck key and lock key clipped in my laundry bag

7). Truck key in magnetic case under cab

Overkill? Well...I am not going to get locked out :-)

*I have a Warlock set with padlocks, brake cuff lock, gladhand lock, and kingpin lock all keyed alike.

I swear.. I locked my keys in my truck yet for a second time since I went solo... it's terrible, I noticed it as I was shutting the door but I couldn't catch it in time...

It's weird because yet again I some how got my phone just like last time, like I knew...

Thought I had a key zipped tied outside the truck, but it's not there. So yay me.

No...write on!

If I wrote an article about some of the comments/advances I have gotten from men on the road and told how I reacted, would you be offended?

I ask because I have a dry, witty, sarcastic sense of humor. Some of my immediate remarks come out naturally and are hilarious when I look back on them. But I wouldn't want it to come across as man bashing or offensive to you.

Technically, women today would call male/female interactions like this sexual harrassment. I just more or less harrass back without the sexual overtures.

I wanted to.include it in a piece on taking everything so.seriously that it affects you, and how humor can save your sanity.

True, however Jamie's company (Schneider) does not.

In this instance, he will just need to creep over to the parking area he mentioned.

Keep in mind - EVEN IF your company allows "personal conveyance" driving (AKA: Line 5), you cannot drive on Line 5 with a load on.

Actually, yes you can. As of approx 5/18, new FMCSA rules allow the use of personal conveyance to find the nearest safe parking after running out of hours at a customer, even if laden.

If your trailers have manual release handles, be sure to carry a pair of vice-grip pliers to hold the handle out in cases where you can't get the thing to stick in the notch.

If you have air-release pins, in addition to what has already been mentioned, note that you may need to give the trailer a couple of minutes to air up with the trailer air supply knob pushed in. Pretty rare that you really have to beat them in

Picked up a trailer last week and needed to move the tandems. Wouldn’t budge. I had to beat all four pins to within an inch of their lives to get things to slide. Do these mechanisms need periodic maintenance? When we get a trailer like this should it be reported for maintenance? I’d hate to think every driver who got this trailer was going to have the same problem

Most companies will not allow the anti-seizure med period. Your best hope would be some company that requires just a DOT medical nothing else. A DOT examiner that isn't working for the company would likely accept a letter from your doctor stating something like the you don't have seizures and are fit to drive commercial vehicles. They where to go? Maybe local dump trucks, trash trucks, buses...that's a start.

Hello everybody! I've never driven a truck in my life but I have begun to fall in love with the idea of trucking and I want to give it a shot. However I have a few medical problems that I think will prevent me from doing trucking. So I need a weigh in on advice from you more experienced folks to help me determine if I can make it despite these issues.

Importantly what I would also like help determining is that, in the event that I cannot do trucking if there are other jobs involving driving large or uncommon vehicles that you guys think I could try instead. And I would really in that case love help in determining where to get schooling for these jobs and also like help in figuring out exactly what other jobs involving vehicles there are out there aside from trucking. Because I've tried searching quite a lot already but I can't find much outside of maybe construction vehicles.

So what is it that I have? Well three things that are of relevance.

1. Sleep apnea. Basically I need a sleep apnea machine and a mask to let me breathe well while I sleep

2. Some form of REM behavior disorder. What happens is that when I sleep it is possible that I might wake up, scream at the top of my lungs and then run as fast as I can away from my bed. Yikes! It happens a few times a month. I don't think I can do OTR with this.

3. I'm on an anti seizure medication. In the medical regulations I am reading something about this type of medication disqualifying somebody from being able to drive a truck. However the tricky part is that I do not actually have seizures myself. I am taking the seizure meds for a secondary issue that the seizure meds just so happen to treat really effectively as well. So since I do not actually have the seizures would this allow me to bypass this rule and drive despite taking them?

Thanks a bunch guys.

I can't count either. That's part of why I like to run recaps. I don't even have to take my pants and socks off to figure out my hours

Me neither...and when you go from east to west you GAIN time not lose it.

normally you would gain an hour going from eatern to central, but the DLST cancels that out. it doesnt put you back 2 hours.

im confused.

it seems like you have 0530 to 2100 to run 465 miles... 15.5 hours.

Im lost

Make sure that you are not pushing the clutch in too far. A tiny depression clutching out of gear then a tiny depression clutching into gear does the trick. You only need push the clutch in far (to the floor) if you're at a dead stop and it won't go into 1st or 2nd otherwise. Also, make sure you're getting completely off the fuel while shifting, albeit very briefly.

Once you get the hang of it, you may find that you don't really need to clutch at all, especially in high range.

Practicing in a car (with a synchronized trans) is useless.

If you're having trouble making the small depression, you might want to try putting the seat back further and/or up higher.

You'll need to develop a feel for what works best (rpm, shifting speed) under varying conditions of weight, road speed, and terrain. Shifting going uphill @79,999lbs is a lot different than level ground @50,000.

Some have suggested shifting slowly. This may vary with the truck, trans, rears, etc. I've used 9 spds, 10 spds, and now a 13 EF with a Cummins ISX15. I don't remember too much what the others were like, but my current ride doesn't like dawdling...prefers quick shifts, especially if heavy and/or uphill.

My instructor telling me to shift at 1500rpm for 2nd to 3rd and 3rd to 4th gears, but when i try to release my clutch, i have to be really slow letting it go completely , like wait about 2 seconds(like about taking off from 2nd gear, we always start on 2nd gear when come to a complete stop). or if i let go of the clutch to soon the engine will sound like i am(downshifting & sound like engine breaking)

Is my RPM shifting is too high? or the problem is just in me. and i dont think he ever shift on 1500rpm on low gears.

He even told me to find someone with a manual transmission car and practice to it whenever im off from training. ' Does it really help practicing on a car?

I really feel down and frustrated right now.

Thank You for reading.!

You can also just back up really fast then slam on the brakes. Might have to do it a couple of times, still, it shouldn't take long

I've delivered to landfills before, but had not seen this, machine picks up trailer and dumps load, they call it a "tipper"

As we see from the responses to this question, different drivers have different preferences as to what strategy works best for them.

Sometimes the best strategy changes depending upon what is going on. for example, even though I normally run on recaps, this week I am busting it hard and trying for as close to 11 daily as I can get because a) last week I had a load with extra time on it, so I pushed it the first day and then had 34+ off before delivering on Monday am, and b) I am taking off for a two week vacation starting tomorrow night so I'm trying to jam as close to 70 as I can get into this M-Sat. But, normally I run recaps.

To further clarify, if you limit your logged driving/duty time to an average of 8 hours and 45 minutes daily, you can run forever and never run out of hours, so you can take time off when you want to but you'll never *have* to.

Depending upon your dispatch, this may or may not work for you.

I think it likely works best for certain types of freight too, but I only have personal experience with reefer, dry van, and biological cargo.

To answer another question posed in another post on this thread, no, most companies aren't going to deduct from your home time allotment because you got a 34 on the road, but then again in one way of looking at it you might be losing income because of it.

Drive for a while and find a strategy that works for your lifestyle, your wallet, and very importantly, your dispatch. Just be sure to develop a real strategy that works for you. As has often been said, hoping for the best isn't a good business plan. Whatever you're going to do, do it on purpose, and *with* purpose.

Dave Reid, that was a very good comment on this subject. My trainer suggested I do what you do and I understand it, but I'm not sure all the beginners here understand what you are suggesting. Maybe you could explain the 8:45 per day aspect and just what it accomplishes. That would be very educational especially for those in school trying to learn HOS.

Also, many consider the 34 reset as a 24 hr. reset because it is almost always taken in combination with a 10 hour DOT break.

If Dave doesn't chime in here, maybe one of the other HOS experts can explain the 8:45 trick.