Comments By Pianoman

Pretty soon we’ll have AI commenting on posts written by AI

There’s an entire subreddit like that already

I was thinking that, too. No real trucker would use such flowery language.

Right? 😂

Hey congrats on your new gig btw!! Sorry I meant to reply to your thread and never got to it. I’ve heard lots of good things about custom critical

This sounds AI generated

Resurrecting this thread with an interesting load I hauled today.

Doesn’t look like much from the view here but this was a half million dollar printer. I thought it was a 3d printer at first but the receiver told me it’s for printing big banners and vehicle wraps and stuff like that.

It was pretty fun to tarp. The shipper normally loads these in a conestoga but this one was too big and didn’t fit so they called for a normal flatbed with tarps. The top and sides are just panel board and way too thin to walk on and the shipper didn’t have anything to help tarp with so we ended up using two forklifts to lift the tarps up and drape them over the load. The best part was that the shipping manager didn’t want to do it that way and wanted to put a 2x4 across the top of the box for me to walk on so I wouldn’t fall through while I tarped… 🤨 (for some context the total height of this load on the flatbed was just under 13’6”). We didn’t do it his way lol.

Loading and unloading this was also really interesting. They had me back into a dock to load it and they pushed it on with a forklift (the box is on a sled). Then when it came time to get it off they had me back into the building and they used a special remote controlled forklift with an extendable base to offload. The whole thing was 20,000 lbs, 28.5 feet long, 8.5 ft tall and like 6 or 7 feet wide (didn’t measure the width). The receiver didn’t have the equipment to offload it so a separate rigging company came and offloaded it.

At shipper:

At the receiver:

Really tight inside the building:

It also involved a blindside back off the street into the building lmao. All in all it was a fun one

Good to see you back! Glad to hear the job is going well. My condolences about your mom.

I’m sitting again for the second time this week. I got layover on Monday and it looks like I’m gonna get it again today. Hometime is coming up on Friday so I’m sure that’s part of it.

I feel your pain. I finished my last load on Saturday and I’ve been sitting ever since then. I’ll get layover for today which is nice but I think it’s tough for them to find loads for me for the same reason…hometime coming up on the 22nd. I’m planning on staying out for a couple months after this so I don’t have to deal with this for a while hopefully

One podcast I listen to a lot is the Dave Ramsey show. This podcast really has sound advice for managing your money, so it would be a two birds with one stone thing for you.

Ramsey combines his financial advice with his Christian religious zeal, which turns some people off. I don’t like that aspect of his show, but I filter it out because the financial aspect is so great, in my opinion.

Interestingly. The financial self discipline Ramsay expounds can be the same type of self discipline needed to manage your driving life. It’s all about establishing goals and then managing your finances and driving so as to accomplish your goals.

Might help you pass the time and learn good stuff at the same time.

Thanks Bruce I’ll check that one out for sure!

I haven't been driving nearly as long as you Pianoman but routine was mentioned. My routine starts with what I consider easy music, which lately has been Noah Kahan. I'll play that station on Pandora until I'm more livened up, as I try to start in the middle of the night as much as I can. Then I change to other genres, or if I can't pick one, I put it on Shuffle. Music and phone calls are my go-to as I haven't gotten into podcasts or audio books. My number's in my profile if you ever need a new chattin buddy. I went through something similar in my last career which led me to trucking.

Good to hear from you Sandman! I’ll shoot you a text right now actually. I’m not driving tonight because they couldn’t find me a load today (hometime coming up) but hopefully I’ll be heading out tomorrow.

Thanks for sharing your routine. I know you’d think I would have a good routine already since I've been driving for several years but seriously I haven’t ran my 11 out every day like I do now since years ago. I really don’t have a routine built up for this sort of thing so I’m all ears.

Honestly, i do what Kearsey does quite often. I'll dink around for two hours walking my dogs or Uber somewhere interesting. Then I'll take a complete ten. It just breaks up the monotony knowing you have some time to be a total screw-off. Just make sure that you have that 8 hours uninterrupted SB.

I actually got sucked into listening to live trial coverage, with the Depp VS Heard trial. Emily D Baker is a former prosecutor, and breaks down everything as it happens. She is quite often outpacing legacy media with concurrent viewers during live trials. The SC VS Murdoch trial. The Rust shooting trial of NM VS Gutierrez. The Bankruptcy and theft shenanigans of Tom Girardi and his ex wife Erica Jayne. She is hilarious, and there is something about her tone that I can listen to her all day and not feel bored or wiped out.

Audible is my life saver, with over 120 books in the last three years. From thrillers to biographies, trashy romance, to history, it brings it's own level of entertainment. I have to be careful about who the reader is, or they could get on my nerves. Heck, I listened to the Terminal List by Jack Carr and it's subsequent books, read by Ray Porter a total of 5 times all the way through.

Also, remember the advice given to newbies, about sticking it out for the first year at your starter company? There is a reason for that, beyond the job hopping. It's to allow time for the drastic lifestyle changes inherently attached to OTR driving to shake out, and find your groove.

I personally think you may be fighting the "what was" vs "what is" scenario. Give lots of things a try, and adopt what works best for you, and drop what you think you dislike.

Sorry Nae Nae, didn’t mean to ignore your reply. I read it last night and have been thinking a lot about what you said about sticking with it for a year like we encourage newbies to do. I do generally try to stay anywhere I go for at least 1-2 years. I’ve been disappointed because this wasn’t the job I wanted but unfortunately I just don’t have the options that I want right now. This is a good job that I was fortunate to get and so far they’ve been doing a great job of keeping me busy. All of you have said the same thing and I’m going to heed the advice you all gave. I greatly appreciate it.

Also 120+ books is craaazy. I find it so hard to pay attention to an audiobook while I’m driving! I’m gonna set some audiobook goals for myself this year. Maybe 10 is a good starting goal for this year?