Profile For Dave (formerly known as KnowItAll)

WOOT! Congratulations!!!!

The challenge, the coffee and the MONEY.

The earliest dirt track race I can remember was at Dodge City KS in the late 70s. Been a fan ever since. Raced dirt track in central Kansas from 92 to 94 and even won a few times.

Remember watching Dale Senior run the old Wranglers car on TV. Finally got to see him race in Texas at TMS the year before he was died. Junior won the bush race that week.

Inbound/outbound building is there in the satellite view but not much else. Was about even with the wash bays. D lot is on the exit side of the wash bays.

Winner winner chicken dinner! Wasn't actually on the practice pad. Was headed to D lot to drop a trailer. Now I'm doing a 34 hr reset.

Right about there.

That satellite imagery is old and the pad you took a pic of is a dirt lot in this imagery. But that's where you were!

Had an instance where there was back to back loads that had the same pickup number. First driver got his trailer. I had to wait until the shipping office opened to get it all straightened out. Took about 4 hours...

Was close to the Swift Phoenix yard a few weeks ago. Was realy nervous. (Just kidding)

Glad you made it away safe!

For anyone considering a career, these jokes about swift are just that, jokes. Swift actually has a lower % of drivers involved in accidents or being put out of service but due to their size it just appears they're involved in more wrecks. I don't want anyone to get the wrong impression of this forum, or of swift based on a couple jokes

Law of averages has a funny way of distorting reality. How often do you see a Swift, Prime, CFI or JB Hunt get called across the scales compared to other carriers? (Talking about prepass scales) Answer, alot less. In a lot of cases it is tied to the safety score and those companies have great scores. Heck, if things went sideways with my current company, I'd seriously consider Swift.

Was close to the Swift Phoenix yard a few weeks ago. Was realy nervous. (Just kidding)

A Tractor Trailer Demolition Derby?

I cant zoom in on the pic but by that answer I'm guessing it's the swift yard?

Close but where is the practice located? (Just for clarification, I was driving by it)

A Prime practice pad.

Pretty close. But not quite the answer I'm looking for.

A Tractor Trailer Demolition Derby?

Take a guess and win free internet points.

Don't turtle race on a hills or flats! Be the better person, drop down a few MPH and let them pass. If you're 1 or 2 MPH faster and traffic is heavy drop back to a safe distance and follow.

There's my $0.02

It was an eventful few days. Delivered to the Kroger DC. Picked up a trailer at the SAM/Walmart DC for Tucson the grabbed a JBL load to Las Vegas (that was a fun one, three stops...)

I must have just missed you, Dave. I was there twice too.

Ha! I've been to that WinCo! Small world. Speaking of Phoenix, was there twice last week.

Don't get the false illusion that flatbeds are immune to shifting loads and rollovers. That type of false sense of security can get you in trouble real fast!

Another reason why this forum is great and I'm leaning (pun intended) toward flatbed.

As a flatbedder, the thought of my load bouncing or shifting around behind me is completely foreign to me.

I don't want to find out how poorly my cargo was loaded in a turn or under hard braking. If my load shifts, its my fault.

Rule of thumb my trainer taught me was 5 to 15 mph under the on/off ramp speed. Sometimes even slower depending on how it's loaded. Example, 45k top heavy load, is an even slower! My philosophy, slow is fast. Slow and steady wins!!

Also, be ever vigilant about decreasing radius turns. Like in a goofy clover leaf.

Don't know about y'all but I'm in the great state of Confusion!!!!

Just took a route from Sacramento to Spokane recently. Route I took was: I-5 > I-205 (around the southeast of Portland) > I-84 > I-82 > US 395 > I-90

Double check each states 511 for road conditions. Especially Siskiyou, Grants Pass and the Columbia River Gorge. I went through the Gorge the day before the 24+ hour shutdown. it was horrible... Took 4+ hours to travel from mm18 (Troutdale T/A) to mm159 (Boardman Loves)!

If you're feeling adventurous there is US 95. Which is an awesome drive. How you get on 95 depends on where you start from in California. LA area, US 395 to US 6 to US 95. San Fran area take I-80 to Winnemucca, NV then catch US 95 north...

Brett Aquila, you once again, hit the nail on the head!

Rocky Mountain Princess, I'm very happy with Jim Palmer and have NO plans on leaving. I started training July 30th, 2018 and signed the contract August 2nd. WOW! That's almost 7 months already. How time flies when you're having fun! On August 1st, 2019 the piece of paper I signed gets shredded. The time will fly by. Before ya know it a year will have gone by. You'll always be busy driving and learning which makes it so easy to loose track of days, weeks and months.

The only possible benefit of having a CDL coming into the program is speeding the training a few weeks. During training at Jim Palmer the time spent getting your CDL is relatively a small amount of time. Learning how to handle 80,000 pounds of machine in many different types of situations takes the bulk of the time.

In regards to the contract. There might be some kind of shorter contract for having a CDL already. I'd need to make a call or two to get that info. The amount is prorated. First 6 months is full amount and the last 6 is halved. I don't know if there is any way of breaking out of the contract. But I do know there are some allowances for leaving then coming back during training. Something like adverse life events...

Doesn't make a difference coming in with a CDL or not. Zero experience is zero experience... If you have a year or more experience that's a whole different ball of wax that I don't have the knowledge to speak about.

Here is a link to the training diary I did here on TT. Jim Palmer Trucking - Missoula MT. Haven't updated in while because repetition can be a boring read. LOL

P.S. Always take what's posted on Trucker’s Report with a truck load of salt.

I too like using analogies. While working in IT sales, it was a way to "dumb things down" so those that didn't have the knowledge could understand what I was talking about.

Why can't people just stop looking for things to be offended by?

It's like a bunch of soccer moms with nothing better to do than complain.

That's exactly the type that seem to make the most noise on the Web......the perpetually disgruntled. We've had a streak of them lately. It goes like that sometimes.

Personally I love using analogies. There are always a lot of parallels and common ground with different endeavors. It helps people understand something better when you can help them relate it to something they're already familiar with. It can also give people a new perspective on things they either didn't understand or hadn't considered before.