Comments By Suicide Jockey

I'm simplifying it here, but both a class A and class B allow you to drive a single vehicle over 26k lbs. Class B can only pull trailers up to 10k lbs, while class A can pull trailers over 10k lbs.

A 23k lb trailer requires the driver to have a class A.

Slow down!

After every mistake I've made, no matter how minor, I try to figure out how it happened. Every time it's come back to me getting into a rush for one reason or another. My mind ends up more focused on what I'm going to do next, instead of what I'm doing right now. If you feel yourself getting rushed, STOP, regather your thoughts, and make sure you are entirely focused on your current task. Don't ever let anyone rush you.

Taking a few extra moments to recheck yourself will prevent you from wasting hours or longer correcting an error.

I work that same 4pm-4am, although today became 4-6am due to multiple allocation issues at the racks followed by retains at the stores. Not fun.

The little mom n pop stores are horrible. Lots so small the truck sticks out into the road on both sides of the store. Odd sized tanks with finicky flapper valves. Definitely keeps you on your toes.

The fuel hauling companies are getting competitive with each other for drivers, and they've all recently increased pay. I'm just a couple months out of training, and haven't experienced the seasonal ups and downs yet, but if I maintained my current weekly average id hit 85-90k my first year. During my interview the terminal manager said to me that his lowest earning drivers make around 60k, his high performers are well over 100k. If I could land in the middle of that my first year, id be very pleased.

I am loving being home with my family daily.

I've used a Blue Tiger Elite and a Blue Tiger Advantage Plus. Loved both, but they both broke. Maybe I'm just a bit to rough on them.

Still using what's left of my Advantage Plus until I replace it. Probably will try another brand.

Most yes, definitely not all. I know of two in my area that forbid even handsfree headset use while driving.

Pretty sure they ALL do Bruce, as long as it's hands free..... Funny, 1st time I seen "Texting Zone Ahead" signs in the Virginia mountains and elsewhere, lol rest areas for cell use

Hey all, PlanB here, been a bit since I posted much or updated.

Earlier this year I hung it up with Prime and started a local job hauling fuel. Me living so close to a fuel terminal and seeing the fuel trucks constantly go by is what first ignited my interest in driving. I thought about changing my name to PlanA since this was my original plan "A", and Prime was my plan "B".

But my first day out of training just before I went to load my first load of gas, one of the nicer senior drivers pat me on the back and congratulated me, "Welcome to the Suicide Jockeys, Tanker Yanker Division." This hung in the back of my head because the driver whos open position I was filling died in a rollover just a few months prior.

Last night that senior driver died at work. Details are still unknown, but he ended up rolled over in a ditch and passed away at the scene.

I'm in a bit of a funk, and maybe I'm being a bit overly dramatic with the name change. But that driver patting me on the back and welcoming me to the "Suicide Jockeys" is on repeat in my brain.

Hence the name change to Suicide Jockey

I don't know anything about Roehl or Wilson specifically. But Wilson does pull a lot of Primes trailers, and I 100% endorse Primes training program. If you haven't considered Prime, I highly recommend them.

Most modern trucks will have on each aide your standard large flat mirror with a convex wide angle mirror below it, plus a convex wide angle mirror set out on the corners of your hood. Set those mirrors up appropriately and you can see anything along side your truck easily.

When I trained at Prime I had two different students that I would pull up to their house to pick them up or drop them off for home time. One was in a tight area, so I'd leave the trailer at a customer and bobtail to his house.

There is no company expectation on how many hours or miles you drive. The only expectation is that your team delivers the load on time. Every truck runs slightly different, as does every team. Your trainer will be in charge, and they may just lay down their rules without discussion, or they may have a discussion where you two will come to some type of agreement of how you will function. Some may do fixed shifts of 10-12 hours. Others may alternate shifts so one driver is not always on nights. Another option is each driver just drives their clock out and stops during their final hour whatever time that may be, and the other driver takes over. You'll never know until you meet and speak to your trainer.

10 hours is the DoT requirement to reset your daily drive time.