Comments By ID Mtn Gal

Oh My Gosh!! That was fun to read! You are funny!

Laura

It really depends on who you are driving for. If it's a small company, more than likely. If it's one of the big carriers, maybe.

This is not a good time for drivers, so be prepared to be let go. However, when you talk with Safety, eat humble pie, let them know that you were wrong and know it, what you learned from this incident and you may just save your job. The big companies know that most all trainees will have one or more incidents their first year and are prepared to keep them on.

Good luck to you.

Laura

Hey Laura, I also use a dry erase marker but have stopped writing on my driver door window because when I lower the window it erases the writing. Do you have this problem? Or do you just never open your window, lol ?

When I came back on the road in 2014, I was driving a 2012 international. The windows did not seat tightly in the door, so when I wrote on the window and opened it, it usually didn't get erased. Then I went into Freightliners and drove them until last month when I got put in this Peterbilt. I have written on the windows and when opened, the writing does get erased. However, I don't open the window while I'm driving, mainly only when I am backing up.

On this load that I picked up in Baker City OR, I dropped down to Ontario OR and then ran US95 north to Grangeville ID. I stopped to visit a Facebook goat friend for the first time. I was telling her of my route that I had planned to take out of Grangeville. I was going to go cross country to come out at Missoula Mt on I-90. The route that I had so painstakingly wrote on the window, she told me that it had a number of areas that were dirt road and with the snow recently having melted off, I could end up in trouble. She gave me a different route which was a good road. So I opened the window before I took off and closed it, wiping off most of the dry erase pen. 😉😂🤣

Laura

I love those first few weeks and or months of a new truckstop, while the herds are too timid to try it.

Eventually the herds realize it's a fresh watering hole offering some protection against the 14 hour Eld jackals and Parking enforcement predators of the north American trucking ecosystem and will eventually over crowd it to the point where the strong loners and weakest offspring will avoid it.

The newly minted offspring will often fall prey to the predators in short times unless they learn to adapt to the cruel harsh environment and go nocturnal as the loners do. It's a cycle as old as the birth of the 14 hour clock.

That 403, you don't have permission to access this resource popped up on that post all day a few days ago. Since nobody posted about it until you did, I thought I was having some issues with TT. Strange!

Laura

LOL yeah, as if I need to be reminded also. 😉 Oh well, such is life.

Laura

No it's not. A couple of my different companies I have driven for have ordered them that way because they are stouter. One company also had steps put in between the two uprights so drivers can get in and out of trailers easier and not get injured by jumping out of the trailer.

Laura

Here's another question: do you guys use a dedicated GPS, your phone, or an iPad mounted on your dash for navigation? I expect most people use their phones or a dedicated GPS because it might be difficult to mount an iPad where you can see it well.

Right now I'm using my Garmin...have to update it, but it's never updated completely before it stops

My last company used TransFlo for paperwork and as their ELD. It was awkward seeing it on my phone and it caused me to worry when I had to hold my phone to shake it so it would go from portrait to horizontal so I could see my drive hours.

When I am home in 10 days, I'm going to see if I can download Rand McNally or Garmin GPS on that tablet so I could use it. I bought a large window mount but being a standard size tablet I had to rest it on the dash

I do like that size and it did not interfere with my hood mirrors or anything. New Mexico pulled me in for a Level I and the inspector saw it mounted on the dash as he stood on my steps. I was able to take it off the mount and hand it to him so he could get my logs sent to himself.

Laura

Do you use your top bunk or is it up against the back wall? I store a lot of stuff up there and my freezer fits very well with all my other totes of things.

Alpicool or Iceco are good brands. I bought an offbeat brand that had given me some fits in the Freightliners I drove. In this truck (a Pete), it has maintained its lowest temperature very well. All my meats have to be taken out a good day ahead of time to thaw, because they are a brick.

I should have gotten a bigger one, but then it would be too hard for me to get it up on the upper bunk. So my 45 quart has to do.

Laura

The paper on the outside of the window is to show what I wrote on the window. The camera really didn't see it without the paper there. When I'm going into a new place that has a lot of weird directions according to my Garmin, Google maps and my Atlas, I figure out the best route and write it on the window with those dry erase markers. When I'm done with the trip then I easily erase it.

I use my Garmin GPS. I did like my brother's older Rand McNally, but it took a dump and I couldn't get it fixed. I also use Trucker Path and Google maps as well as my Atlas. I use the states 511 apps that I run through a lot. Now that I am with this new company, I have to add more 511 apps.

This last trip with ATVs and side by sides or whatever you call them, the whole trailer only had 14,000 on it. Monday night Wyoming posted winds at 55+ mph, so I parked it. It was 40 plus mph yesterday going across Wyoming. A wind speed and direction app would have been nice to have. I'll have to look some up.

You are very welcome Bruce. Our PeopleNet has that pilot navigation thing on the ELD. I accidentally hit the navigation button and that female's voice just drove me nuts and I couldn't find a way to turn her down. After I got to my first drop, I went exploring and was able to change it to a male voice and turn it down. I really didn't like the directions that it came up with to Idaho Falls. This is my stomping grounds and I know different roads that can make the trip quicker or shorter and it kept wanting me to make a bunch of turns that were not even truck friendly.

Laura