Comments By Sambo11513

I try to be accommodating while in those situations, but, in cities where there are a lot of on ramps, in probably going to be in lane 2 more often than lane 1. There are more interactions when in the merging lane, which are more opportunities for something to go wrong. Also, it kills your fuel economy if you are having to speed up and slow down constantly.

The problem is that most cities now have the "no trucks in left lanes" rule. That needs to go away. Here is, in my opinion, how it should work. On a 4 lane through a city, left lane should be for fast through traffic, maybe put a minimum speed of 68mph. Lane 3 should be for slower through traffic, minimum speed 60mph. Lane 2 for local travel, maximum speed 60 mph, and lane 1 for traffic merging on and off the freeway.

Not sure if that would work but seems like it would make traffic flow more easily, or some variant of this approach.

And yes, after I took those pictures, I realized I might need to clean the lenses on my phone...lol..

Warehouses love to hoard trailers. I've heard rumors that there are some warehouses that have up to 100 of a particular company's trailers on their lot.

Makes it rough when you have drivers searching for empties, and these distribution centers have all of your trailers tied up, but, that is the deal made between your company and the DC. Often, these dc's have agreements with a company that they will always have x number of trailers on hand in order to be pre loaded.

That is why a lot of them will not allow you to bobtail in to pick up a pre load. They want that empty trailer to replace the one you are taking.

I get frustrated by this scenario as well. 99% of the time I just tap my brakes and let them merge.

The problem with driving a governed truck is that if you merge into the second lane, you'll be impeding the faster traffic, and this usually brings many colorful metaphors and nice comments about your company, over the cb.

It's always a good idea to have that experience. Driving at night is a little different because your body is not used to being up all night. Takes some getting used to.

Also, lack of visibility can create more strain on the body. A lot of these trucks have bad head lights that seem to only light up about 2 car lengths in front of you on low beam. Driving through the twisty mountain roads where there is a lot of traffic where you can't really utilize your high beams means you can't often see very far in front of you. Have to be extra careful and slow down a little.

Now, depending on what you are hauling, either if your trainers answers could be true. At knight, our dry van side has a lot of loads that have a window to drop, and thus those guys can plan their runs to only drive during the day. They generally don't have set appointment times. Often, it's "drop this load between 8am and 4pm", for example.

Refer side, on the other hand, has very little drop and hook, so there are very few appointments that have a window. This means that in order to meet your delivery time, you have to drive at all hours of the day and night. Most of the time, you are taking your 10 off, and then driving again, which means your drive time could change drastically from day to day.

That was good of you to get out and help. I feel for the guy, I don't like blind side backing.

It's hard for me, because I'm my own worst critic. Ask me privately and I'll tell you I feel that I'm doing ok, ask me publicly and I'll tell you that I don't know, ask those who are over me. That's just how I am. I'm never one to brag in myself, and I often downplay anything good that I do, because I don't like talking myself up, it's just not how I'm built. Humble I guess you could say..to a fault.

As far as the late loads, honestly, I can think of only 2 that have been my fault. One because I mixed up the appointment time and the other because I didn't realize I had crossed a time zone, and was about an hour behind.

Totally, I've been late about 8 or 9 times in the last year, but 7 of those were either really tight times, weather, or I was dispatched on a load that there was no way I could have gotten to it on time because I didn't get finished at my previous live unload in time.

I'm never one to downplay my mistakes. I'll face up to them every time. I don't make excuses, I don't try to pass the blame. If I'm at fault, I'll be the first to admit it.

Now, my dm says he is really happy with me, so I asked him if the planners were mad at me for something, he said they weren't. He told me that you have to REALLY mess up to get on their black list. He also told me that if they were unhappy with my performance, I would know about it.

I've talked to him about it (my dm) and he found me a good load, so maybe it's going to get better. Honestly, it could just be some of the freight lanes ate slow right now, which I understand. I'm just blowing off some steam I suppose. Just seems like I've had quite a few slow weeks lately, but I keep my chin up and look for the best, and keep driving as best I can.

"Ouch" but yeah, I probably needed that. I'm just dealing with some frustrations, but like normal, I'll get upset and then be over it in 15 minutes.

Thanks, and like I said, I'm really not expecting a "new" truck, just frustrated with the breakdowns and the down time between loads, and it gets even more annoying when you read about people getting these really great miles and great runs because they have told their dm that they won't run in certain areas, so, they get to cherry pick their work, and they still make awesome miles, and get really great fuel bonuses too.

My thoughts were, if you get in good with your dm and do a good job, that is when you get the special perks from your dm. And don't get me wrong, I'm not asking for special perks, I just want to be worked just like every other driver, but what I'm finding is the people who set down rules with their dm, and dictate where and how they will work, seem to be faring much better than those who simply let their dm run the show.

I guess I'm tires of hearing people brag about all the sunny southeast runs they get in the winter, and how they are making 3000+ miles each week, hitting fuel bonus every time, while you have others who will go out of their way to accommodate their dm, but are getting less than 2000 miles each week and couldn't hit the fuel bonus to save their lives.

Maybe I just need to stop reading these posts from other people lol.