Profile For Simon D. (Grandpa)

Hey there,

I run exclusively reefer and wouldn't have it any other way! Lol

The longer runs and longer times sitting at shippers and receivers work perfectly if, like me, you want to use the 8/2 split break to maximize miles.

But then again, admittedly, I'm nuts....😛😜

Lol

I'm fascinated by this post. The OP was 32 yrs old and working a minimum wage and only had a drivers license a few months before coming to the forum. He couldnt understand why more driving experience would be required.

His next post listed why he didnt like CRE and how even though he wasnt out of training yet, he was leaving after the 9 month contract was up and taking 3 mos off from OTR life because after only a few months he was tired of it.

He went on a long explanation that reefer drivers have their time wasted when they forget to fill the reefer, have to prime it and then wait for the road assist people to get then to a ThermoKing. Do your darn job and that wouldnt happen!

He then questioned us as to whether he would have to tell future companies of his accident. DUH!

Sir, you have no right to compile a list such as this that yes can be funny in some ways and totally offesnsive in others.

If veterans.... who spilled blood for.our country and suffered through things you couldnt ever possibly imagine and would cower in a corner and cry for your mommy over....if they want to decorate their trucks, then damn right, "God Bless America and thank you for your service" is what they should hear. not something that makes them sound like immature boastful.children.

not to mention you are sexist assuming all drivers are men. i dont usually throw the feminism card out cause i hate it. but reading this shows you have little respect for truckers and im sure even less for women. Plus, you are so green, you dont have the skills to out truck me.

ABSOLUTELY!!! Hit the nail on the head as per usual Rainy!

To the OP....while I did in fact realise that this post was mainly in jest, it actually makes you sound like a ****y newcomer to the business who, upon gaining a licence, believes he has it all figured out!

The posts re: Veterans and non-Americans are, at best, borderline offensive and the latter verges on racist!

Humor is greatly appreciated in this forum, but not disparagement of folks, most of whom have done more miles in reverse than you have going forwards!

I don't really believe for one moment that you were trying to offend anyone, but would respectfully suggest that you consider your words a little more carefully in future.

Keep it safe out there.

Cheers,

Simon (A non-American European....legal...immigrant)

👍

Come on Simon, Great Britain is not really part of Europe. It is just a couple islands off the coast of Europe. ;). j/k

😜👍😂

“It’s 9 o’clock on a Saturday,...the regular crowd shuffles in...”

Haha... how many of these youngsters in here will get that reference? That was good G-Town!

"There's an old man sitting next to me...

Making love to his tonic and gin."

LOL

These.days, I believe I'm beginning to be the old man! 😜

Nice one G-Town! 👍🥃

Wow!

Just ..... Wow!

The very epitome of self righteous, self-pitying BS!

But; on a positive note, it gave me a good laugh for today;

As for the rest of you 'cry babies and 'trash users'......

As you were!

Lol 😜😛😂

Big congrats!

Enjoy the feeling and stay positive!

👍😊

I'm fascinated by this post. The OP was 32 yrs old and working a minimum wage and only had a drivers license a few months before coming to the forum. He couldnt understand why more driving experience would be required.

His next post listed why he didnt like CRE and how even though he wasnt out of training yet, he was leaving after the 9 month contract was up and taking 3 mos off from OTR life because after only a few months he was tired of it.

He went on a long explanation that reefer drivers have their time wasted when they forget to fill the reefer, have to prime it and then wait for the road assist people to get then to a ThermoKing. Do your darn job and that wouldnt happen!

He then questioned us as to whether he would have to tell future companies of his accident. DUH!

Sir, you have no right to compile a list such as this that yes can be funny in some ways and totally offesnsive in others.

If veterans.... who spilled blood for.our country and suffered through things you couldnt ever possibly imagine and would cower in a corner and cry for your mommy over....if they want to decorate their trucks, then damn right, "God Bless America and thank you for your service" is what they should hear. not something that makes them sound like immature boastful.children.

not to mention you are sexist assuming all drivers are men. i dont usually throw the feminism card out cause i hate it. but reading this shows you have little respect for truckers and im sure even less for women. Plus, you are so green, you dont have the skills to out truck me.

ABSOLUTELY!!! Hit the nail on the head as per usual Rainy!

To the OP....while I did in fact realise that this post was mainly in jest, it actually makes you sound like a ****y newcomer to the business who, upon gaining a licence, believes he has it all figured out!

The posts re: Veterans and non-Americans are, at best, borderline offensive and the latter verges on racist!

Humor is greatly appreciated in this forum, but not disparagement of folks, most of whom have done more miles in reverse than you have going forwards!

I don't really believe for one moment that you were trying to offend anyone, but would respectfully suggest that you consider your words a little more carefully in future.

Keep it safe out there.

Cheers,

Simon (A non-American European....legal...immigrant)

👍

OMG...terribly sorry Rainy. My face is bright red right now.

That’ll teach me not to review more thoroughly!!!

BTW, the new photo is terrific.

"Laser like focus"....

"Laser like focus!"....

Just sayin'!

Lol

😜😛

Well.....

missed the paragraph marker...obviously! lol

And Best wishes....not beat!!

Lord I'm tired!! lol

This sucks..... im in bed recovering and youz guyz are torturing me lol

have fun

Hope you heal up fast, how much longer are you expected to be out?

Rob, im.not sure. had a slight surgery complication so think i may stay out longer than originally planned. probably the end of sept or so. just in time for snow in CO and WY with my new automatic that i dont want lol

thanks everyone for your well.wishes.

Beat wishes for a speedy recovery Rainy 👍

And don't worry about the Auto thing....

You'll be killing it in no time,....like ya do now...... and wondering why you were worried!!

I've been up n down all the major passes lots of times with no problems..... set your speed, set the gear...no different really..Promise! lol

Cheers,

Simon

Thanks for all the replies. Big Scott will check out the link. Thanks.

We refer to the hours you get back as recaps. I save my clock for driving. At the end of week when you start recaps you will get it back if spent on duty at customer or driving. If you are pulling refer and you have 6 to 8 hour load and unload times, you may want to master the 8/2 split. Here is a link to my thread, Recaps explained in pictures. I hope that helps.

The link should be required reading for all newbie drivers........especially if you are going to be pulling reefers.

My ex-teammate, Chris, has made me send copies of my pay settlements for the last 6 weeks to him, simply because he would not believe that, except for the first week, when I only ran 3700+, I have run in excess of 4000 miles each week since we parted company! He claims it is not possible.....Being an expert with 8 months driving experience, he would know...of course!! LOL

I love reefer work because it fits hand in glove with 8/2 splits... I can't remember off the top of my head when I last shut down for a full 10 hours. I use 8/2's constantly to keep moving and I also nap as much as possible when on the door at receivers and shippers.

It's not always easy and the erratic sleep schedule is not for everyone, but if you really like to keep moving....master it; it pays dividends if done right.

As a side note; For the month of July, running solo, I ran only 1100 miles less than Chris and his new teammate ran total! As a consequence, my pay was about 60% higher than either of them achieved.

As bad as it may sound, sometimes it feels so damn good to be able to say, "I told ya so!"

😜🤣😜

Thanks Will. That means a lot. Damn it I got dust in my eyes.

Hrrrrmph....errrgh....ummmmm...

Yeah...me too!! 🤣🤣

Keep it up...very inspiring for newbies and a few of us grumpy old buggers too!

LOL

I am so pleased for you! 👍

Cheers,

Simon

Hey Rob. Fantastic! Congratulations on that milestone! Quite the achievement given what you do!

👍😁

Keep up the good work and keep up my bed-time reading posts, would ya? lol

Cheers,

Simon

Brilliant!! Way to persevere!!

A fine example of tenacity and the spirit of 'Never say die!'.

Congratulations and Cheers.

Simon

Popcorn in microwave......

Sits back and waits...

😜

lol

I passed my cdl test on my attempt. Lord the pressure is off for today. I am a lot more tanned, few more gray hairs and now walking with a limp on my bruised up foot but I did it............:A CDL CLASS “A” carrier.

Big congratulations! 👍 Great feeling; ain't it?

Now let the real learning begin! 😜lol

My husband and I are almost done with school. Does anyone know of any companies that train teams together? Thanks,

I have friends that trained as a team together with Covenant....great sign on bonus too! 👍😊

Hi Newbie.

Stevens will not disqualify you for a felony. When I went through their program a few months ago, there were probably more guys n gals in our orientation class with 'records' than not! My roommate had a record that would have looked like the Declaration of Independence if it had been printed out...including 9 years in prison! Lol

What they were sticklers for was accuracy!! Be totally honest with them and they will work with you! In fact, they gave me a much harder time over proof of employment (I had been self employed since 2015) than they did my roomie over his record.! I ended up having to print out reams of bank statements and other supporting evidence....they even researched the sale of my property...

Stevens program is excellent...very intensive and will give you tons of info, training and support. But; be on time....every time! Pay attention in class...James the head classroom instructor does not put up with any crap!

I am no longer with them...for reasons to be explained later but not because of anything Stevens did. As I said, their course is very good and very thorough!

So; quit worrying about the little stuff and get your head in the books! lol

If I can be of further help; don't hesitate to ask 👍😊

Cheers and good luck.

Simon

I wonder what the issue is with self employment? The Maverick recruiter kind of stopped for a second, then asked if I could provide 1099s. I said yes, but that is only a small part of my earnings, I can give you my tax returns. I am a legitimate company. that seemed to satisfy her.

www.wnypcrepair.com, if anyone is interested.

The issue was not really about my self employment; it had more to do with my type of self employment.. Specifically, my wife and I had bought a total wreck of an old Victorian house with retirement savings... I was 'self employed' for almost 2 years, doing a 'ground up' total renovation in order to sell the property on at a later date. During this time I had zero income and was living on savings. Therefore; i had not had to file an income tax return for those two years. In addition, our funds were transferred from England.

Stevens worked with me to basically state that the funds transferred from abroad comprised my self employment earnings and had me download and print out 2 years worth of bank statements showing the regular transfers.

Other self employed folks at orientation merely produced tax returns and their process was very much simpler and completed immediately.

So, like I said, don't sweat it. They really bent over backwards to help me out.

Best wishes for a successful orientation. I'm sure that you will be fine!

Cheers,

Simon

Hi Newbie.

Stevens will not disqualify you for a felony. When I went through their program a few months ago, there were probably more guys n gals in our orientation class with 'records' than not! My roommate had a record that would have looked like the Declaration of Independence if it had been printed out...including 9 years in prison! Lol

What they were sticklers for was accuracy!! Be totally honest with them and they will work with you! In fact, they gave me a much harder time over proof of employment (I had been self employed since 2015) than they did my roomie over his record.! I ended up having to print out reams of bank statements and other supporting evidence....they even researched the sale of my property...

Stevens program is excellent...very intensive and will give you tons of info, training and support. But; be on time....every time! Pay attention in class...James the head classroom instructor does not put up with any crap!

I am no longer with them...for reasons to be explained later but not because of anything Stevens did. As I said, their course is very good and very thorough!

So; quit worrying about the little stuff and get your head in the books! lol

If I can be of further help; don't hesitate to ask 👍😊

Cheers and good luck.

Simon

Not sure what happened there! lol

Apologies....long day and I'm tired!

😜😜

My $.02 here...

we learned and made a few mistakes along the way but we survived.

I'll have to admit, all this talk about hills, mountains, and missing a downshift has made me think I would prefer an automatic, even if it makes me not a real truck driver.

I’m in an automatic now & wish I had the manual back. I had so much better control on the hills & mountains. But I also was in a condo & now in a lightweight. The compression difference is huge. I throw on the jake & it revs to 1800+ rpms. I’m slowly getting it but don’t get enough loads out West yet to really get the hang of it. Cabbage had me so puckered up that I even smoked the brakes at the bottom. After seeing 2 trucks on fire at the bottom of Monteagle, I almost had a heart attack. Like they say, practice makes perfect I guess. Just need lots & lots more practice.

Splitter.....I love ya to death and am so pleased to.see you making your way out here. 👍

But.....I have to call Bulls**t on ya bud!!

This post confirms everything that Old School was saying in reply to your statement about 'needing less than a year to be proficient'.

Please stop with the rubbish about less control with an automatic....it needlessly worries other newbies ..

You have exactly the same amount of control in an auto-shift as you would in a manual. It just takes a small.adjustment in technique. I have been up and down Snoqualmie, Cabbage, Donner, Grapevine, Black Mountain, Tehachapi and numerous other significant grades all over the country...numerous times with 40,000 lbs plus loads and have NEVER even come close to 'smoking the brakes' and having a near heart attack!!

The problem is not the equipment; it's operator error...pure and simple!

So; to all the new folks out there....dont let this stuff scare you off! It just ain't so.