Profile For Suicide Jockey

When I was OTR at Prime my employers main terminal and my dispatcher / fleet manager were located in Missouri. I live in North Carolina. Living 1000+ miles away was not an issue at all. It was actually the norm. You just need a locate a truck stop or some other location to park the truck when you go home.

Different story if your pursuing a local or regional position. You're going to want to live more locally in those circumstances.

As previously mentioned, every company is different.

My company also has 4 cameras. 1 Driver facing, 1 Front facing, and 1 looking down each side. The cameras are always recording, but no one is sitting there watching you drive. The one exception being they do weekly camera functionality checks on every truck. If you happen to be doing something you shouldn't be at the moment they check your camera, well that's tough luck. If you generate a "critical event" like a hard brake or a sharp turn it will send a 40 second video clip to the safety department for review. It will do the same if you blow a stop sign, red light, or a railroad crossing (we're all hazmat).

I've talked to drivers at other companies who have started using more AI monitoring on their drivers. Cameras track their eye movements and chirp warnings if their eyes stray for to long. If they don't correct their eye movement it will generate a video for safety to review. They also get a score generated by the AI system, every time the driver requires correction by the AI they accumulate points. Higher points are bad...

There seem to be an increasing number of companies that are banning phone usage while the truck is moving. Doesn't matter if you use a legal hands free device, you must be stopped to use the phone.

Smoking is already prohibited near the truck since we haul fuel.

I got my CDL through Prime with the intent to leave after a year. I stayed for a bit over 3.5 years, and only left because my family was begging me to find a local job.

I enjoyed driving at prime way more than I ever expected.

I firmly believe company sponsored CDL programs are the way to go.

You're getting off point. But to answer your question, No I've never pulled my fuel truck over for a power nap. I am married and live with my wife, 2 kids, 2 dogs, 1 cat, my mother-in-law and her pet rat.

Now when I was OTR driving a sleeper, yes I would pull into safe parking locations and rest in the sleeper when needed or when opportunistic. OTR often demands you flip between day and night driving to meet customer needs. You rest whenever you can find time. But never did I expect to be paid for that time.

That brings us back on point. No one is suggesting that you shouldn't park it and rest if necessary. To not do so would be grossly irresponsible and reckless. If for some reason you didn't get enough rest before reporting to work, or were suddenly feeling unwell, absolutely pull over and rest. In that situation I would personally not hesitate to park it and notify my dispatcher that I'm not currently able to continue driving, and will be parked at X location for some time. But I'm not going to expect to get paid for that time.

The problem arises when many hourly paid drivers are using the "half hour nap" as an excuse to milk their clock. To a large company this becomes an enormous additional expense. The original poster mentioned his management wants them to get off the road if they are tired. But they also don't want drivers to abuse their clocks to milk the company.

Never? There’s never been a time where you haven’t gotten enough sleep the night or day in your instance before your shift? Either you’re telling a lie or you’re single with no kids lol. Because I’ll certainly admit in the 7 years I’ve been driving I’ve had to pull over for a quick Power Nap. No shame in it.

I also drive a fuel truck, on night shift. I also deliver to locations that are usually within 150 miles. I get proper rest before I report to work, and have never had to pull over to sleep.

No, I'm not missing that at all, but I'll attempt to better explain where my response comes from.

From what he mentioned, I'm guessing he works for a larger fuel hauling company that pays by the hour. Some examples that quickly pop to my mind are Speedway, Circle K, QuickTrip, and Sheetz. Obviously there are many more. Coincidently QuickTrip had a bit over 9 billion revenue last year. Maybe this driver simply misunderstood the difference between revenue and profit.

In recent years many of these companies have changed over to hourly pay with the intent to attract drivers and increase safety. They expected a decrease in driver productivity, but underestimated what many may call "milking the clock". For example Speedway anticipated a 10% drop in driver productivity, but actually experienced a 25% drop. Now these companies are paying significantly more in overtime to get the same workload covered, and have been trying to find ways to bring their productivity back up. Speedway is looking to change their safety bonus payouts. Driver bonuses will more heavily be weighted by driver productivity, and more productive drivers will receive larger bonus payouts. Sheetz seems to be taking a different approach by increasing their staff to reduce overtime. The goal seems to be to have a large enough staff to have drivers work 4 day work weeks, 10 hours a day. Whatever company this driver is with seems to be just asking that drivers not sleep on the clock.

A couple of his statements I take issue with:

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"My concern is that other drivers will not log out and keep driving knowing that they need to pull over and rest."

"The work is getting done and we are safer on the road especially when management has told us on many occasions if you are tired get off the road but only for 10 minutes now."

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A driver that makes the decision to drive while tired because they won't get paid to sleep, does not belong behind the wheel of a fuel tanker! You are responsible for that vehicle. Don't make excuses that management is making you drive unsafe. His management isn't telling them that they cant take more than a 10 minute nap. You do what is necessary to safely operate the vehicle, they simply aren't going to pay you to sleep on the clock.

I also drive a fuel truck, on night shift. I also deliver to locations that are usually within 150 miles. I get proper rest before I report to work, and have never had to pull over to sleep. Why would the company pay me to sleep at work? Show up to work ready and able to perform your job.

Most of the folks on this site are OTR drivers, and paid by the mile. They know that it is their responsibility to get proper rest before leaving the sleeper and getting behind the wheel. They also know that if they pull over for a break or to sleep, they are not getting paid extra for that time.

That's a dang nice looking truck. Congrats Old School.

Many, if not most, trucks operated by companies operate with speed limiters. Companies set their speed limiters at different speeds. Company A may be 75mph, company B 72mph, company C 70mph, company D 68 mph, company E 67mph, company F 65mph...etc etc. The lowest I've seen in my area is a company limited to 52mph that regularly travels on the interstate locally.

Now let's say you have a 70 mph truck that wants to pass a 68 mph truck. These trucks are around 70 feet long, and therefore need a pretty big gap between cars to change lanes. In heavier traffic those gaps may be few, and often cars will speed up to close the gap as soon as they see a trucks turn signal come on. That truck is likely going to take the first opportunity they see to change lanes and pass the other truck at their maximum speed, which is only 1-2mph faster...and that may take a while.

Possibly further complicating is weight. If a fully loaded truck going 70 starts to pass a truck going 65, and then the highway starts going up even a slight incline, that 70mph truck is likely not going to be able to maintain 70 on the hill. Most of the time these inclines aren't even noticable to a car, but loaded trucks struggle to maintain their speed. If that 65 mph truck was empty and doesn't loose any speed, you'll get the classic example of two trucks passing each other depending on if their going uphill or down.

A considerate thing to do while being passed would be to turn off the cruise control and bleed off a little speed to allow the overtaking truck to complete the pass. But many drivers don't want to constantly slow down and speed up for the sake of others. Keep in mind truck drivers are often behind the wheel 10-11 hours a day, every day. They just want to get down the road, and aren't that concerned with what the thousands of cars a day that pass by them think about them.

Coming up on 3 years hauling assorted flavors of gasoline and diesel.

And loving it

You've made a bunch of mistakes, but what matters is you now have a job. Concentrate on excelling at that job and your opportunities will begin to open back up. But it will take time and dedication to get to that point.

I started in trucking with no money in my account and my wife and two daughters at home depending on me to make it work. That was terrifying. 4 years later i got into local fuel hauling earning 100k+.

You've made some bad choices in the past, learn from them.

Now it's time to make good choices, for you and your new family.

You can make a great living for you and your family in this industry. But you have to strive to make it happen.