Comments By Dutch

The Pilot off the Atlanta, GA. 285 bypass is to be avoided. It is the one located on Bouldercrest Rd. It's in a rough part of town, and parking is free, so you can imagine what type of activity you can expect.

Another thing to keep in mind, is that some drivers look for anyplace that their truck will fit. However, this can be a huge mistake as Jason Rivenburg found out back in 2009. Thank goodness they were able to bring his killer to justice, with a life sentence without parole.

Here is an article about the crime, and his family's efforts to seek legislation for safer truck parking. It is a subject that all drivers need to give serious consideration, before shutting down for the night.

Slain Truckers Family Seeks Legislation for Safer Truck Parking

I went through this same scenario when I went to C1. I called them prior to attending school, but after leaving a specific message with a live person concerning questions I had about prescription medications, they never returned my calls.

I went in to my doctor, and got a letter stating that he felt I was OK to drive on my scripts. However, I was still skeptical, and continued to search online for topics related to the subject. I found a thread on a forum, where a female driver was sent home, and told to come back 3 months later, to drug test again.

I went back to my doctor, and explained to him that I couldn't afford to take the chance of showing up, only to be sent back home for 3 months. I asked him to remove me from all my medications except for my high blood pressure meds.

Most days I am grumpy, contrary, and enjoy debating most any subject. However, I like to chalk it all up to the romance of transforming into the classic curmudgeon that society loves. An old curmudgeon can get by with a lot of behavior, that a younger person would never be allowed, and most people think it is funny and cute.

Just another opportunity to turn lemons into lemonade.

Chris, one thing you might take into consideration when deciding on a company to drive for, is that instead of leasing their trucks, some companies own all their equipment outright. Even if they have a standard cap of 4 to 5 days off, owning all their equipment would put them in a more flexible position to accommodate an extended time off request.

Also, if you are a driver who really gets after it, and runs good miles according to company standards, they are much more likely to accommodate you. I also agree with what C.S said. Having a good relationship with your DM always helps in situations such as this.

Most any company will allow any amount of time off, as long as you turn in your truck. However, if they issue you a nice new truck in good mechanical condition, it could be a mistake to turn in your truck, only to come back and be issued a lemon that costs you a lot of down time. In addition, most drivers get their rig set up just like they like it, with satellite radio, CB, externally mounted antenna's, etc., and really hate to switch trucks because of the additional labor involved.

It wouldn't be prudent to let just anyone polish your cannon. Being selective is a necessary evil, so like most things in trucking, you should take your time and not allow yourself to get in a hurry.

Blue, the reality to it is, that your instructors have sent many students to the same examiner that will test you. They already know exactly what the examiner is looking for, what they will tolerate, and what they will immediately fail you on. Given that, you will need to try to follow their advice and perform the tasks exactly as they are describing them to you, until you get your license.

For instance, some examiners will not allow you to float gears, and expect you to double clutch on every shift. Your instructors will tell you that after you get your license, that you will end up floating gears, but right now, they don't want to see any of that until you have obtained your license.

Sometimes it can be beneficial, to request that your instructor demonstrate how they want you to perform a task, while you sit in the passenger seat and observe.

Also, watching the tach never worked for me. It was just one more thing to multi-task, and made things more confusing. What I learned to do was listen to the rpm's and get the timing of the braking and shifting correct, in order to prevent a stall. Ever notice when you watch a kid sit in the floor and play with a toy car or truck, they seem to know exactly when to shift, based on sound alone. Once you learn it, it is as simple as that to get your shift points dialed in.

Remember, for a given speed you are traveling, there are 2 gears you can use. One is higher and will get you better fuel economy but less control of the vehicle. The lower gear will use more fuel, but will keep your engine revolutions higher, and provide better control. The lower gear will at the same time be less likely to stall. The engine may be louder, and the truck may bounce a little when you accelerate or decelerate, but the lower gear will always provide better control, unless you are traveling on water or ice.

Bush, some customers have special requirements, such as long pants, steel toes, hard hat, safety vest etc. Sometimes they always want things done exactly the same way, so it helps to let them know if it is your first time servicing their facility.

Some of this information will be included in your load assignment, usually down at the bottom below the standard info. Sometimes, they give you a flyer, with everything they want you to keep in mind, while on their property.

Complying with all their requests, can really make you and your company shine in their eyes, compared to some of the other companies that service their facility. For instance, I went to a paper mill the other day, and they required safety glasses, hard hat, steel toes, and safety vest. When I got there, I noticed that none of the other drivers were in compliance, but that didn't matter to me. I just did what they asked, and felt better about having done it when I rolled out of the gate.

Bush, some customers have special requirements, such as long pants, steel toes, hard hat, safety vest etc. Sometimes they always want things done exactly the same way, so it helps to let them know if it is your first time servicing their facility.

Some of this information will be included in your load assignment, usually down at the bottom below the standard info. Sometimes, they give you a flyer, with everything they want you to keep in mind, while on their property.

Complying with all their requests, can really make you and your company shine in their eyes, compared to some of the other companies that service their facility. For instance, I went to a paper mill the other day, and they required safety glasses, hard hat, steel toes, and safety vest. When I got there, I noticed that none of the other drivers were in compliance, but that didn't matter to me. I just did what they asked, and felt better about having done it when I rolled out of the gate.

Chalk it up as a hard lesson learned. I have plenty of empathy for you, but believe me, I've had my share of hard lessons in life. If your friend doesn't learn anything from this one, they will continue repeating this same type scenario and always be playing the victim.

My Dad had a lot of relevant sayings that he used to teach me life's lessons. One of them was: "Life is hard on ignorant folks." What he meant was: if you don't learn from your mistakes, you are destined to repeat them.

If You're Gonna Be Dumb, You Gotta Be Tough

Blue, here are a couple other things that come to mind.

Like Old School said, you want to keep that transmission in gear, never allowing yourself to roll in neutral. The reason, is because you don't have as much control of the truck in neutral. If you are at least in a gear, even in 10th, and you are holding your clutch in, if something unexpected happened, letting out on the clutch would stall the engine at lower speeds, and shut movement down abruptly. Your instructors will want to see you leaving the transmission in gear, for this safety purpose.

I've always used engine braking when riding a motorcycle, because it is easier to bring the bike to a stable stop, when the engine is already automatically dropping your speed, as soon as you let off the throttle. By doing this, you have less brakes to apply. Also, if you learn to keep your truck in a lower gear, with the RPM's high, your engine braking system will work even better.

The only thing you need to keep in mind with engine braking, is that you don't want to use it when traveling on wet, or icy roads. Same goes for your cruise control. When navigating those conditions, you want to drop your speed in general to compensate for those conditions, because you always need to avoid a jack-knife. Once a big truck loses traction, it is really hard to recover and get it back in a straight line, similar to a motorcycle.

Braking properly has a lot to do with timing, similar to shifting. You just have to spend time allowing your brain to learn the hand, eye, foot coordination required. You may get frustrated with some of this multi-tasking, but after you invest the time needed, all of a sudden it will start coming together for you. Try to relax if possible, because trying to learn the hand, eye, foot coordination will come quicker than if you are not stressed out.

To some degree, what you get used to, ends up being what you will prefer. I have used Qualcomm almost exclusively, and have a little experience with Peoplenet. The main thing I didn't like about the Peoplenet unit I used, was that it had no option to edit your logs. For me, I like having the option to edit, because sometimes I think I am getting a drop and hook, but I end up getting a live load, or sometimes even need to come back the next day to pick up a load. Since my Qualcomm starts logging on duty as soon as I shut off the motor, sometimes I will want to edit my logs, if something doesn't go as planned.

The Peoplenet unit I used also had fewer buttons than a Qualcomm, and the buttons it did have had multiple functions, depending on what screen was showing. I'm sure though, after awhile, I would adapt to the different software, just as I would if I decided to change brands of GPS.