Comments By Villain

I am from West Palm Beach about 65 miles North of Miami. I used to send pictures to my friends up North of me in January in shorts & a t-shirt.

I just received the following Severe Weather Alert:

SIGNIFICANT SNOWFALL FOR ELEVATIONS ABOVE 7500 FEET WEDNESDAY THROUGH THURSDAY MORNING...

...WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL NOON MDT THURSDAY...

* WHAT...Heavy snow expected. Total snow accumulations of 12 to 15 inches, with locally higher amounts near 18 inches, are expected.

* WHERE...South Laramie Range between Laramie and Cheyenne. This includes Interstate 80 between mile markers 315 and 345.

* WHEN...Until noon MDT Thursday.

* ADDITIONAL DETAILS...Plan on difficult travel conditions. Expect significant reductions in visibility at times. Recommended actions. A Winter Storm Warning for snow means severe winter weather conditions will make travel very hazardous or impossible.

I wish I had more hours so that I could run in front of this system. I'm supposed to be in Carlisle, PA by Saturday.

First off thank you. I made it to Laramie, WY from Boise. I80 was challenging today. Thanks to your posts even though I was a little apprehensive, I made it through. After reading that Jakes & CC shouldn't be used in heavy rain (at least by a rookie like me) I made it a point to practice on manual during training. It paid off today. I went from rain to sleet to a few minutes of snow and back again but the one constant was the wet road.

So, all the electronic signs kept flashing that Winter Storm Conditions will be in effect until tomorrow. I was planning on leaving at about 2am. When I get up & ready for my shift what are the things I should be looking for to help me make the decision on whether its right to drive or not?

"When it is cold out (like under 20), then run your optimized idle, or some kind of idle (whatever you have) to keep DEF and fuel from freezing, as well as to keep batteries charged if you do not have an APU." - David Reid

I lived in Georgia through a winter. I would get up in the middle of the night and find that the girlfriend or kids left the faucet on. Then I would make it to the kitchen and yep the darn faucet is dripping. It had to be explained to me that's what you're supposed to do! I'm from South Florida and clueless.

Now you're telling me that the fuel and DEF can freeze. So when the forecast calls for temperatures to be at 20 or less, I need to keep the truck running?

I was in the Navy during the Gulf War. I remember reading in the Navy Times Newspaper that civilian contractors were being used to drive trucks. The pay was huge. Hell of a way to earn it though, never knowing if the next section of road was mined or an ambush point. But they were part of the backbone of any operation; logistics.

I have received conflicting information. Some say don't warm up the engine before driving but move slowly for a few minutes. This method is not practical when I am leaving a rest area on the Interstate. Some people tell me to wait until the coolant temperature is at operating temperature. Which is the right way?

"Let me take a shot at being clear about something.......you do get paid for what you produce in this business. The more freight you move the more money you make. It's really that simple" - Brett Squilla

The subject of the post is how to get your side work as a flatbedder out of the way (not burning up your HOS) so that you can get to the part of the job that pays the "real" money. In this aspect the job is like being a server at a restaurant. Out of an 8 hour shift a server can spend as much as 2 hours doing side work like prepping table set ups,b bussing tables, prepping salad, etc. This work gets paid at the "tipped employee" minimum wage currently at $2.13/hr. Let's say that the other 6 hours spent actually waiting on tables comes out to $10/hr. So you say what's the big deal, you lost out on about $16 so that you could make $60. Well as someone who's been poor I'll tell you. $16 buys a pound of ground beef ,box of Hamburger Helper, cheap cereal and a gallon of milk! People have kids don't you know! Same reason we accept detentention pay,tarping pay,etc at a lower rate. You are not getting paid for your performance when it comes to side work.

Why? Because it's what the market (drivers) accept as the price for our services.

@Rainy good catch. I came on Duty at the Receiver in Fort Worth at 619AM. Unloaded by 700AM went to Love's 1 exit away. Sleeper Berth 2H 15M. Dispatched Elk City. Checked in at 400PM. Sleeper Berth 412PM. Creeped back to the the gate at 1030PM put my sandals on, stiff armed the door to the guard house, hitched up my pants, blew a wad of Red Man Tobacco on the floor & said "Who the hell is in charge around here!?" Naw, just joking but after explaining nicely how long I'd been waiting,I did get assigned to a dock. Creeped to the dock. Ended Sleeper Berth at 1214AM. On Duty loading until 1240AM. Must of done the Split Sleeper right cause my hours reset & BOOM! The wheels were turning!

@Rob that was for local in 2005.

@CT That's exactly my point. There are people who you couldn't offer enough to do our jobs. They might have jobs that we would say the same thing about.

"You need to leave your hourly pay mindset behind or go back to a factory. We get paid for what we produce. If you can't discard the 40hr week paid by the hour mindset, you WILL ultimately fail at this." - Patrick C

I respectfully disagree. You need to have some kind of baseline for comparison. If you earn $1000 in a week for 100 hours of work then you can decide if your efforts are worth more or less than $10/hour. Or maybe the hourly rate for your work is low but the total income is more than you could make at any another job and that's acceptable. Either way gives you something to base a decision on whether your income is acceptable or not.

Let's be clear about one thing. You don't get paid for what you produce. You get paid what the market dictates. If a company makes a shirt that will sell for $30, they aren't going to sell it for $18. If the cost to produce that shirt (labor, materials, etc.) is $8, they aren't going to spend $15. Similarly,if your company could find a comparable driver (safety record, on time performance,etc.) that worked for 60% of what you currently make....see ya!

What about the O/O that cashes a big fat check. It looks good. But the truck needs to get paid before you do. I don't mean the monthly payments although that's part of it. I mean all the costs associated with the operation of the truck. What's left sure ain't the same amount you started with! The same goes for our jobs.

You couldn't pay me enough to flatbed. That's just me. On payday I would be thinking about all the heat/rain/snow I had to work in and yea I would notice how my paycheck worked out to on an hourly basis.

In school we had a rep come over from Budweiser. The workweek was like 55-60 hours. Came out to like $9.50/hr. A couple of us mentioned that we could make that much without a CDL! Why the hell would we get a CDL if not to make more money? He said you can't look at it hourly. Of course he would say that.

OP maybe flatbed isn't your thing. I drive reefer for a small company. Means no preloaded trailers, no drop and hook. I got stuck at Bar S in Elk City for 8 freaking hours! At minimum I'm stuck waiting to be loaded/unloaded every trip. Some people couldn't put up with the that.

"As I'm walking back to my truck I can see that the Melton driver hasn't budged yet, so I go over to his door to let him know that he can go ahead and roll on in. The truth is that I am trying to move everything along so that I can get myself unloaded quicker.

What I find upon getting to his door is that he has his curtains drawn shut and he is oblivious to what is going on out here. Now you may think I am not a nice person, and while I happen to know that I am, allow me to teach you something about being competitive out here. You don't have to wake up your competition, fix them a nice breakfast and tell them it's time to pull on your boots and get to work. No sir, out here if you snooze you lose! I rolled right on around that guy and got myself inside the gate, and parked behind the Montgomery driver."

”After I got inside the building and they were almost finished unloading me, the Melton driver came to consciousness and looked bewildered that I, the third driver in line, was the first one out of that place!" - Old School

Well done sir. Well done!