Profile For Robsteeler

I've been so busy, I needed some time off. Really run down. I've been burning up my 70 and running off recap hours, but I got stuck in Florida last week with no freight for a day. I'm staying home till next Friday and getting blood work done on Tuesday. Hopefully I'm just tired and old, not coming down with something.

10 whole months. My company allows that as well, but I completely disagree with it.

Just a question about the simulators...how close are they to how a steer tire blowout feels, or a full on skid on ice? I had a slight skid on ice in my actual truck, and it didn't seem the same to me as the Sim.

I keep my seat low and move and flex my legs as much as possible. Unfortunately, the new cascadia has a different hood mirror design and I've had to increase my seat height to see them. I've noticed a difference, but I've adjusted my seat down until I need to crane my neck to see the mirrors. It's a compromise, but it's put me almost where I was before. Move as much as possible.

Yep, mountains, dense fog, and dark are a scary combination. Even our eastern "tiny" mountains.

Brett, you say freight is slow, I say freight is slow, everybody says freight is slow and right now I'm waiting for a load, so why why is it that every time I hit an OC, yesterday for one, I see full classes of trainees. The OC I stopped in also had rows upon rows of brand new trucks with the plastic on the seats as well. What do they know that no one else seems to know?

Why is there such a disparity in training miles from company to company? At Schneider I only drove two weeks with my trainer (plus or minus 6,000 miles) and then they put me solo. I loved getting out on my own, but in retrospect, I really needed more training.

YOU needed training? I only had a week, which broke down to 3 1/2 days of actual driving training with a home daily guy. He rushed through the day so he could make it home. I'm lucky I didn't have an actual accident. The little incidents I had would have been prevented with a bit more experience. I really hope I'm past that sort of thing at this point, but I don't want to get complacent. The saving Grace is that Schneider's instructors really are top notch. I think the incidents I had resulting in more training really helped.

Just a tip that I've noticed. It's mostly steering input that triggers these events. Any sudden, or jerky movements WILL trigger stability control. That's why I repeat SMOOTH out loud as I go through turns. I can go twice as fast around a turn if I'm completely smooth and deliberate. If I'm going 9 mph(one of my events) and jerk the wheel it will trigger. Also, you may be issued a new truck, P4 in our parlance, with no training on it like I was. Just remember to go smoothly around turns, and don't hit the brakes as hard as the old Freightliners. The discs grab harder and faster and will trigger a critical event hard braking if you hit it too hard. I've also noticed that the sensors for the cruise control are not as precise as the last one. It doesn't want to slow me down for when people are really in front of me. It gets me much closer to traffic than I like. I think there is a way to adjust that and I'm going to ask about it. Also, sometimes it doesn't see stopped traffic. DO NOT DEPEND ON IT TO STOP YOU! You shouldn't anyway, but sometimes you think it'll slow you down and it won't. But it will for an overpass shadow. 😂 Bottom line...be very careful with it. It's different than you're used to. Ask for training on the new truck.

The sensors are crazy, and have given me weird critical events as well. Some of them don't even get back to my DBL for some reason. I just had a stability control the other day turning into traffic. I was going 6 mph and hit a bump. I think when the wheel is turned, these things are super sensitive. I also had training on the new truck after two critical events. A stability control event, and a hard braking. The difference is as soon as I saw how sensitive the new truck is, these things would not have triggered my old truck, I asked for more training. Now I talk to myself every time I turn. It has been working mostly. I did have a critical event recently where it actually said I crashed the truck. Never triggered to the company. I was driving in a construction zone and it got wonky because a sign was ahead and it lightly put on the brakes and flashed red. Then I turned because the road turned and it triggered a collision critical event. With this said, I can't believe Schneider terminated you. They very much try not to. I'm not sure if you had an attitude, or something else happened. Good luck.

I'm heading for Jacksonville this morning. According to Trucker Path, there's a dearth of truck stops in the area.

Nose in. Oh, dear God I learned my lesson on that. Took me 30 minutes of sweating (which was hard because there was a foot of snow on the ground), cursing, and getting out a looking CONSTANTLY. I kept sliding in the snow, and some nice gentleman made his own spot close to the back of the trailer. There was tons of room and no spot behind me, I was tired, and just pulled in and went to sleep. Fun times, but I made it out without hitting anything. I won't nose in again!

That's all I need. Bad enough missing my wife, I'm not gonna torture myself. 😂

The only thing I don't do is pump my brakes. Especially with how loud they are on the new truck. I'd be getting a beat down the first time I did that at 0330. 😂 But there's absolutely NO WAY I'm pulling out without making sure some nice person didn't pull my 5th wheel while I slept. My inspection takes maybe ten minutes or so. So I usually make coffee while I wait. I'm just being realistic. I don't think anyone does a real pre-trip the way DOT wants it done.

I'm assuming you have direct deposit and she has access to the money? Also, you need to have time to talk each day and stuff to do to make you less lonely on the road. No, not lot lizards, books, PC, or some sort of TV. I have an iPad that I watch TV with, and read my books on.

I've been getting so many live loads lately that 400 miles would be a good day. I came flying into Pilot today with 10 minutes left on my clock and 380 miles run. Spent more than 6 hours between a live load, and a live unload.😐

On our last weekly safety call, the safety officer said we should be doing half hour pretrips, because it takes 10 minutes to do the cab/brake check alone. I used to make sure I logged at least 20 minutes, but I've been extending them since the call.

Plan B, I'll bet you the fault lies in the components then.

Susan, I can't believe they lock out manual mode. I use it for driving down mountains, and backing into shipper's all the time. I'd think not using it would be harder on the tranny.

Oh, I don't think I'll have to turn in my keys yet. I'm in South Carolina about 3 hours away from my drop. I'll be there nice and early. 🙂

My roommate in orientation went to the Swift Academy. He was one of the best drivers in our group. Good luck with school.

How do you do creative logging with elogs? Just wondering. Also, I don't envy your position. When I nailed that deer last month, the company shop made my truck look better than it did before. 😂

Does it also show you truck stops and parking? That’s mostly what I use TP for.