Profile For IDMtnGal

Seen at Flying J in Haw River NC:

Seen in Westfield WI at shpper:

Laura

Sweet potatoes on their way to be made into fries or "boats" ( I think that's what the check in lady said) for TGIFridays

Laura

And I'll give another scenario that I think is an appropriate use of PC involving the "terminal" for personal purposes. While under a load, I am relatively close to the Pittston terminal, but because of limited parking there, I park at a truck stop nearby that has more parking. After I park at the truck stop for the night, I find out the showers don't work. I drive to the Prime Pittston terminal to take a shower and then back to the truck stop on my 10-hour break. After my 10-hour break is over, I continue with my load.

Would you say that I need to drive to the terminal on the drive line?

No, you are not furthering the load and returned to where you started.

Laura

Sam,

What school are you going to? I went through Sage in Twin Falls, which is now closed down, and got my CDL without any experience on logs, brakes and a couple other areas. While you learn by doing, if you are paying $5,000+, you want to have a bit more training. Sage had a couple of companies come in to talk with us, but they weren't hiring so I was on my own to find a job.

Laura

DAC Report

Order that report... You get a free one every year. If it doesn't show up, it wasn't put on your driving record.

Laura

Howdy!

Welcome to Trucking Truth. Some of the guys will be along in the morning to give you more info. Old School will give you the skinny on why it's better to go to a trucking company and get your experience there vs going to a school. He's more eloquent than I am.

We have members that have gone to schools and succeeded. But then, we get more people that have gone to a school, got their CDL and then couldn't be hired for infractions of one sort or another. We've also had people come from schools bearing tales of woe because they got very little drive time, went to a company, had a fender bender and got let go and couldn't find another company. So definitely keep an open mind.

Laura

Congratulations!!

My brother did intermodal with JB Hunt for 3 years out of Chicago and Cedar Rapids IA. Made good money. He was out for 5 or 6 days then off to reset his clock.

Enjoy your new job!

Laura

We had a driver retention specialist from Cowan come in and talk to us. He showed us a chart comparing Cowans driver turnover rate for the past couple years. It is between 53 and 56 per cent. I thought that was high. Every year they have to replace over half their drivers. He then showed us the national average. How much higher do you think the national average is? It's pretty unbelievable.

53%-56% is a decent rate of retention. I believe it's over 75%.

Laura

Never heard of them. Looked them up on SMS and they have 381 trucks, 328 drivers and 808 violations.

I've had flaps with people before, but this is a muddy one.

I see what you did there. That's too funny!

Laura

not happy that Swift is only using automatics, not a deal breaker but I think (perhaps incorrectly) that it would be better career wise to know how to drive a manual.

Partially incorrect. There are companies that have some manuals, but most companies have only the automatic manuals. I much prefer a 13-speed but haven't been in a manual since June 2017. The three companies I've been with since have no manuals at all and will never buy any more of them. Learning on a manual is the least of your worries. Get your experience and you can get your manual restriction rescinded by doing a road test later.

Laura

Sorry to hear about your dog. I'm not sure I could afford that kind of price tag. Something to definitely think about.

Laura

Monty the Rat Dog loves people when he's outside the truck. So when he's taken out of the truck, he's on a leash because his brain leaves him! He sees people, his ears go down, his tail comes up and starts wagging and I know he's going to run toward them.

At the motel here in Greensboro NC while the new truck, with 23,709 miles on it is in the shop with DPF issues. Monty is enjoying this because he gets to greet people.

Laura

Not sure how current this list is:

Hair vs Urine

Having never done pot or any drugs, I get my info from reading. I thought pot showed up in urine for 3 mths after use. That will be Nov.

Laura

Howdy Jammer!

Just parked for my 10, in Greyville IL on my way to Greensboro NC for Monday delivery.

Doing good, staying healthy and busy. Take care!

Laura

Mikey B.

Do you have a shop that set it up? My shop did two different trucks I drove and did it differently both times... So I went and talked to them to see what it was they did. Then they set up this one to do 75 on the floor 😁

Laura

The reason we tell people to go with company training and then do a year or whatever the obligation is with the mega company, is because it takes that long to learn the ins-and-outs of driving, backing, trip planning and other nuances of driving. The bigger companies that train are self-insured, so when a trainee has an incident, and they WILL happen, they can evaluate that person and generally keep them on. A small company like the one you described will let you go because that is what the insurance company tells them to do.

Seven years ago I went with a small company that had dry vans. This was before ELD'S were mandatory and the school did not teach about logbooks. My first company taught me how to cheat on the logs. Not a good way to start and I believe it set me behind in being proficient. It took my third company, which had 150 trucks and electronic logs to really learn how to manage my clock, my trips, etc.

This company sounds good to you, but you don't know what you don't know. As PackRat said, beginner drivers should never drive tankers or do Heavy Haul until they have a year plus experience.

Company Sponsored Training

Laura

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Kiddo! Hope you had a wonderful day!!

Laura

Nope....too many smaller companies that are hiring.

My company already knows that I don't believe in masks and neither does my cardiologist. They also know that I've remained healthy all through this cr@p and I've had no symptoms whatsoever...and according to a number of immunologists, "asymptomatic" is not a thing. Now, will my company require it? I don't know, the sister company got weird about wearing masks.

OR, I can retire! 😁

Laura

Woke up to rain yesterday morning (10/7) but it cleared out to a nice day in late morning. Got my load, ran back to the house and got ready to head out. Was in Southern Idaho and ran back into rain. The weigh station on I-84 was closed, so I settled in for another 5 hours of driving. About 10 miles from the WS, this is what I ran into:

First snow of the year for me. Bad 4-letter word season is upon us!

Laura