Comments By Bobcat_Bob

What got you into trucking? What keeps you going?

I'm not very smart, but I can make over 100k a year so that's why I'm in trucking and why I stay.

What’s the hardest part people don’t understand

The way other people drive, completely reckless, clueless, selfish or inconsiderate.

How about self-driving lawnmowers

Then, prove you can consistently mow any lawn safely and efficiently, while the kids and pets are running around

Funny you mentioned this, I literally saw one today mowing the large empty field at the mall. It got my attention because it has a bunch of flashing lights on it, and I was like "oh there is nobody riding that one".

I'm not really going to worry about self-driving trucks until the lane departure and collision alerts on my truck can tell what is and what isn't a concern.

Based off your posts the last few months I had a feeling this was coming. Still surprised to see it though.

Good luck in your new company! I'm sure you will kill it there as well.

Old School I have a question for you. At what point do you stand up and say this is too much? You always seem to come defend anything companies come up with like an HR rep is standing behind you while you type.

Several top preforming drivers here agree the "nanny cams" are a problem for a multitude of reasons. But you insinuate it is the drivers that are the problem, it can not possibly be the company or their policies.

I drove one of our new 26 Kenworths last week, and I found myself constantly looking at the dash to see why it was beeping at me. It was raining, so every time the rain blocked the camera it would chime and have 2 warning lights come on on the dash. The wipers would clear the rain, the lights would go out and then come back on when it was "blocked" again.

Luckily, we only have outward facing cameras, and our pay isn't tied to any formula based off of triggered events. It mostly looks for complete stops at stop signs and red lights, following distance and speed. If it is triggered it is reviewed by a driver coach who will set up a "coaching session" if it is a valid event. I've only had one session for not completely stopping at a stop sign in one of our yards. But generally you call in they review the tape and tell you what you did wrong and "Coach" you on how to avoid doing it again. All of the coaches are million plus mile drivers so at least it isn't some pencil pusher telling you how to drive. Our pay is not affected, and there is no discipline unless it is something egregious.

How come you are no longer with Schneider? Did they fire over this? Did you report it properly?

Have you tried applying at 2nd chance companies like Cr. England and Western Express?

I definitely like having a rear window, I can easily see the 5th wheel is at the right hight and watch it do it's thing.

I have a lot of complaints about them, so here is the short version.

Way too often the truck picks up a phantom objects in your path including shadows, bridges, road signs, vehicles on ramps that are not infront of me. The truck especially Internationals will hit the brakes with no warning.

The lane departure warning will buzz for, concrete sealer, water, old lane markings, warning concrete or for fun as I'm centered in my lane and it just buzzes.

For all the above reasons I do not trust them. I can not think of a time they helped me avoid an accident. But I know of several especially in internationals were I felt like it almost caused one.

Not only does it mess up your day, but it messes up the hours of the other driver too

It affected 4 drivers, obviously myself, the guy who had to pick me up, and since I couldn't make my meet today, my meet guy and the other guy he goes and meets in Pennsylvania.

Plus, the trailer that had the flat had guaranteed freight which was late. So the customers will get all their money back on whatever it was they shipped.

My meet guy ran something over on the road and had a hole in the tire when he got to me. Which is ironic because 3 weeks ago the roles were reversed. But I figured no big deal, I'm parked 200 feet from the Loves tire bay shouldn't take too long.

I called our breakdown department at 4:30, they got it assigned to the Loves who's lot im parked in within like 10 minutes. I checked in with the Loves, he said he has 1 in the bay and 2 infront of me so it will be like 2 or 3 hours. Annoying for sure, but I get breakdown pay from the time I called into the time I'm on the road. 3 hours later I checked back in, they told me 2 more people in front of me. It will be another 2 hours. At this point I knew I'd probably have to get a hotel, but OD pays for it so not a huge deal.

At 9:30 Loves tells me they close at 11 pm and will not be able to get to me tonight, come back in the morning.... I told him I'm in a day cab, i can't just sleep in the lot, you guys told me 2 or 3 hours 6 hours ago. He just shrugged and said they were busy.

I called our breakdown department back told them and they sent out a T/A eta 2 hours. At this point I was cutting it close on even making it back to Indy which is a tad over an hour away and would probably have to be picked up, so i called our dispatchers and got them working on that.

Mean while it starts storming and the tech from T/A calls and asks how the weather is. I told him it's raining and windy but nothing crazy, he said he might have to turn around. You can guess where this is going, he called back a few minutes later and said due to tornado warning and lightning he has to turn around.

Indy sent a driver out to rescue me, he got there at 1 am. So we both just sat in a day cab and waited

Finally the weather cleared and T/A was back enroute, eta was 6 minutes finally 20+ minutes later he showed up. He started looking over the tire and was like "they sent me with the wrong one" all OD equipment uses 11 R 22.5 someone at TA told him to get a 295 22.5. So he offered to install it anyway so we can make it back to Indy, the Indy drivers obviously, and smartly didn't want to drive on the wrong size tire. So the guy had to drove back his shop and get the correct one.

Finally gets back around 3:30 and finished a tad after 4. By the time we got back to Indy and I made it to the hotel it was 6 am et.