Comments By Kanelin

Conga-rats, Paul!

Hey Turtle, I'm heading to prime this weekend too. I've been a nurse for 20+years. While I love my job I've always wanted to be a trucker. Nows my time to follow my dream. Good luck to you.

Good luck to both of you! Prime us an awesome company and a great choice!

Lisa, I was a nurse for almost 20 years as well. There are a few of us refugees on here.

I shut down last night in Oklahoma city due to icing, and again today when I noticed 1/4 inch of ice on my mirrors. Felt bad about it until I went inside and found a guy who took 3 hours driving through there. Now, looking at the forecast, I might be here a bit. Looks like another short week for me.

Def better to be late with freight than pitched in a ditch!

Almost anywhere out west that's not in a city. If I had to pick just one, though, it would be I90 from Eastern Washington into western Montana. There is some beautiful country there. And the air smells amazing!

You're in luck! Sue should be along to extolling the virtues of West Side to you shortly... She is very happy there and it sounds like a great company.

You got this! Just remember all the stuff Rainy says and, most important: RELAX!!!

I Agree With Rick here. OSS leads to a lot of bad health issues. Heart disease being the most serious. Plus there is the fact that people with it do not get restful sleep. So they are tired and may fall asleep at the wheel.

Ibe only been solo.for a little more than a month, but I have developed what seems to work for me. I try to drive about 8.5 hours a day, if possible. Now if that's all or mostly all interstate driving, I can get about 450 miles per day. If there are 2-lanes or city driving involved, that number goes down. There are times, like the last couple days when that hasn't been possible. I got a load assigned, at 2am, that my appt time at the shipper was for 0800. Delivery was scheduled for 0900 the next day, 700 miles away. Route from Ogden, UT to Albuquerque NM. If you look, most of the route is 2-lane US hwys. I made it, drove 11 hrs the first day, a little.over in fact. Spent 5 hrs at shipper waiting for unload. Next load was from Clovis, NM to Hiram OH. 1500 miles in a little less than 3 days. I won't be able to make it, so it's being repowered in Springfield MO. I still drove for 10.5 hrs today to make it so whoever picks it up has time to make it there. I will, hopefully, get a little break there, since my 70 hr clock has been eaten up.

My point is, for me anyway, there isn't a "normal" driving day. There seem to be so many variables that get thrown into the pot.

My one suggestion to everyone, as an RN, is to get out of the truck every couple of hours. Sitting for long periods can cause blood.clots to form in your legs, which can migrate and cause some very very bad things! So get up and walk around, even if it's just a walk around the truck. I've seen these clots form in people of every age. Sitting for.long periods is the number one factor in a lot of cases.

(Steps off his soapbox and stows it back under the bunk)

I agree with the concensus here. This week I got a load going from Omaha to Newark NJ. Nice miles and pretty much all interstate. My comment to my dispatcher was "you're killing me smalls!" And I said he was really breaking me in. He knew I was kidding, even over the qc. Load wasn't ready, and wouldn't be for at least a day. Less than 5 hours later I had a different load going to Seattle.

My point is if I was a complainer he probably would have let me sit on the first load. As things worked out, I'm sitting anyway, but I ain't going nowhere without heat this time of year. I bet when my truck is fixed I'll have a load within about hour. Now I've only been solo for a little over a month, but I've driven across L.A. during rush hour to make an appointment. I've not been late or complained about anything. I got 11k miles my first month. And you can ask rainy what kind of miles she gets, we have the same dispatcher. Miles are what counts in this game, for most of us.

Haha, so was I MG. Spent the night in a hotel and decided to go this morning. Weather said wind was down and the snow was only gonna get worse. Made it to SLC no problem. Sounds like 25 down to Denver is gonna be a mess this weekend, tho. Normally I love the drive through WY, my kind of country. And the drive today wasn't too bad, between Rawlins and Utah, anyway 😆

Thanks for the help to both of you.