Profile For Sandman J

Well that's a big shock. I wouldn't be the driver I am without this site. My sympathies to prospective and new drivers who won't have this resource. Glad I made some connections through here that I'll stay in contact with, and grateful for everything I've learned through being a part of the forum. My next HM renewal is sure gonna be harder without the High Road!

I left a career I once loved but grew to hate over time and was looking for my exit strategy. I thought my experience would land me anywhere doing anything I want, but found out that wasn't the case. After being in reader-mode on this site for many years, I decided I really needed to pull the trigger on a new career and tried my hand at a childhood dream: seeing if I had what it takes to drive truck. I took quite a massive paycut to do this, but I chased the dollar for far too long and decided to follow my dream.

I applied through the app on this forum and went with the first company that reached out that met my bare minimum needs. It even had some wants I wasn't expecting to be met as a rookie. My main goal was to survive the first year, then try a different facet of the industry or leave it altogether if it wasn't for me. I didn't know my company had an Entertainment Fleet when I started, nor did I even know such a thing existed! But I helped out on a tour, then another, and decided that's where I want to be. I requested to go full-time on it and was granted that. So now I haul concert gear from venue to venue for whatever band's tour I'm on. Sometimes I work really hard, sometimes I don't work at all, and I get paid for every day of the tour. I do have to run freight in between tours which I don't really enjoy anymore, but no job is perfect.

So for me, it was definitely worth it. Got me out of a career I felt trapped in, gave me confidence in myself, gained lifetime friends, and my personal experience can open even better doors should I choose to pursue a change.

I forgot it was a holiday because I was working. But no complaints because I'm on a tour and those have been hard to come by at my company this year. Unfortunately it's a short one and pretty much over.

I agree. Doing the High Road here over and over made taking the test at the DMV a breeze. Anyone I come into contact with that wants to get into trucking, that's where I send them.

Oh, and also apps that are specific to your company. Mine has one that is like a dummy version of the ELD. It shows very basic info on my current and next assignment, not enough to be useful, but I can read and send messages just as I would on the tablet, and I can see but not change my current duty status and current clocks. They also have one that is used to send in the BOLs.

I downloaded the hammer app, and will check it out. Also downloaded the trucking parking app that I came across earlier on here. Any other useful apps that I can download now?

Thanks

For scaling loads, CAT has two apps that are useful: "CAT Scale" for locating nearby CAT locations, and "Weigh My Truck" for when you're at the scale. You can input and save your fuel card info to pay and weigh from your cab, and it'll show your weights and email you a copy.

The Blue Beacon app will locate their truck wash locations.

Any truck stop your company allows you to fuel at you'll want to have. I fuel mostly at Loves and I can pay for my fuel and activate the pumps as well as see how many are in line for a shower and book one right from the app.

There's plenty more but those are the ones coming to mind right now.

Read everything you can here and don't be afraid to ask questions. When I was starting out I thought every problem that arose causing me frustration and time was unique to me. By getting active on the forum I realized every rookie goes through those same problems, and with time and experience you can usually quickly work through all of them.

I'm not a quitter but had I not realized I wasn't a bad case the trucking gods took a special interest in trying to get me out quick as I came in, I wouldn't have made it. I learned it's just the rookie blues that we all go through, and now I know how to quickly remedy those problems that hung me up so much in the beginning.

Some customers are first come first serve, some are strict on appointment times. If you go to the same locations over and over again, you start to learn how they operate.

I choose to drive nights. Less traffic on the roads, less truck traffic at customers, plenty of parking options when I shut down. My company has a lot of 24/7 customers and if I need to visit one that isn't, that's planned toward the end of my shift once they open.

Excuse my ignorance as I haven’t driven OTR in over 15 years, but is idle air still a thing at the truck stops? The company I worked for didn’t want us to idle while in the bunk so they paid for it if it was available. I haven’t seen it in a long time but then again, I get to sleep in my own bed every night. I wish we could have had APU’s on the trucks, that would have made it a lot more comfortable. Nowadays it’s just annoying if the AC doesn’t blow cold enough 😂

I think I've only seen two truck stops with them still up. Can't imagine they were functional as the only reason I know what they are is from reading on this forum for so long!

I have a ThermoKing TriPac and love it, even though I'm writing this while sitting at a dealer for service. My company's newer trucks have Carriers and I haven't heard a lot of great things. I briefly drove a Freightliner with Opti-Idle and didn't get used to it. I wouldn't want to be in a truck without an APU.